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<div>ICMI News 3: April 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. Editorial: Aspects of communication about --- and within
--- ICMI</div>
<div>2. The Felix Klein Medal for 2007 goes to Jeremy
Kilpatrick</div>
<div>3. The Hans Freudenthal Medal for 2007 goes to Anna
Sfard</div>
<div>4. HPM welcomes you!</div>
<div>5. More news about the 11th ICME-International Congress on
Mathematical Education</div>
<div>6. The Second Meeting of ICMI 2007-09 Executive
Committee</div>
<div>7. Assessing the quality of research in mathematics
education</div>
<div>8. Free PDFs of National Academy reports (USA)</div>
<div>9. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI
Community</div>
<div>10. Historical vignettes: How the first ICME congress was
born</div>
<div>11. Subscribing to ICMI News</div>
<div><br>
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<div><br></div>
<div>1. Editorial: Aspects of communication about --- and within
--- ICMI</div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
For an organisation such as ICMI, communication with the community it
serves is of the utmost importance. The recent launching of the
electronic newsletter "ICMI News" as a new channel of
communication provides an opportunity for looking back at the various
solutions adopted, since the inception of ICMI, to disseminate
information about the Commission: about its mission, actions,
programmes of activities, and publications.<br>
<br>
When ICMI was established at the 1908 International Congress of
Mathematicians held in Rome, the journal "L'Enseignement
Mathématique" (L'EM), founded just a few years earlier, was
immediately adopted as the official organ of the newly born
Commission. This may be of no surprise since the first
Secretary-General of ICMI, Henri Fehr, was one of the two founding
editors of L'EM. <br>
<br>
While L'EM played a major role over the following decades as regards
maintaining an official record of ICMI reports and activities, the
need arose for a lighter and more flexible means of communication
between ICMI and its community. This was particularly expressed
at ICME-2, held in August-September 1972 in Exeter, where "many
requests" were made "for improved methods" for "increasing the
spread of information concerning activities of ICMI and other matters
of interest to mathematical educators" (excerpts from the first
issue of the "ICMI Bulletin", pp. 1-2). This led barely a
month later to the launching of the "ICMI Bulletin" under the
editorship of the ICMI Secretary[-General], but with L'EM explicitly
continuing to be the official journal of ICMI (as stated in the
"Report on the period 1971-74" by ICMI President Sir James
Lighthill, see L'EM 21 (1975) p. 330). Over the years the
Bulletin has proved to be a useful channel of information, even if its
frequency of appearance has at times been somewhat erratic.<br>
<br>
In order to make information and material about ICMI more easily
accessible (including the ICMI Bulletin), the first version of the
ICMI website was launched at the end of 1995, again under the
responsibility of ICMI Secretary[-General]. The site was then,
and still is, hosted on the server of the International Mathematical
Union, ICMI's mother organisation.<br>
<br>
Finally, inspired by the success of IMU email newsletter
"IMU-Net", launched in September 2003, the current ICMI Executive
Committee decided at its first meeting, held in June 2007, to
establish a similar means of prompt, efficient and brief
communication, the first issue of ICMI News having been published in
December 2007 and the appearance occurring every other month, in
alternation with IMU-Net. Needless to say, the EC is extremely
pleased by the enthusiastic reception of this new tool among the
community.<br>
<br>
Thus, ICMI now has at its disposal four different channels of
communication: L'EM, the Bulletin, the website and ICMI News.
Collectively these serve a variety of purposes, from formal archival
needs to detailed reports on some aspects of the life of ICMI or short
announcements of activities to come, including the permanent online
availability of a large number of ICMI documents of all
sorts. </font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br>
Besides the precise nature of the channels through which information
is conveyed, another crucial aspect of the quality and efficiency of
communication about and inside ICMI concerns the linguistic vehicle
thus used. It is of great interest to see that the launching of
ICMI News was accompanied, thanks to the efforts of its editor Jaime
Carvalho e Silva, by a Portuguese version, achieved through the
collaboration of several members of the Portuguese community.
ICMI would hope for more of such outreach to happen with ICMI News,
which in a way costs rather little. (Possibly online language
translators can help reduce the burden by allowing to concentrate on
editing rather than time-consuming full translation.) <br>
<br>
Although the four communication channels mentioned above function
almost exclusively in English, the ICMI EC is sensitive to the need of
diminishing the linguistic difficulties of colleagues for whom working
in English can at times be an obstacle to a full involvement in
discussions about educational issues, be it orally or in a written
form. Still it is probably difficult to go back to what appears
to be the multilingual days of the birth of ICMI, when French, German
and English seemed to be on almost equal levels --- at least judging
from correspondence or reports about ICMI from that time. And
the futuristic dream conveyed by the ICMI President, in her closing
words at the celebration of ICMI Centennial in Rome early March, of
having participants at symposia to come to each speak in his or her
mother tongue and have everyone understand each other through some
special automatic translation device, will clearly not materialise
tomorrowŠ </font><br>
</div>
<div><font color="#000000">The fact that English is today's "lingua
franca", including for ICMI, is not to be denied, and on the
contrary must be used as efficiently and positively as possible.
The main point is to ensure that such a position of English as a
vector for communication is an opportunity for inclusiveness, not one
for the preponderance or even dominance of a given linguistic group on
others. (On that subject, one of the Survey Teams at ICME-10
pointed to rather delicate issues relating to the predominance in the
literature on mathematical education of authors having English as a
first language as well as, more generally, of research in countries
where English is the national language --- see J. Adler et al. in
"Educational Studies in Mathematics" 60 (2005) pp. 359-381.)
Having myself French as a mother tongue --- in spite of my patronymic
---, I am very sensitive to the issue of an adequate and decidedly
inclusive use of English in the life of ICMI, and so are my ICMI EC
colleagues. On the other hand, the EC also supports
language-related initiatives such as the geolinguistic network
"Espace Mathématique Francophone" (EMF), one of ICMI series of
regional conferences, or, as regards the context of ICME congresses,
the presence of Spanish at ICME-11 for instance, when it is the case
that the language of the host country of an ICME is at the same time
an international one shared among various countries.</font><br>
</div>
<div>Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI,
bhodgson@mat.ulaval.ca</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div><br></div>
<div>2. The Felix Klein Medal for 2007 goes to Jeremy Kilpatrick</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Felix Klein Medal for 2007 goes to</div>
<div>Jeremy Kilpatrick, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA<br>
</div>
<div>It is with great pleasure that the ICMI Awards Committee hereby
announces that the Felix Klein Medal for 2007 is given to Professor
Jeremy Kilpatrick, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA, in
recognition of his more than forty years of sustained and
distinguished lifetime achievement in mathematics education research
and development. Jeremy Kilpatrick's numerous contributions and
services to mathematics education as a field of theory and practice,
as he prefers to call it, are centered around his extraordinary
ability to reflect on, critically analyse, and unify essential aspects
of our field as it has developed since the early 20th century, while
always insisting on the need for reconciliation and balance among the
points of view taken, the approaches undertaken, and the methodologies
adopted for research. It is a characteristic feature of Jeremy
Kilpatrick that he has always embraced a very cosmopolitan perspective
on mathematics education. Thus he has worked in Brazil, Colombia, El
Salvador, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden,
and Thailand, in addition to being, of course, extraordinarily
knowledgeable about the international literature.</div>
<div><br>
Throughout his academic career, Jeremy Kilpatrick has published
groundbreaking papers, book chapters and books - many of which are now
standard references in the literature - on problem solving, on the
history of research in mathematics education, on teachers'
proficiency, on curriculum change and its history, and on
assessment.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Mogens Niss, Chair, The ICMI Awards Committee, mn@ruc.dk</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>3. The Hans Freudenthal Medal for 2007 goes to Anna Sfard</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Hans Freudenthal Medal for 2007 goes to</div>
<div>Anna Sfard, University of Haifa, Israel, and the Institute of
Education, University of London, UK, also affiliated to Michigan State
University.<br>
<br>
It is with great pleasure that the ICMI Awards Committee hereby
announces that the Hans Freudenthal Medal for 2007 is given to
Professor Anna Sfard, University of Haifa, Israel, and the University
of London, UK, in recognition of her highly significant and
scientifically deep accomplishments within a consistent, long-term
research programme focused on objectification and discourse in
mathematics education, which has had a major impact on many strands of
research in mathematics education and on numerous young
researchers.<br>
<br>
In addition to publications related to the above-mentioned research
programme, Anna Sfard has published numerous other papers and book
chapters within a broad range of topics. It is a characteristic
feature of Anna Sfard's scientific achievements that they are always
very thorough, original and intellectually sharp. She often uncovers
the tacit if not hidden assumptions behind notions, approaches, and
conventional wisdom, and by turning things upside-down she usually
succeeds in generating new fundamental and striking insights into
complex issues and problématiques.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Mogens Niss, Chair, The ICMI Awards Committee, mn@ruc.dk</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>4. HPM welcomes you!</div>
<div><br>
HPM is the International Study Group on the Relations between History
and Pedagogy of Mathematics affiliated to the International Commission
on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI).<br>
By combining the history of mathematics with the teaching and learning
of mathematics, HPM is the link between the past and the future of
mathematics. Therefore, the group aims at stressing the conception of
mathematics as a living science, a science with a long history, a
vivid present and an as yet unforeseen future. Among members of the
group are researchers in mathematics education, mathematicians,
historians of mathematics, teachers of mathematics and curriculum
developers.<br>
<br>
MAIN ACTIVITIES<br>
ICME Satellite Meetings of HPM<br>
Among the activities of the HPM Group, there is the tradition of
organizing conferences that are satellite meetings to the
International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME), organized by
ICMI every four years, since 1984. The 7th one will take place in
Mexico City in July 2008.<br>
<br>
European Summer University on the History and Epistemology in
Mathematics Education<br>
Closely related to the activities of the HPM Group is the organization
of the European Summer University on the History and Epistemology in
Mathematics Education (ESU).<br>
The initiative of organizing such a Summer University belongs to the
French Mathematics Education community, in the early 1980's. From
those meetings emerged the organization of a SU on a European scale,
since 1993. The 5th one took place in 2007 in Prague, Czech
Republic.<br>
<br>
Other Meetings and Conferences<br>
Also there are regional meetings organized by HPM in different
countries. Additionally, in various conferences, there are special
sections organized on themes that are of interest to HPM.</div>
<div>For example: The Topic Study Groups (TSG) at ICME-10 (Copenhagen
2004)<br>
TSG 17: The role of the history of mathematics in mathematics
education<br>
TSG 29: The history of the teaching and the learning of
mathematics</div>
<div>There will be the same TSGs (as TSG 23 and TSG 38 respectively)
at ICME-11 in Monterrey, Mexico in July 2008.<br>
<br>
The HPM Newsletter</div>
<div>The HPM publishes a Newsletter three times per year (67 issues
have been published and since 2000 they are available online). The
Newsletter is available by contacting the regional representatives
(see last pages of any recent issue), or can be downloaded from the
HPM websites (see below).</div>
<div><br>
The HPM websites</div>
<div>Further information on the group, its aims, history and
activities, together with details on relevant documents and resources
can be found in the HPM official website
http://www.clab.edc.uoc.gr/HPM/ and the website of the Americas
Section of the HPM Group http://www.hpm-americas.org/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Constantinos Tzanakis, Chair of the HPM Group,
tzanakis@edc.uoc.gr</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>5. More news about the 11th ICME-International Congress on
Mathematical Education</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The program of ICME-11 is rapidly being defined and if we go to
its website</div>
<div><font color="#000000">http://www.icme11.org/</font></div>
<div>it is clear that this Congress is going to be very exciting and
will leave very valuable</div>
<div>lessons to all those attending. If you register before June 1st
you will have a</div>
<div>discounted registration fee and everything can be done online
very smoothly.</div>
<div>I will just point out now the variety and richness of the plenary
activities. Namely</div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 1. What do we know that we did not know
ten years ago, what have we achieved and what have we missed out?
Positive results as researchers and mathematics educators, The nature
of evidence of results in student outputs, What is a good mathematics
education? What is society asking from us? Do we understand
learning/teaching the same way?</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Speakers: Michèle Artigue (France),
Jeremy Kilpatrick (USA)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 2. What do we need to know? Does
research in mathematics education address the concerns of
practitioners and policy makers?</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Panel moderator: David Clarke
(Australia)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Panelists: Paul Cobb (USA), Mariolina
Bartolini Bussi (Italy), Teresa Rojano (Mexico), Shiqi Li
(China)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 3. Current trends in
mathematics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Speaker: José Antonio de la Peña
(Mexico)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 4. History of the development of
mathematics education in Latin American countries.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Panel moderator: Fidel Oteiza
(Chile)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Panelists: Eugenio Filloy (Mexico),
Ubiratan D´Ambrosio (Brazil), Luis Campistrous (Cuba), Carlos Vasco
(Colombia)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 5. Equal access to quality mathematics
education.</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Panel Moderator: Bill Atweh
(Australia)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Panelists: Olimpia Figueras (Mexico), Murad
Jurdak (Lebanon), Catherine Vistro-Yu (The Philippines)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 6. Knowledge for teaching
mathematics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Speakers: Toshiakira Fujii (Japan), Ruhama
Even (Israel)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 7. Technology and mathematics
education</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Speaker: Celia Hoyles (United
Kingdom)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 8. Report of Survey Team 3: The impact
of research findings in mathematics education on students´ learning
of mathematics</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Organizer on behalf of Survey Team 3: Angel
Gutiérrez (Spain)</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">PS 9. Report of Survey Team 4:
Representations of mathematical concepts, objects and processes in
mathematics teaching and learning</font></div>
<div><font color="#000000">Organizer on behalf of Survey Team 4:
Gerald Goldin (USA)</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>These are 9 good reasons to attend ICME-11.</div>
<div>You will not want to miss this.</div>
<div>Register now!</div>
<div><font
color="#000000">http://www.icme11.org/registration_info</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>6. The Second Meeting of ICMI 2007-09 Executive
Committee</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The second meeting of the current ICMI Executive took place at
the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome on 4th and 9th of March around the
Symposium of the 100th Anniversary of ICMI. It was chaired by
Michèle Artigue, ICMI President. Also present were Bernard Hodgson
(Secretary-General), Jill Adler, Mariolina Bartolini Bussi, Bill
Barton, Hyman Bass, Jaime Carvalho e Silva, Celia Hoyles, S.
Kumaresan, Frederick Leung, Alexei Semenov. László Lovász,
President of IMU and ex-officio member of Executive, and Claudio
Procesi, Vice-President of IMU, also partially attended the
meeting.</div>
<div>The focus of this meeting was arrangements for ICME-11 in Mexico
in July. The successful deliberations of the ICME-11 Grants Committee
were reported, noting, in particular, the grant from NCTM (USA) that
made possible more generous support of participants from non-affluent
countries. The organisation of the Opening Ceremony and Award
presentations were decided, and the Agenda for the ICMI General
Assembly set. This last is extremely important in 2008 because it will
be the first time that the ICMI General Assembly elects the Executive
Committee of the Commission. Practical arrangements for ICME-11 at the
main campus of the UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León) are
now in place, and the Executive is looking forward to a successful
meeting.</div>
<div>Considerable discussion also took place about two new ICMI
Studies to be launched in the near future. The IPC is currently being
formed for a study on<i> Teaching and Learning Mathematics in
Constrained Conditions: The Case of Language</i>. Progress was also
made regarding another study relating mathematics education to
industry and the workplace and undertaken in conjunction with ICIAM
(International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics).<br>
Two further projects, the Pipeline Project and a proposed Klein
Project, were also advanced. The former will have a preliminary report
available by the end of the year. The Klein project is a proposed
joint project with IMU, and has been referred to the IMU
Executive.<br>
Organisational issues, relating to the establishment of a permanent
secretariat in conjunction with IMU and putting ICMI on a firmer
financial footing, were also discussed.<br>
</div>
<div>Bill Barton, Vice-President of ICMI,
barton@math.auckland.ac.nz</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>7. Assessing the quality of research in mathematics
education</div>
<div>(Summary of a text prepared by the ICMI Executive Committee)<br>
<br>
All over the world, there is an increasing tendency to rely on
numbers, such as impact factors and citation indices, for assessing
the quality of scientific research. The field of Mathematics Education
does not escape this tendency.<br>
<br>
The SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) of ISI Thompson, the index
most widely in use, includes many journals in the field of education,
but only one in mathematics education: the Journal for Research in
Mathematics Education (JRME), which was included in the index a long
time ago. The applications made by Educational Studies in Mathematics
(ESM), founded in 1968 by Hans Freudenthal, ICMI President from 1967
to 1970, which is widely recognised by the international mathematics
education community as one of the major international journals in the
field, if not the premier journal, have not been successful up to now.
JRME and ESM are, in terms of citations, by far the major journals in
the field, and including one and not the other in an index does not
make sense from a scientific point of view. One might even consider
that ESM has a broader international coverage than JRME.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The ICMI EC looked into the situation and feels that it is
obliged to draw to the attention of those in charge of the evaluation
of research in mathematics education, the scientific bias of the
current situation. The ICMI EC is in no doubt that the SSCI of
ISI Thompson cannot be considered as an appropriate means for
appreciating and assessing the quality of research in mathematics
education. Because of the potentially harmful effects on our field of
the use of this metric, the ICMI EC is more than willing to
collaborate with ISI or other agencies in their efforts to achieve an
improved representation and evaluation of research in mathematics
education.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The ICMI EC would like to point out that, even if it is the most
used, the SSCI is not the only reference list in use today. The
European Science Foundation, for instance, has recently created in the
European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) a list for journals
on Pedagogical and Educational Research, which has the aim of helping
to identify excellence in Humanities scholarship. It is our judgement
that the representation of research in mathematics education journals
is better in ERIH than in SSCI, although it too might be
improved.</div>
<div>The full text of the ICMI EC position can be seen on the web
at</div>
<div>http://www.mathunion.org/ICMI/ISI.pdf</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>8. Free PDFs of National Academy reports (USA)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The National Academy of Sciences of the United States would like
to let you know that individuals from developing countries can
download FREE PDFs OF ALL ACADEMY REPORTS at</div>
<div><a href="http://www.nap.edu/">http://www.nap.edu/</a>.</div>
<div>Please share this resource with your colleagues.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Once the desired book has been selected on the NAP website, free
PDF books will have a "SIGN IN" link at the bottom of the
"purchase options" box. The user has to click on this
link, complete a short survey, and then can download the book.
Detailed information about which countries are eligible and how the
process works is available at the following link: <a
href="http://www.nap.edu/info/faq_dc_pdf.html"></a></div>
<div>http://www.nap.edu/info/faq_dc_pdf.html.</div>
<div>Note that the user's computer must have an IP address in one of
the eligible countries.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Ester Sztein, Program Officer for the Board on International
Scientific Organizations of the National Academies (USA).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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<div><br></div>
<div>9. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community</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>International Consortium for Research in Science and Mathematics
Education</div>
<div>ICRSME XII - 2008 Consultation</div>
<div>Quito, Ecuador, May 13-16, 2008</div>
<div><u>http://ehe.osu.edu/groups/icrsme/</u></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Second International Conference on Education for Real-Life
Learning</div>
<div>University of Bristol, UK, June 19-21, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.thislearninglife.org</div>
<div><br>
<font color="#000000">Fifth U.S. Conference on Computer Algebra
Systems (CAS) in Secondary Mathematics</font><br>
Northfield, IL, USA, June 28-29, 2008</div>
<div>http://meecas.org/usacas.php</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>International Society for Design and Development in
Education</div>
<div>ISDDE 2008 conference</div>
<div>Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands, June 29 - July 2, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.fi.uu.nl/isdde/</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</div>
<div>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>Fifth European Congress of Mathematics</div>
<div>Amsterdam RAI Center, Netherlands, July 14-18, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.5ecm.nl/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>PME32 & PME-NA30 Mexico joint conference</div>
<div>Morelia, Mexico, July 17-21 2008.</div>
<div>http://www.pme32-na30.org.mx/annou.htm</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>MathFest 2008</div>
<div>Madison, WI, USA, July 31- August 2 2008</div>
<div>http://www.maa.org/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>10th 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>4th European Workshop on Mathematical & Scientific
e-Contents</div>
<div>Trondheim, Norway, September 11-13, 2008,</div>
<div>http://www.ntnu.no/delta/workshop/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>TIME-2008: Technology and its Integration in Mathematics
Education</div>
<div>Tshwane Univ. of Tech., Buffelspoort, South Africa, September
22-26, 2008</div>
<div>http://time.tut.ac.za/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>ATCM-13: 13th Asian Technology Conference in Mathematics</div>
<div>Bangkok, Thailand, December 15-19, 2008</div>
<div>http://atcm.mathandtech.org</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>ICTMT-9 - 9th Int Conf on Technology in Mathematics
Teaching</div>
<div>Metz, France, July 4-8, 2009</div>
<div>http://www.ictmt9.org</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>
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<div><br></div>
<div>10. Historical vignettes: How the first ICME congress was
born</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Anyone "under a certain age" who looks at the ICMI History
website</div>
<div>to discover what the first ICME was like will almost certainly be
surprised and not greatly impressed: just a long list of the
plenary lectures that were given.<br>
<br>
However, to those of us who went to Lyon this was an exciting time
even though the programme might have had its great disappointments.
For example, in 1969 I was employed on educational development
overseas and was disturbed that there was no mention in Lyon of the
problems I encountered in the countries I had visited. Yet we
could rejoice that this was the first time that mathematics educators
had had a truly international congress to themselves, where they could
design the programme and its emphases. <br>
</div>
<div>But what were those emphases to be? This was only made
clear to me at the Budapest ICME in 1988 when I had my last
conversation with Hans Freudenthal. He was not happy with the
way in which that ICME had been organised: "when I planned ICME-1 it
was as a showcase for all that was best in mathematics education; the
present ICME is more like a bazaar". If, then, one was only
concerned in Lyon with exhibiting what was good, there was no room to
discuss the problems of those who were simply striving to be better.
It is important to keep this in mind when considering the form that
ICME-1 took. It was, of course, the form to which Freudenthal
had become accustomed at the four-yearly congresses of the
International Mathematical Union. Thus the published programme
for ICME-1 told of 20 plenary talks (four of which were given by
women) and the opportunity for members to present 20-minute short
papers in the afternoons. All these meetings were held in the
one large hall and it was very depressing to see an audience of thirty
or so scattered around it while a short paper was being given.</div>
<div><br>
In view of Freudenthal's aims for the Congress, and the fact that the
selection of speakers owed much to him, it was not surprising that
almost all came from Europe and that the remainder were from North
America. Nevertheless, I was able to see and hear many leading
mathematics educators whose names were familiar but whom I had never
met. The talks were in the main devoted to curricular issues
within schools. There was no mention of the teaching of
mathematics at university level or for vocational purposes.
However, there were interesting and important talks by Ed Begle on
"The role of research in the improvement of mathematics education",
André Delessert on teacher education, Arthur Engel (whose
talks and papers I personally always prized very highly) and Henry
Pollak on the relevance and teaching of applications of mathematics,
Efraim Fischbein on "Mathematics teaching and intellectual
development", and Bryan Thwaites on "The role of the computer in
school mathematics". In retrospect, though, I should not wish
many of those who spoke at Lyon to be judged on the papers they
presented there. In particular, two speakers whom I was later to
delight in working with, Bent Christiansen and Emma Castelnuovo, gave
talks which did not truly represent what I most valued in them.</div>
<div><br>
A Congress, though, is not only about what one finds in the printed
programme. My personal memories extend much further than those
plenary talks. There was the pleasure of meeting, speaking with,
and learning from, members from other countries - perhaps the most
important part of any congress. There was the chaos caused by
the fact that the supplier of the official lunches provided such a bad
one on the first day that Freudenthal and Maurice Glaymann, who
shouldered so much of the local organisation, immediately cancelled
the contract with the restaurateur. Coaches were then organised
to take those members who had ordered lunches out to the airport
restaurant - a journey that necessitated the retiming of all the
afternoon sessions. Later, Freudenthal told me that the outcome
was a court case, although I can no longer remember which side brought
the suit. He, Freudenthal, pleaded that the restaurant's cooking
was such as to bring French cuisine into disrepute and the judge was
so influenced as to award damages to ICMI. With this money and
further help from UNESCO, Freudenthal then mounted a seminar for
invited educators that resulted in the third volume of UNESCO's
series, "New Trends in Mathematics Teaching". Then there was
the congress excursion when the members (about 650 I believe) set out
in coaches, for some reason accompanied by an escort of policemen on
motorcycles, for the Beaujolais region where after wine tasting at
various vineyards we enjoyed an excellent dinner and yet more wine;
leaving some members decidedly light-headed.<br>
</div>
<div>Attempts, too, were made to add unplanned elements to the
programme. Alan Bishop and I both recall that the British
Association of Teachers of Mathematics brought a bus filled with
schoolchildren - but neither of us can remember if they ever found a
home in which they could take part in demonstration lessons.
Also, after complaints from members it was arranged that on one
evening there would be two discussion groups at which contributions
could be made in English, French, and possibly German. Alas,
that was not a success so far as I was concerned, for I was persuaded,
despite the pleas that my French was rudimentary, to act as chairman
for the group that was to discuss the place of axiomatics in school
mathematics. Now, I recall Karl Menger writing how, early in his
lecturing career, he was advised that, "You must never underestimate
the ignorance of your audience". After that meeting I could
give somewhat similar advice: "Never underestimate the speed at
which an excited Frenchman can speak". 1969 was the time that
a new, extremely abstract mathematics curriculum had been introduced
in France and there were great divisions between its teachers relating
to its suitability. (This unrest was also evident at ICME-2 when
some French members walked out of the talk by René Thom when he
criticised "modern mathematics".) The meeting got very
heated, but, alas, the chairman was unable to comprehend French spoken
at such speed and, at times, such vehemence. Perhaps those with
better French than I derived something useful from the meeting.
I certainly learned one important lesson, but that did not relate to a
greater understanding of the place of axiomatics in school
mathematics!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>ICME-1, then, had its problems, but that it came about at all was
a triumph for mathematics education. It provided a foundation on
which to build and for those of us on the Programme Committee for
ICME-2 it gave us a clearer idea of the changes that needed to be
made. We must be grateful to Hans Freudenthal and Maurice
Glaymann for embarking on such an initiative.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Geoffrey Howson,<font color="#000000"> former</font>
Secretary-General<font color="#000000"> of ICMI</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Note from the editor: the ICMI History website was created by
Fulvia Furignhetti</div>
<div>and Livia Giacardi w<font color="#000000">ith the cooperation of
Daniel Coray, Marta Menghini and Gert Schubring</font> on the occasion
of the ICMI Centennial meeting in Rome in March 2008 and is available
at</div>
<div><font
color="#000000">http://www.icmihistory.unito.it/</font></div>
<div>The ICMI Centennial meeting website is still available at</div>
<div><a
href="http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008/welcome.html"
>http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008/welcome.html</a></div>
<div>where pictures of the event can also be found.</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div>11. SUBSCRIBING TO ICMI News</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>There are two ways of subscribing to ICMI News:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1. Click on http://www.mathunion.org/ICMI/Mailinglist with a Web
browser</div>
<div>and go to the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to ICMI
News online.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>2. Send an e-mail to icmi-news-request@mathunion.org with the
Subject-line:</div>
<div>Subject: subscribe<br>
<br>
In both cases you will get an e-mail to confirm your subscription
so</div>
<div>that misuse will be minimized. ICMI will not use the list of ICMI
News</div>
<div>addresses for any purpose other than sending ICMI News, and will
not</div>
<div>make it available to others.<br>
<br>
Previous issues can be seen at:</div>
<div>http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news</div>
<div><br></div>
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