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<div><br></div>
<div>ICMI News 4: June 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: Celebrating ICMI's progress, voicing where and how
we need to grow</div>
<div>2. More news about the 11th ICME-International Congress on
Mathematical Education</div>
<div>3. ICME-11: Ibero-American Forum</div>
<div>4. Experiencing Mathematics at ICME-11</div>
<div>5. Citation Statistics - a document released by IMU</div>
<div>6. IOWME welcomes you!</div>
<div>7. Website on the History of ICMI</div>
<div>8. An "ICMI Reading Room" at Springer</div>
<div>9. Extended deadline for contributions to Study 19</div>
<div>10. New Journal in Maths Education - INDIA</div>
<div>11. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI
Community</div>
<div>12. Historical vignettes: The almost failure of founding
IMUK/ICMI</div>
<div>13. Subscribing to ICMI News</div>
<div><br>
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></span>---</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1. Editorial: Celebrating ICMI's progress, voicing where
and how we need to grow</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>ICMI News 2 appeared immediately prior to the ICMI Centennial
Symposium hosted by the Italian community of mathematicians and
mathematics educators in Rome in March. This fourth issue of the ICMI
Newsletter appears immediately prior to our Congress in Mexico -
ICME-11. By now, those who will be attending will be preparing their
presentations, and for their travel to and participation in the
Congress. We look forward to meeting and interacting with colleagues
in mathematics education across the world.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>We have noted in previous newsletters the significance of this
Congress for ICMI as an organisation. At the General Assembly on 6
July, we will be voting in a new Executive Committee who will
take office in 2010. This will be the first time in our history that
the President, Vice-Presidents, Secretary-General and Members-at-Large
of the Executive Committee will be voted in by the ICMI community.
Previously, this election occurred at the International Congress of
Mathematicians. This is an historic occasion, particularly considering
we have just celebrated our Centenary! And as we do this, we take note
at the numerous countries that are not yet part of the ICMI community.
Across Africa, for example, a small handful of countries are members.
While the current and past Executives have made much progress in
broadening ICMI's reach, there remains much for the current and new
Executives to do in extending ICMI's work.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>A quick journey through the ICME-11 website and the various
activities that will be in session during the Congress shows the
breadth and depth of mathematics education activity across the world.
Those who will attend will have opportunity to engage with
developments in mathematics education across topics, levels, interest
areas, research domains and national contexts. Amidst this explosion
of activity, we nevertheless need to attend to the challenges levelled
at ICMI in the closing session of the Centennial Symposium. The
majority of the world's children attend school in relatively poor
material conditions; thousands upon thousands do not have the
privilege of completing a primary school education. How does the
research we do speak to these conditions? A critical and perhaps
rhetorical question was asked whether indeed the work of the
organisation can and does impact globally, across the economic and
technological divide. More specifically, in what ways does the work we
do contribute to the Millennium goals of universal primary education
by 2015?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>These questions complement those posed by Vice President Bill
Barton in issue no. 2 of this Newsletter. He focused importantly on
communication, on understanding and working with diversity, on
learning to listen and hear each other in our similarities and
differences. As we approach ICME-11, and celebrate our historic coming
of age, it is important to ensure that we take up the challenge posed
at the Centennial: that we steer our work to increasing access to
mathematics education for all. A number of sessions in the Congress,
including Plenary sessions, have this challenge in focus. I look
forward to discussion during and after the Congress, through our
various channels of communication. In particular, we should mark this
place, and ask in 2012: what is our progress?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I look forward to seeing you in Monterrey.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Jill Adler, Vice-President, ICMI, jill.adler@wits.ac.za</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>2. More news about the 11th ICME-International Congress on
Mathematical Education</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The program of ICME-11 is full of interesting activities. So full
in fact that we cannot report it here in any way. So I am just going
to pick up a few of the activities just to show how diverse ICME-11 is
(the Ibero-american Forum and the exhibition "Experiencing
Mathematics" are mentioned further below).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The program includes approximately 60 regular lectures, running
in five time slots in the congress timetable, each with around 12
simultaneous lectures. This is going to force evryone to make tough
choices! Just a glimpse of the choices available:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>* A course: "Mathematics and Technology" for preservice
secondary school teachers, Christiane Rousseau (Canada)</div>
<div>* Ethnomathematics at the Margin of Europe. A Pagan Calendar in
Modern Times, Kristín Bjarnadóttir (Iceland)</div>
<div>* For a Comparative History of Mathematics Education, Wagner
Rodrigues Valente (Brazil)</div>
<div>* The Challenges for School Mathematics in Japan, Shizumi Shimizu
(Japan)</div>
<div>* Mathematical terminology in teaching and learning mathematics
in African languages, Mercy Kazima (Malawi)</div>
<div>* The Loss of Intuition, Eduardo Mancera Martínez
(Mexico)</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I hope you see the point: lots of diverse and interesting
stuff.</div>
<div>Several Survey Teams will report their activity, like the one on
"Mathematics education in multicultural and multilingual
environments" that will be exactly the theme of a future ICMI
Study.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>There will be more than 50 workshops (a lot of them will be given
in Spanish) about hot topics like "Uniting the World by Teaching
with Technology", "Discrete Mathematics for Pre-Secondary
Teachers", or "Mathematics from ages 0 to 18: a
collaborative teacher training methodology joining teachers of all
levels of education".</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>There are also more than 50 Sharing Experiences Groups, small
groups of participants designed to exchange and discuss experiences in
a well-defined theme of common interest. Topics offered include a
discussion about the personal Archives of Ubiratan D'Ambrosio or
"The Interactive Whiteboard in the Mathematics
Classroom".</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>If to all this you add 38 Topic Study Groups and 28 Discussion
Groups, you easily see that this program is overpacked with
interesting sessions.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>See you in Monterrey.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Editor</div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>3. ICME-11: Ibero-american Forum</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Perspectives on development through collaboration<br>
</div>
<div>Concurrent with other ICME-11 activities, meetings will organized
that will address the issue of Ibero-American development and
collaboration. In spite of their differences, Ibero-America countries
share cultural roots, ethnic diversity, and a sense of identity. A
forum where participants will explore the possibilities, advantages
and perils of development through collaboration, not only within
Ibero-America, but also with other regions, will be provided.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The activities of the Ibero-American Forum are the
following:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>1.- Round Table "Meeting of Mathematical Associations
in Ibero-America" there will be representation of
Colombia, Brazil, Perú, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Guatemala, Dominican
Republic and Venezuela</div>
<div>2.- Panel "Research on Mathematical Education" with the
participation of colleagues from Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain,
Venezuela and Chile<br>
3.- Round Table "Teacher Training" with participation from
Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Spain and Portugal<br>
4.- Panel "Development of Mathematics in higher level and
research" with participation of colleagues from Chile, Colombia
and Mexico.<br>
5.- Round Table "Mathematical Training for the Citizen"
participations from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Portugal.<br>
</div>
<div>The Ibero-American Forum is scheduled on Tuesday (17:30-19),
Friday and Saturday (17:30-19:30).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>4. Experiencing Mathematics at ICME-11</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Experiencing Mathematics at ICME11 - ¿Por qué las
matemáticas?</div>
<div><br>
An International Exhibition initiated and supported by UNESCO</div>
<div>and created by Centre.Sciences, CCSTi region
Centre-Orléans</div>
<div>with the Tokay University (Tokio) and the Ateneo University de
Manila (Philippines)<br>
</div>
<div>From ICME-10 in Copenhagen to ICME-11 in Monterrey, more than 800
000 young people, their teachers and parents have visited this very
interactive exhibition.</div>
<div>"Experiencing Mathematics" has been present in more than 50
cities from 20 countries, in Southern Africa, Middle East, South-East
Asia, Europe, now, in Latin America, Asia (India, Pakistan,
Philippines), PortugalŠ and soon Sub-Saharan Africa, North America,
Turkey and Brazil.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>This interactive exhibition is intended to show to all visitors
that mathematics is:</div>
<div>- astonishing, interesting and useful,</div>
<div>- accessible, for the first steps, to everyone,</div>
<div>- plays a large part in our daily life,</div>
<div>- has an important role in our culture, sustainable development
and progress.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Which are the exhibition themes? Mathematics is central to our
daily life but how many people, how many teachers realize each time
they use a telephone or a credit card, listen to a compact disk, drive
a car or board a plane, that mathematics is present? Similarly, when
they buy a car or a house with credit, check the weather report or
admire a work of art?</div>
<div>Experiencing mathematics shows not only that mathematics is
indispensable to daily life but can also be fun. In this exhibition
you take pleasure to manipulate, to ask questions and try to find
answers. In this exhibition, it's forbidden to "don't
touch"!.</div>
<div><i><br></i></div>
<div>3 months ago, a virtual exhibition based on this interactive
hands-on exhibition was proposed to teachers, especially for secondary
teachers of southern countries. You can see it on the ICME-11
exhibition place or on</div>
<div>http://www.ExperiencingMaths.org</div>
<div>It was created by Centre.Sciences, initiated and supported, too,
by Unesco basic Science education program.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>It will be present in Monterrey in the ICME-11 exhibition
place:</div>
<div>http://www.gamalog.com.mx/preregistro/icme11exp/plano.jpg</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Its itinerancy is supported by IMU, ICMI, CIMPA, local ministries
of Science and Education and French Embassies.</div>
<div>To know more: http://www.MathEx.org</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Michel Darche, mldarche@free.fr</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----<br>
</div>
<div>5. Citation Statistics - a document released by IMU</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The IMU has just released an important document, called</div>
<div>"Citation Statistics", which we want to bring to your
attention.<br>
</div>
<div>IMU announced in July 2007 the creation of a committee on</div>
<div>"Quantitative assessment of research" that was asked to
investigate<br>
various aspects of impact factors and similar statistics based on<br>
citations. The committee was appointed jointly by the Executive<br>
Committees of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the<br>
International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics
(ICIAM),<br>
and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS). It consisted
of:<br>
<br>
- John Ewing (Providence, USA), chair, appointed by IMU<br>
- Robert Adler (Haifa, Israel), appointed by IMS<br>
- Peter Taylor (Melbourne, Australia), appointed by ICIAM.<br>
<br>
The terms of reference given to the committee can be found at:<br>
http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/2007/Charge-ComOnQuantAssessmRe<span
></span>s070521.pdf<br>
<br>
The committee has addressed this charge by reviewing and
discussing<br>
current practices along with an extensive literature on the use of<br>
citations to evaluate research. Its report, written from the
perspective<br>
of mathematical scientists, was submitted to the Executive
Committees<br>
of IMU, ICIAM, and IMS, and all three endorsed the report. The
three</div>
<div>organizations are making the report "Citation Statistics"
public now.</div>
<div><br>
The report can be found at the following URL:<br>
http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/Report/CitationStatistics<br>
</div>
<div>A press release that was mailed out to journalists is at:</div>
<div>
http://www.mathunion.org/Publications/PressRelease/2008-06-11/Citatio<span
></span>nStatistics<br>
<br>
This effort was triggered by numerous requests from IMU member
countries,<br>
mathematical societies, important mathematical institutions, and<br>
individuals who reported the increasing use (and misuse) of
impact</div>
<div>factors and similarly of other citation-based indicators to
measure the<br>
quality of research of individuals, departments, or whole
institutions.<br>
</div>
<div>IMU suggests that everybody not only read the report</div>
<div>but also distribute it to administrators and decision-makers who
are<br>
involved in the assessment of research quality, in order to give
them<br>
a mathematical science perspective. IMU, ICIAM and IMS have agreed
that,<br>
in order to assure as wide distribution as possible, journals,
newsletters<br>
and similar publications that are interested in publishing this
report<br>
will have the non-exclusive right to publish it in one of their
issues.<br>
Please contact the newsletters/journals you are connected with and<br>
suggest publication of the report "Citation Statistics".<br>
<br>
All 3 organizations, representing the world community of pure,<br>
applied, and industrial mathematics and statistics, hope that the<br>
careful analysis and recommendations in this report will be<br>
considered by decision-makers who are making use of citation</div>
<div>data in research assessment.<br>
</div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>6. IOWME welcomes you!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION OF WOMEN AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION<br>
An affiliated study group of the International Commission on
Mathematical Instruction<br>
<br>
The International Organisation of Women and Mathematics Education
(IOWME) provides an international focus for activity related to
gender, education and mathematics. During the two decades of
IOWME activity, the attainment profile for girls in mathematics has
changed significantly in a number of countries but issues remain:
young women opting out of mathematics; who identifies with mathematics
and how; the ways that mathematics classrooms permit and perpetuate
unhelpful stereotypes; and many more.<br>
Our main channel of communication is our website, which is maintained
by Sheffield Hallam University, England. Our newsletter is
published there three times a year and is key in maintaining the IOWME
community. The newsletters contain a lively mix of the serious
and the not-so-serious with full length academic articles, book
reviews, news items from around the world, reports of past and future
study group activities, items from ICMI, information about the work of
study group members, ideas for teaching, commentary on gender issues
in the news, quotations, jokes and cartoons. The newsletters can
be viewed at our new website at<u>
http://extra.shu.ac.uk/iowme</u></div>
<div>The ICMI Centenary has also involved us. Members
participated in the Centennial celebrations in Rome in 2008 and we
were also asked to participate in writing a history of IOWME.
Using a storying methodology and drawing extensively on writings from
members, it is a useful addition to the IOWME archive.</div>
<div>We will be participating in ICME-11 in Mexico and hope to
contribute towards making the eleventh Congress a rewarding and
energising experience.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>International Convenor</div>
<div>Hilary Povey<br>
Mathematics Education Centre<br>
Sheffield Hallam University<br>
England</div>
<div><u>h.povey@shu.ac.uk<br>
</u>Newsletter Editor<br>
Heather Mendick<br>
Institute for Policy Studies in Education<br>
London Metropolitan University<br>
England</div>
<div><u>h.mendick@londonmet.ac.uk</u><br>
</div>
<div>Hilary Povey, International Convenor, IOWME,<u>
h.povey@shu.ac.uk</u></div>
<div><br></div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>7. Website on the History of ICMI</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>To celebrate the first hundred years of the ICMI a Symposium was
held in Rome (March, 5-8 2008). Most events of the Symposium took
place in the same place where the foundation of the Commission
happened, namely the magnificent rooms of the Accademia dei Lincei,
one of the oldest Academies in the world. Among the activities
planned for the Symposium there is the<i> website on the history of
the ICMI</i>, under the direction of Fulvia Furinghetti and Livia
Giacardi (http://www.icmihistory.unito.it/, accessible also from the
permanent web page of the Symposium
http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/).</div>
<div>The aim of the website is to offer to the members of the
community of mathematics educators elements that allow to delineate
the full history of ICMI and some important features of this
Commission. The moments in the history of the ICMI are listed in the
"<i>Timeline</i>", together with the references to the sources of
information. Direct access to historical documents and people is
provided in the section devoted to "<i>Documents</i>". In the
section "<i>Interviews and film clips</i>" opinions and memories
of important chief characters in the life of ICMI are
videotaped.</div>
<div>The "<i>Portrait gallery</i>" contains the biographic cameos
of the ICMI officers and of the honorary members who have passed away
in the first hundred years. Some officers were professional
mathematicians members ex-officio of the ICMI Executive Committee,
others were researchers in pure mathematics with a strong interest in
mathematics education evidenced by their activity in school milieu and
by specific publications concerning aspects of mathematical
instruction. When possible the authors of the cameos were chosen in
the countries of the officer treated in the cameo; this allowed to
involve colleagues of different countries and to share with them the
spirit of our enterprise.<br>
The historical flavor is pervading also the sections of the recent
past, the present and the future of the ICMI, namely "<i>The
Affiliated Study Groups</i>" and "<i>The International Congresses
on Mathematical Education</i>".<br>
We hope that our (Fulvia's and Livia's) work about the website of the
history of ICMI is something more than a historical account, namely it
is a way of strengthening the identity of ICMI community and an
inspiration for the ICMI's future action.<br>
</div>
<div>Fulvia Furinghetti, furinghetti@dima.unige.it</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>8. An "ICMI Reading Room" at Springer</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>In order to participate to the celebration of the 2005 and 2007
ICMI Awards to be presented at the opening ceremony of ICME-11, on
July 7, 2008, in Monterrey, México, Springer is pleased to announce
the launching of the</div>
<div align="center">Springer "ICMI Reading Room"</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Up to December 31, 2008, members of the international community
of mathematics educators will have open access, via SpringerLink.com,
to selected works published in Springer journals of the four most
recent ICMI medallists (Paul Cobb, Ubiratan D'Ambrosio, Jeremy
Kilpatrick and Anna Sfard).</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>This material, which represents important milestones in the
recent development of the field of mathematics education, can be
freely downloaded by accessing the url</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
align="center"
>http://www.springer.com/education/mathematics+education/icmi+reading<span
></span>+room+welcome</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Information about the ICMI Awards can be obtained by
visiting</div>
<div><br></div>
<div align="center">http://www.mathunion.org/ICMI/Awards/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI,
bhodgson@mat.ulaval.ca</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>9. Extended deadline for contributions to Study 19</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Due to numerous requests for an extension, the International
Programme Committee (IPC) of ICMI Study 19 on "Proof and Proving
in Mathematics Education" has agreed to move the deadline for
submission of papers from June 30, 2008 to August 31, 2008. The
following are the new dates:</div>
<div> <br>
Submission deadline:
Sunday, August 31, 2008<br>
Notification of
acceptance: Saturday, November 15, 2008<br>
<br>
The IPC would like to thank all those who have already submitted their
papers. We also urge others to submit their papers at their earliest
convenience, well ahead of the new deadline of August 31.<br>
<br>
For more details, please see:</div>
<div><a
href="http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/ocs-2.0.0-1/index.php/icmi/8"><u
>http://www.icmi19.com</u></a></div>
<div><br></div>
<div
>--------------------------------------------------------------------<span
></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>10. New Journal in Maths Education - INDIA</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>We are very pleased to announce the launching of our new
journal<i> Sutra - The International Journal of Mathematics
Education</i>, an official journal of the Technomathematics Research
Foundation. We would like to invite you to submit manuscripts of your
original articles, for possible publication in Sutra, which is a
strictly peer-reviewed publication. All article submissions should be
made electronically to <a href="mailto:director@tmrfindia.org">TMRF
Office</a> [director@tmrfindia.org]. First issue will be published
online in August 2008.<br>
</div>
<div>Sutra is devoted to the interests of students and teachers
of mathematics and mathematics education at various levels --
undergraduate through adult.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The editors encourage the submission of a variety of manuscripts:
expository research articles, including experiments, case studies,
surveys, philosophical studies, and historical studies; articles about
research, including literature reviews; classroom notes; critiques of
articles and books; and brief commentaries on issues pertaining to
mathematics research and teaching. For complete details, please read
the <a href="http://www.tmrfindia.org/sutra/submit.html">submission
guidelines</a> and <a
href="http://www.tmrfindia.org/sutra/aim.html">aims & scope</a> of
the journal. We also welcome <a
href="http://www.tmrfindia.org/sutra/specialissue.html">special issue
proposals</a> on various themes on mathematics and its
applications. [http://www.tmrfindia.org/sutra/submit.html]</div>
<div><br>
The journal is published twice a year.<br>
<br>
Review procedure: All manuscripts are subject to anonymous peer review
by knowledgeable scholars and, if accepted, may be subject to
revision. Materials submitted to Sutra should not be under
consideration by other publishers, nor should they be previously
published in any form. We shall be glad to receive
your contributions at your earliest convenience.<br>
<br>
Please publicize this new journal amongst your colleagues for possible
contribution. Thanks!<br>
</div>
<div>Sutra - The International Journal of Mathematics Education,
T.M.R.F., Kolhapur 416001, INDIA<br>
</div>
<div>URL: http://www.tmrfindia.org/sutra.html</div>
<div><br></div>
<div
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></span>----</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>11. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community</div>
<div><br>
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>Towards Digital Mathematics Library (DML 2008)</div>
<div>Birmingham, UK, July 27, 2008</div>
<div>http://www.fi.muni.cz/~sojka/dml-2008.xhtml</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>41st Korean National Meeting of Mathematics Education</div>
<div>Donguei National University, Korea, October 31 - November 1,
2008</div>
<div><a
href="mailto:yhchoe1940@yahoo.co.kr">yhchoe1940@yahoo.co.kr</a></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>3rd international conference to review research on Science,
TEchnology and Mathematics Education</div>
<div>Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (TIFR), Mumbai, India,
January 5-9, 2009</div>
<div>http://web.gnowledge.org/episteme3/</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">alan@rogerson.pol.pl</a></div>
<div><br></div>
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<div><br></div>
<div>12. Historical vignettes: The almost failure of founding
IMUK/ICMI</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>As is well known, the ICMI was founded in 1908 following a
proposal published in 1905 by David Eugene Smith and reiterated in the
pedagogical section of the International Congress of Mathematicians
(ICM) at Rome. The intense, active role Germany played in achieving
the aims of ICMI is also familiar. Surprisingly, however, the founding
almost failed owing to the machinations of a German participant,
himself committed to mathematics education.</div>
<div>The imminent failure of Smith's proposal is clear from Eileen
Donoghue's (1987) study. According to Smith's papers, in the fourth
section of the ICM, on 9 April, while the German astronomer Archenhold
was presiding, Smith presented his paper and proposed establishing the
international committee. Archenhold favoured the proposal and took the
vote, which passed.</div>
<div>Nevertheless, Smith thought it necessary to have the proposal
reconfirmed at the last meeting of the fourth section, on 11 April.
Then, however, the presider was the German mathematics teacher and
educator Max Simon. Simon, as Donoghue reports, "was one of the few
who voiced an objection to Smith's proposal" (Donoghue 1987, 267).
She observes, "While Smith and his supporters were in the lobby
discussing maneuvers, Simon adjourned the meeting."</div>
<div>Because it was the last meeting of the section, Smith's proposal
would have been postponed until the next Congress, 4 years later!
Donoghue (1987) reports how Smith prevented the premature death of his
idea by trickily dealing with standing orders: "Since Italy was the
official host country for the Congress, Smith urged Professors
Castelnuovo and Enriques to exercise their procedural right and
reconvene the meeting" (ibid., 268), which Enriques and others
managed to achieve. Only then was the motion voted on and transmitted
to the General Assembly for its approval. It was adopted in the
closing session that same afternoon.</div>
<div>A second source for the near failure of Smith's proposal is a
report by Walther Lietzmann, who shortly thereafter became Klein's
assistant in handling ICMI matters. Lietzmann reported on an incident
at the 9 April session where Smith gave his talk. August Gutzmer, one
of the key German promoters, together with Klein, of the reform of
mathematics teaching, reported on the movement. In the discussion
following Gutzmer's talk, Max Simon criticized those reforms.
Presiding at the last session, Simon used his position to defeat
Smith's proposal. Lietzmann quotes Simon on the reform proposals:
"The good is not new; and the new is not good!" (Lietzmann 1960, 44;
my transl., G.S.).</div>
<div>The conflict between Klein and the modernizers, on the one hand,
and the defenders, like Simon, of traditional approaches, on the other
hand, has been seen as a rivalry between two competing scientific
schools in German mathematics education (Burscheid 1984). Simon was a
mathematics teacher at a gymnasium whose main interest was in
geometry, where he advocated classical Euclidean methods.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Gert Schubring, gert.schubring@uni-bielefeld.de</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Note from the editor: Some references:</div>
<div>* EILEEN F. DONOGHUE 1987, The origins of a professional
mathematics education program at Teachers College, Ed.D. Thesis,
Columbia University New York, Teachers College</div>
<div>* REFORMES A ACCOMPLIR; DANS L'ENSEIGNEMENT DES MATHÉMATIQUES
(Suite), Chapitre: Opinion de M. Dav.-Eug. Smith Professeur au
Teachers College, Columbia University, New-York., L'Enseignement
Mathématique / Volume 7 (1905), p. 469-471.</div>
<div>All the numbers of the journal "L'Enseignement
Mathématique" are available on the web at the address</div>
<div>http://retro.seals.ch/digbib/fr/vollist?UID=ensmat-001</div>
<div><br></div>
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<div><br></div>
<div>13. 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.</div>
<div><br>
Previous issues can be seen at:</div>
<div>http://www.mathunion.org/pipermail/icmi-news</div>
<div><br></div>
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