Samuel Pepys, Isaac Newton, James Hodgson, and the Beginnings of Secondary School Mathematics / History of Mathematics Education (PDF)

Nerida F. Ellerton has been Professor within the Mathematics Department at Illinois State University since 2002. She holds two doctoral degrees-one in Physical Chemistry and the other in Mathematics Education.

Between 1997 and 2002 Nerida was Dean of Education at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. She has taught in schools and at four universities, and has also served as consultant in numerous countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States of America, and Vietnam. She has written or edited 16 books and has had more than 150 articles published in refereed journals or edited collections. Between 1993 and 1997 she was editor of the Mathematics Education Research Journal, and between 2011 and 2015 she was Associate Educator of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.

In recent years Nerida has concentrated her research efforts in two areas-the history of schoolmathematics and problem posing in mathematics education. In 2012, 2014, and 2015, respectively, Springer published the 223-page Rewriting the History of School Mathematics in North America 1607-1861, the 367-page Abraham Lincoln's Cyphering Book and Ten other Extraordinary Cyphering Books, and the 204-page Thomas Jefferson and his Decimals: Neglected Years in the History of U.S. School Mathematics. She jointly authored each of those books with M. A. (Ken) Clements.In 2015 Springer published a 567-page edited collection on problem posing which was jointly edited by Florence Mihaela Singer, Nerida, and Jinfa Cai. In 2015 Nerida received the outstanding researcher award of the College of Arts and Science at Illinois State University.
M. A. (Ken) Clements' masters and doctoral degrees were from the University of Melbourne, and at various times in his career he has taught, full-time, in primary and secondary schools, for a total of 15 years. He has taught in six universities, located in three

“This book is, philosophically and mathematically, a major work of the seventeenth century, and initiates a mathematical research development: new notations, new problems, invention of analytical geometry, etc.” (Pierre Lamandé, Mathematical Reviews, February, 2018)

“Nerida Ellerton and Ken Clements’ most recent work, published in March 2017, is an excellent history of London’s Royal Mathematical School. … this book represents an outstanding scholarly work. … The authors’ analysis of issues is extremely well informed and comprehensive. Any reader who is interested in the origins of secondary school mathematics in general, or the Royal Mathematical School in particular, will find this book to be exceptionally valuable.” (Andrew Perry, MAA Reviews, July, 2017)