From practical geometry to the laboratory method: the search for an alternative to Euclid in the history of teaching geometry

TL;DR

This paper traces the historical evolution of practical geometry from its trade and surveying origins to an experimental, problem-solving teaching method as an alternative to traditional Euclidean geometry, highlighting textbook developments.

Contribution

It provides a historical analysis of how practical geometry transformed into an experimental teaching approach, offering an alternative to Euclidean deductive methods.

Findings

Practical geometry originated from trade and astronomy needs.

It evolved into a problem-solving and experimental teaching method.

Textbooks played a key role in this pedagogical transformation.

Abstract

This paper wants to show how practical geometry, created to give a concrete help to people involved in trade, in land-surveying and even in astronomy, underwent a transformation that underlined its didactical value and turned it first into a way of teaching via problem solving and then into an experimental-intuitive teaching that could be an alternative to the deductive-rational teaching of geometry. This evolution will be highlighted using textbooks that proposed alternative presentations of geometry.