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<div><br></div>
<div>ICMI News 2: February 2008</div>
<div><br>
A Bimonthly Email Newsletter from the ICMI-International Commission on
Mathematical Instruction</div>
<div>Editor: Jaime Carvalho e Silva, Dep. Matematica, Universidade de
Coimbra, Portugal</div>
<div><br>
CONTENTS<br>
</div>
<div>1. <font color="#000000"> Challenges for Mathematics
Educators in 2008</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">2. Symposium on the Occasion of the
100th Anniversary of ICMI</font></div>
<div>3. <font color="#000000"> PME welcomes you!</font></div>
<div>4. Post-ICME-11 Workshop</div>
<div>5. ICME-12 (2012) to be held in Korea</div>
<div>6. <font color="#000000"> ICMI Study 19: Proof and Proving
in Mathematics Education</font></div>
<div>7. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI
Community</div>
<div>8. Historical vignettes:<font color="#000000"> How the
first ICMI study was born, a personal recollection</font></div>
<div>9. Subscribing to ICMI News</div>
<div><br>
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></span>---</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1. <font color="#000000"> Challenges for Mathematics
Educators in 2008</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">This newsletter will appear immediately
prior to the ICMI Centennial Symposium hosted</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">by the Italian community of mathematicians
and mathematics educators, see</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008.
In her first Editorial, Michèle Artigue mentioned</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the inaugural president, Felix Klein, who
served from 1908 until his death at age 76 in 1925.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Henri Fehr was the first secretary until
1939. These two men served together for more than</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">ten years in the formative years of our
organization.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">What exciting but difficult work it must
have been. On the one hand they were at the forefront</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">of a new endeavour, producing an
international voice in the field for the first time. On
the</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">other hand, communications must have been
difficult, both had many other responsibilities,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">and they lived through difficult political
times.<br>
Our work is still exciting. New insights and research results surprise
and stimulate us. New</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">areas of investigation continue to emerge.
However our current challenges are both different</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">and parallel, both smaller and larger.<br>
We are challenged by the volume and speed of communications rather
than by delays.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">However we are faced with a new
communication challenge, namely, to reach all those</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">who have a stake in mathematics education.
Klein and Fehr's world was smaller. We now</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">want to reach out to primary school
teachers and policy makers as well as to mathematicians.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">We are concerned to involve developing
countries like Niue, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Namibia</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">as well as those of Europe and North
America. This is not just a matter of finding efficient</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">country representatives, although that is
especially important this year with the General Assembly</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">in Mexico in July. We also need to find the
voice that ensures that we can hear each other.<br>
All those involved in mathematics education remain challenged by the
variety of their responsibilities.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Our enthusiasm for our work, other
institutional duties, and/or our full email In-Box should
not</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">result in work-life imbalance. This is not
just a question of physical and mental health, but we</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">risk developing insular perspectives on our
work if we are not involved in a wider world. I see</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">dissociation from everyday life as a
serious danger. Even within our work I often hear people</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">regret that they have little time to be in
the classroom, or to read enough, or to support or</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">collaborate sufficiently with their
colleagues. There are no easy answers to these stresses.<br>
With respect to the politics of international collaboration, the
challenge remains but it is more subtle.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">I suspect that we are more challenged by
cultural misunderstanding (talking past each other like</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">ships in the night) than by the impact of
geo-politics. It will require attention, tolerance, and
effort</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">to meet this challenge. But what a great
opportunity we have to work towards such collaboration</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">in Monterrey in July.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">I look forward to seeing you
there.</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">Bill Barton, Vice-President, ICMI,
b.barton@auckland.ac.nz</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font color="#000000">2. Symposium on the Occasion of the 100th
Anniversary of ICMI</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><b><br>
The First Century of the International Commission_on Mathematical
Instruction (1908-2008)</b></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><i><b>Reflecting and Shaping the World of
Mathematics Education<br>
</b></i><b>Accademia dei Lincei</b> (Wednesday to Friday, March
5-7)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">and<b> Istituto dell'Enciclopedia
Italiana</b> (Saturday, March 8)<br>
<br>
In Rome in March 2008 there will be a symposium to celebrate the
centennial of the ICMI</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">(International Commission on Mathematical
Instruction). The ICMI was founded in Rome in 1908</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">during the International Mathematics
Congress with the aim of supporting and expanding the</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">interest of mathematicians in teaching in
schools. Its first president was Felix Klein.<br>
Something similar was attempted in many different subjects but only in
mathematics was there</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">success in obtaining widespread
international collaboration in order face problems relating
to</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the social image of mathematics, to
difficulties in learning and to links with research and
applications.<br>
The convention for the centennial to be held in Rome foresees a
selected group of invited</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">participants (about 180 people). It will be
of great importance: starting out from a historical
analysis</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">of the principal themes regarding the
activities of the ICMI (reforms in the teaching of the
sciences,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">teacher training, relations with
mathematicians and with research, and so on), debate will focus
on</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">identifying the future directions of
research in mathematics education and the possible action to
be</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">taken to improve the level of scientific
culture in the various countries.<br>
As has always been the case with the ICMI, the scientific committee,
which met from 3rd - 5th</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">February 2006 at the Department of
Mathematics at the "La Sapienza" University of Rome, is
intercontinental</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">in its membership. It is composed of
researchers who are well-known figures in the field of the
didactics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">of mathematics, both for the research that
they have carried out and for the institutional positions
they</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">hold. The Organising Committee is made up
of professors from Italian Departments of Mathematics.<br>
The 'Enciclopedia Italiana' will publish the proceedings.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The web site</font><font
color="#0000FF"><u>
http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008/welcome.html</u></font><font
color="#000000"> contains the program, the</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">composition of the IPC and of the
organizing committee, the summaries of the plenary talks and of
the</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">working groups, the list of the
participants and the rich<i> History of ICMI</i>.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Ferdinando Arzarello, chair of<font color="#000000">
International Programme Committee</font>,
ferdinando.arzarello@unito.it</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>3.<font color="#000000"> PME welcomes you!</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
As an affiliated organization of ICMI, the International Group for the
Psychology of Mathematics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Education (PME) is a very active academic
community. PME came into existence at ICME 3 in
1976. </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Every year PME hosts an annual conference,
following the first meeting that was held in Utrecht, The</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Netherlands in 1977. A joint conference of
PME32 and PME-NA XXX (a chapter of PME at North America)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">will be held from 17th to 21st of July,
2008, at Morelia, Michoacán, México. Each PME conference
has</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">a specific theme. The theme of PME32 &
PME-NA XXX is<i> Mathematical Ideas: History, Education
and</i></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><i>Cognition</i>. Based on the theme,
plenary speakers and plenary panellists are invited members of
PME,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">with some non-member experts. At the
conference, PME members' research can be presented as</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">'Research Reports', 'Short Oral
Communications', and 'Posters'. Members with the same
interests</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">can organize 'Working Sessions' and
'Discussion Groups'. For contemporary research issues,
members</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">are also able to form teams to conduct
'Research Forums'.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
The major goals of PME are:<br>
i.<x-tab> </x-tab>to promote international contact and
exchange of scientific information in </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the field of mathematical education;<br>
ii.<x-tab> </x-tab>to promote and stimulate interdisciplinary research
in the aforesaid area; and<br>
iii.<x-tab> </x-tab>to further a deeper
and more correct understanding of the psychological and</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">other aspects of teaching and learning
mathematics and the implications thereof.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Based on PME members' work during the last
thirty years, the<i> PME Handbook on the Psychology
of</i></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><i>Mathematics Education</i> was published
in 2006. Focusing on the contents of the handbook, the
editors,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Paolo Boero and Ángel Gutiérrez, will
run one of the four PME sessions at ICME 11.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
The topics and presenters of the other three PME sessions are::<br>
<br>
o<x-tab> </x-tab>Mathematics
Teacher Education<br>
<i> Peter Sullivan and Barbara Jaworski<br>
<br>
</i>o<x-tab> </x-tab>Affect, equity and
diversity<br>
<i>Joanne R. Becker and Ferdinand Rivera</i></font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">o<x-tab>
</x-tab>Technology and Mathematics Education</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"> <i>Colleen Vale and Carolyn
Kieran</i></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><i><br>
</i>The four sessions are representative of the work of PME, and the
presenters are all active PME members.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Participants of ICME 11 are welcome to
attend all four PME sessions. In particular, PME is
encouraging</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">participants of ICME 11 to come to Morelia
to attend PME32 and PME-NA XXX.</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">Fou-Lai LIN, President of PME,</font>
linfl@math.ntnu.edu.tw</div>
<div><font color="#000000">http://igpme.org/</font><br>
</div>
<div
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></span>----<br>
</div>
<div>4. Post-ICME-11 Workshop</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Invitation to Attend One-day Workshop<br>
Classroom Assessment: The Impact on Teaching and Learning in<br>
Non-University Tertiary Institutions</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">Sadie Bragg, a member of the United States
National Commission on Mathematics Instruction (USNCMI)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">and a co-chair with George Ekol (Kyambogo
University, Uganda) for DG 23- Current Problems and</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Challenges in Non-University Tertiary
Mathematics Education (NUTI) at ICME -11, will lead a
one-day</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">workshop entitled, "Classroom
Assessment: The Impact on Teaching and Learning in NUTI," on
Monday,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">July 14, 2008, after the ICME
Congress. Marilyn Mays, a former member of USNCMI, and
Cheryl Cleaves,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the Executive Director of the American
Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC), will
be</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">co-leaders. <br>
<br>
The workshop is funded by The United States' National Science
Foundation and co-sponsored by the</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">USNCMI and AMATYC. It is designed to
explore further the topic of classroom assessment and will
be</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">an outgrowth of the DG-23 discussion
related to this issue. Participation is by invitation only
and will</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">include invitees from several of the
countries represented at the Congress. DG-23
participants/attendees</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">will be given preference for selection for
the workshop. Note that the number of seats available is
limited. </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Those invited to attend will be funded for
two additional nights of lodging (July 13 and 14, 2008) and
some</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">meals. No funding is available
for travel expenses (e.g. airfare, taxi, etc.)<br>
<br>
For more information about participating in the workshop, contact
Sadie Bragg, Professor of Mathematics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">and Provost, Borough of Manhattan Community
College, The City University of New York at</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">sbragg@bmcc.cuny.edu. (Please
place<i> ICME-11 after Congress Workshop</i> in the subject
line.) </font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI,
bhodgson@mat.ulaval.ca</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>5. ICME-12 (2012) to be held in Korea</div>
<div><br>
Three bids for hosting the Twelfth International Congress on
Mathematical Education (ICME-12) in 2012</div>
<div>have been submitted to the Executive Committee of ICMI, namely
(in alphabetical order) from<br>
-- China (Shanghai)<br>
-- Korea (Seoul)<br>
-- South Africa (Durban)<br>
Site visits were organised early in 2007, the visiting team being
composed of ICMI President Michèle Artigue,</div>
<div>Vice-President Bill Barton and myself. The bids were
thoroughly discussed by the ICMI EC at its meeting in</div>
<div>London last June, which led to requests for additional pieces of
information from the bidding countries. The</div>
<div>final decision was made through an email discussion that took
place between October and December 2007.</div>
<div>The high quality of the three proposed bids made the decision
task especially difficult.<br>
<br>
The ICMI Executive Committee is pleased to announce its decision of
accepting the invitation from Korea.</div>
<div>We hope that the international mathematical education community
will enthusiastically receive the invitation</div>
<div>of our Korean colleagues for 2012, so to make ICME-12 a memorable
event from Korean, Asiatic and</div>
<div>international perspectives. The precise dates of ICME-12
will be announced later and a Korean delegation</div>
<div>will be present at ICME-11 to provide information on the 2012
ICME.<br>
<br>
The ICMI Executive Committee wishes to express its deepest gratitude
to the mathematics education and</div>
<div>mathematics communities in the three bidding countries, and
especially to the three persons who chaired</div>
<div>the committees that prepared the bids, namely Professors Jianpan
Wang (China), Sung Je Cho (Korea)</div>
<div>and Renuka Vithal (South Africa). It goes much beyond
lip-service to say how impressed the ICMI EC</div>
<div>was by the high professionalism shown in the preparation of the
dossiers and the dedication of the bidding</div>
<div>teams. It is our hope that the enthusiasm of those who supported
these bids will reflect not only in ICME-12</div>
<div>(and ICME-11!), but in future ICMEs as well.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The ICMI Executive Committee wishes to stress that since two of
the current EC members are from one of</div>
<div>bidding countries --- namely Vice-President Jill Adler (South
Africa) and Member-at-Large Frederick Leung</div>
<div>(China / Hong Kong) ---, they have taken no part in the
discussion or decision-making about ICME-12, nor</div>
<div>have had access to the competing bids.<br>
</div>
<div>Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI,
bhodgson@mat.ulaval.ca</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>6.<font color="#000000"> ICMI Study 19: Proof and Proving in
Mathematics Education</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI)
announces</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">its next ICMI Study:<i> Proof and Proving
in Mathematics Education.</i></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><i><br>
</i>The<i> Study Conference</i> will be held in Taipei, Taiwan, from
May 10 to May 15, 2009.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
The International Program Committee (IPC) invites individuals or
groups to</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">submit original contributions. A submission
should represent a significant</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">contribution to knowledge about learning
and teaching proof. It may address</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">questions from one or more of the study
themes, or further issues relating to</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">these, but it should identify its primary
focus. The Study themes are set out in</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the Discussion Document which is available
in the "conference program"</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">section of the ICMI Study 19 website (still
under construction but functional)</font></div>
<div><font
color="#800080"><u>http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/ocs/index.php?cf=8</u
></font><font color="#000000"> (or via Google: 'ICMI 19').<br>
<br>
Submissions will be a maximum of 6 pages, including references and
figures,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">written in English, the language of the
conference. Further technical details</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">about the format of submissions will be
available on the Study website.<br>
<br>
Important dates:<br>
<br>
By 30 June 2008:<x-tab> </x-tab></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Potential authors upload their papers to
the conference website.<br>
By 15 November 2008: <x-tab> </x-tab></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Potential authors receive the result of the
refereeing</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">process. Invitations to participate in the
conference are sent to authors whose</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">papers are accepted.<br>
<br>
International Program Committee</font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">Gila Hanna (Canada), co-chair; Michael de
Villiers (South Africa), co-chair</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Ferdinando Arzarello (Italy); Tommy Dreyfus
(Israel); Viviane Durand-Guerrier (France);</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Hans Niels Jahnke (Germany); Fou-Lai Lin
(Taiwan); Annie Selden (USA);</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">David Tall (UK); Oleksiy Yevdokimov
(Australia); Bernard R. Hodgson (Canada),<i> ex officio</i></font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">ICMI Executive Advisors: Hyman Bass (USA);
Mariolina Bartolini-Bussi (Italy)</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Gila Hanna</font>, co-Chair of the
International Programme Committee, ghanna@oise.utoronto.ca</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>7. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The 13th International Seminar on Education of Talented Children
in Mathematics</div>
<div><font color="#000000">Soongsil University, 511
Sangdo-</font>dong<font color="#000000">, Dongjak-gu, Seoul,
Korea</font><font color="#009900">,</font><font color="#000000">
February 23, 2008</font></div>
<div>yhchoe1940@yahoo.co.kr</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Symposium on the Occasion of the 100th Anniversary of ICMI</div>
<div>Rome, Italy, March 5-8, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>2008 Conference on Math Education and Social Justice</div>
<div>"Creating Balance in an Unjust World"</div>
<div>Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, USA, April 4-6, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.radicalmath.org/conference</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Future Curricular Trends in School Algebra and Geometry</div>
<div>Univ. Chicago, USA, May 2-4, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.mathcurriculumcenter.org/conferences.php</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Joint ICMI /IASE Study Statistics Education in School
Mathematics:</div>
<div>Challenges for Teaching and Teacher Education<br>
ICMI Study and IASE Round Table Conference</div>
<div>ITESM, Monterrey, Mexico, June 30-July 4, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.ugr.es/~icmi/iase_study/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>ICME 11 - Mexico 2008</div>
<div>11th International Congress on Mathematical Education</div>
<div>Monterrey, Mexico, July 6 - 13, 2008.</div>
<div>http://icme11.org/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>HPM 2008: History and Pedagogy of Mathematics<br>
The HPM Satellite Meeting of ICME 11,</div>
<div>National Mexican University, Mexico City (UNAM), Mexico, July
14-18, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.red-cimates.org.mx/HPM2008.htm</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>PME32 & PME-NA30 Mexico joint conference</div>
<div>Morelia, Mexico, July 17-21 2008.</div>
<div><font
color="#000000">http://www.pme32-na30.org.mx/annou.htm</font></div>
<div>PME33: Thessaloniki - Greece, July 19-24, 2009</div>
<div>PME34: Univ. Fed. Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil - July
2010</div>
<div>http://igpme.org/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>10 Iranian Mathematics Education Conference (IMEC-10)</div>
<div>Yazd, Iran, August 12-15, 2008</div>
<div>Contact: a_rejali@cc.iut.ac.ir, soheila_azad@yahoo.com</div>
<div>http://www.imec10yazd.com</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font color="#000000">TIME-2008: Technology and its Integration
in Mathematics Education</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Tshwane Univ. of Tech., Buffelspoort, South
Africa</font>,<font color="#000000"> September 22-26,
2008</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">http://time.tut.ac.za/</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>"Models in Developing Mathematics Education"</div>
<div>The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project</div>
<div>Dresden, Saxony, Germany, September 11-17, 2009</div>
<div><a
href="mailto:arogerson@inetia.pl">arogerson@inetia.pl</a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>8. Historical vignettes:<font color="#000000"> How the first ICMI
study was born, a personal recollection</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
Let me go back far into the past.<br>
In 1948 a famous British biologist, J.B.S.Haldane, gave in Paris a
lecture on evolution</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">for a few French students, and I was among
them. He was a marxist thinker and had</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">large views on many subjects, including
mathematics. A few sentences of his struck</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">me for life. The computers were new and
heavy, but Haldane had a prophetic view</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">on their possible influence on the
evolution of mathematics. Solving an equation, he said,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">would be more and more finding good
algorithms for numerical solutions. This would apply</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">to functional equations as well, and change
our views on functions. Functions as they are</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">taught, 'elementary' or 'specia' functions,
are all tabulated functions; they were</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">introduced and used after the Gütenberg
printing revolution. Functions as we should see</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">them are linked to all possible processes
of construction and approximation by means of</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">computers. All mathematical aspects would
be modified after computers as they had been</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">after printing.<br>
Hearing Haldane I immediately thought (as far as I remember) of my
recent discoveries as</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">a mathematics student: series of functions,
approximation theory, general topology. Mathematics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">as they had developed in the 1900s were
well prepared for the changes to occur in the 1950s.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Viewed from the 2000s, the intuition of
Haldane was a very positive view on mathematics,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">its role and possible
evolution.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">However it took some time to fully
understand the strong linkage in both directions between<br>
Computers and Informatics on one hand, and all parts of Mathematics on
the other. In 1982</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the International Mathematical Union (IMU),
following a proposition of its president Lennart</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Carleson, made an important step: the Rolf
Nevanlinna Prize, parallel to the Fields Medals,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">was created on "Mathematical aspects
of Information Science". The announcement of the</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Prize was made at the Warsaw International
Congress in 1983.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The idea of a study on the influence of
computers and informatics on mathematics and its</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">teaching was in the air. It was formalized
by the newly elected ICMI EC, after a preliminary</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">meeting in Orsay at the end of 1982 where
Geoffrey Howson as secretary, Bent Chritiansen</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">as vice-president and myself as president
established the planning of actions to take during</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">our term, beginning in 1983, with the help
of Ed Jacobsen, the Unesco officer in charge of</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">mathematical education. The general scheme
of the studies was sketched at that time: a theme</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">of current interest, a program committee, a
discussion document, an invited meeting, and a</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">selection of contributions for a book. We
agreed to begin with the theme on computers and</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">informatics, and to consider their
influence not only on mathematics teaching, but on</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">mathematics itself.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">1983 and 1984 were busy years for ICMI. We
had special sessions at the Warsaw ICM in 1983,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">we had to prepare and then to held the
Adelaïde ICME in 1984, and we were involved in several</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">regional congresses. But the first study
took form. We decided to rely on the French
subcommission,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">chaired by Jean Martinet from Strasbourg,
and on François Pluvinage, director of the Strasbourg</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">IREM (Institut de recherche sur
l'enseignement des mathématiques) for hosting the
symposium.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">A first draft of the discussion document
was written by François Pluvinage in Strasbourg,
Bernard</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Cornu in Grenoble and myself in Orsay, in
one morning, using the new communication facilities.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The real work began with a meeting of the
program committee at the Ecole Normale Supérieure</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">in Paris: the committee, elected by the
ICMI EC, consisted of R.F. Churchouse from Cardiff,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">B. Cornu, A.E. Ershov from Novosobirsk,
A.G. Howson, J.P. Kahane, J.H. van Lint from Eindhoven,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">F. PLuvinage, A. Ralston from Buffalo and
M. Yamaguti from Kyoto. The discussion document</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">was written between January and March,
1984, published in many ways and languages, in</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">particular in English in l'Enseignement
Mathématique. We received many contributions, collected</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">by the IREM in Strasbourg, we issued the
invitations, and for a week in March, 1985, we enjoyed</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the beautiful though somewhat spartan
hospitality of our colleagues in Strasbourg, for the main</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">meeting. Then came the writing of the
Proceedings, published by Cambridge University Press,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">while the IREM kept and published a
collection of the Supporting papers, about 600 pages. The</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">whole process was a fascinating experience
for me, and a good model for the ICMI studies to</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">come, in which Geoffrey Howson and myself
collaborated very closely (though in every case</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">the real organiser was
Geoffrey).</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">The Proceedings of this first study were
well received, the main reservation being that they were</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">not largely distributed. An excellent
report, containing this criticism, was published in 1986
in</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">ZDM (Zentralblatt fûr Didaktik der
Mathematik). The Strasbourg meeting was followed by
meetings</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">in Luminy (France) and Monastir (Tunisia)
in January and February, 1986, and it was the basis</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">of the invited lecture I gave at the
Berkeley ICM in 1986 on "Enseignement
mathématique,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">ordinateurs et calculettes". A new
edition proved necessary. It was made by Bernard Cornu</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">and Tony Ralston, with a lot of new
material, and was published in 1992 as a Unesco</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">document. Again, the distribution was not
what it should have been.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Since then it seems to me that the
conception of mathematics changed in many ways,</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">proving that computers and informatics do
not replace brain nor mathematics, but allow</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">and force brain and mathematics to plough
new fields. Mathematics teaching has still to</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">take advantage of informatics, or
Information sciences, not only as a tool for a better</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">understanding of most classical subjects in
mathematics, but also in order to provide new</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">ideas about what could be and what should
be taught in our times. A reference to the first</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">ICMI study is still relevant in that
matter.</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Jean-Pierre Kahane, former President of
ICMI</font>, jean-pierre.kahane@math.u-psud.fr</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Note from the editor: the second edition of the first ICMI Study
is available onine at the</div>
<div>UNESCO website. Go to</div>
<div><font
color="#000000">http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/</font></div>
<div>and use the keyword Ralston in the search form. The second
edition of the first ICMI Study</div>
<div>will be the first item to show up as a result of the
search.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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