DIDACTIC PRINCIPLES IN SPANISH MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS IN THE 18TH AND 19TH CENTURIES

The formative nature of textbooks increases when criteria are incorporated and certain teaching principles for the understanding of their contents. The didactic facet of the textbooks was known by the Spanish authors of mathematics since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By studying some mathematical textbooks published in Spain in this period, we identified certain educational criteria that the authors have shown in the organization of the contents. The criteria for analysis are: update, originality, exactitude and precision, social interest in mathematics, philosophical principles and didactic principles.