Zoltán Pál Dienes (; September 11, 1916 – January 11, 2014), anglicized as Zoltan Paul Dienes, was a

Hungarian mathematician The following is a list of Hungarian mathematicians. In this page we keep the names in Hungarian order (family name first). A * György Alexits, Alexits, György (1899–1978) B * László Babai, Babai, László (born 1950) Paul Erdős Prize * ...

whose ideas on

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

(especially of small children) have been popular in some countries. He was a world-famous theorist and tireless practitioner of the " new mathematics": an approach to mathematics learning that uses games, songs, and dance to make it more appealing to children. He is credited with the creation of

base ten blocks Base ten blocks, also known as Dienes blocks after popularizer Zoltán Dienes (), are a mathematical manipulative used by students to practice counting and elementary arithmetic and develop number sense in the context of the decimal place value, ...

, popularly referred to as ''Dienes blocks''. Dienes's life and ideas are described in his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

, ''Memoirs of a Maverick Mathematician'' (), and his book of

mathematical game A mathematical game is a game whose rules, strategies, and outcomes are defined by clear mathematics, mathematical parameters. Often, such games have simple rules and match procedures, such as tic-tac-toe and dots and boxes. Generally, mathemati ...

s, ''I Will Tell You Algebra Stories You've Never Heard Before'' (). He has also published a book of poetry, ''Calls from the Past'' (). His later life contributions have been chronicled by

Bharath Sriraman Bharath Sriraman (born 1971) is an Indian-born Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Montana – Missoula and an academic editor, known for his contributions to the interdisciplinarity of mathematics-science-arts, theory develop ...

in the second monograph of '' The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast''.

References

* Conese, Antonio, (2016). ''L'insegnamento della matematica'', IlMioLibro,

Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso GEDI Gruppo Editoriale S.p.A., formerly known as S.p.A., is an Italian media conglomerate. Founded in 1955, it is based in Turin, Italy, and controlled by the Agnelli family through Exor. The company is known for publishing newspapers ''La Re ...

External links

* Hungarian educators 1916 births 20th-century Hungarian mathematicians 2014 deaths 20th-century Hungarian poets {{Hungary-poet-stub