ABSTRACT
Sfard’s (1994a) analysis of the development of the concept of concept in mathematics education research provides a useful starting point from which to clarify why I believe it is important to view students’ mathematical learning as occurring in social context. Sfard divides the ways in which mathematics educators have thought about students’ development of mathematical understandings into four broad, overlapping and not mutually exclusive paradigms. At the risk of over-simplifying Sfard’s subtle analysis, I briefly discuss each paradigm in turn.
