Aims

Applications and modelling has been an important theme in mathematics education during the last 40 years. In particular, firstly the ICMEs with their regular working or topic groups and lectures on applications and modelling, and secondly the series of ICTMAs which have been held biennially since 1983. Their Proceedings and Survey Lectures indicate the state-of-the-art at the relevant time and contain many examples, studies, conceptual contributions and resources addressing the relation between the real world and mathematics. Further, in the current OECD Study PISA, relations between the real world and mathematics are also particularly topical. This Topics Study Group on “Mathematical applications and Modelling in the teaching and learning of mathematics” takes into account the above-mentioned reasons for the importance of relations between mathematics and the real world as well as the contemporary state of the educational debate, of research and development in this field. All the participants will have an opportunity to reflect on and discuss issues and themes concerned with goals and curriculum, teaching material and technology use, experimental research, pedagogy of modeling, assessment and obstacles and teacher education.

Guidelines for submission

We invite the mathematics education community to submit proposals addressing the themes listed below and other related issues.
1. Goals and Curriculum

• What is the actual role of applications and modelling in curricula in different countries?
• Is it possible? or desirable? to identify a core curriculum in applications and modeling within the general mathematical curriculum?
• Which applications, models and modelling processes should be included in the curriculum? Does the answer depend on each teacher or should there be some minimal indications in national and state curricula?
• When applications and modelling are included at different places in mathematics curricula, how can it be guaranteed that basic modeling skills and competencies are acquired systematically and coherently?
• What is the appropriate balance between modeling and pure mathematics in mathematics curriculum?

• What authentic applications and modeling materials are available worldwide?
• Taking account of teaching objectives and students´ personal situations (e.g., experience, competence), how can teachers set up authentic applications and modeling tasks?
• In which cases is technology crucial in modeling in the classroom?
• How is the culture of the classroom influenced by the presence of technological devices?

• How does the authenticity of problems and materials effect students’ ability to transfer acquired knowledge and competencies to other contexts and situations?
• What are the characteristic differences between expert modelers and novice modelers? What are characteristic features of the activity of students who have little experience of modeling?
• What are common features, and what are differences between students’ individual ability and ability to work on applications and modeling in groups?

• How does the pedagogy of applications and modeling intersect with the pedagogy of pure mathematics?
• What are appropriate pedagogical principles and strategies for the development of applications and modeling courses and their teaching? Are there different principles and strategies for different educational levels?
• What are the areas of greatest need in supporting the design and implementation of courses with an applications and modeling focus?

• What are the possibilities or obstacles when assessing mathematical modeling as a process (instead of a product)?
• When mathematical modeling is introduced into traditional courses at school or university, how should assessment procedures be adapted?
• When centralized testing of students is implemented, how do we ensure that mathematical modeling is assessed validly?

• What obstacles/enablers appear to inhibit/facilitate changes in classroom culture (e.g., the introduction of group work in applications and modeling)?
• What are the major impediments and obstacles that have existed to prevent the introduction of applications and mathematical modeling, and how can these be changed?
• In teacher education, what techniques can be used to assess a future teacher’s ability to teach and assess mathematical modeling?

Deadlines
November 30, 2011 Proposal submission
The proposal should be in English and around 8 pages (Times New Roman, 12 point, single spaced including Title, Name(s) and email(s) of the authors, institutions(s), country, abstract, main text, and references all in APA style) and should be sent for peer review both via email to both co-chairs and through the on-line submission system at the Congress Website. Submitted proposals will be acknowledged. TSG17 will develop a program based on the proposals received.
January 15, 2012 Notification of acceptance

On-line submission
Go to<My Page> at the first page of the Congress Homepagehttp://icme12.org or press <Submit your proposal> button on TSG 17 website in the Congress Homepage.

Organizers
Co-chairs : Jill Brown(Australia) jill.brown@acu.edu.au
                 Toshikazu Ikeda(Japan) ikeda@ed.ynu.ac.jp
Team Members : Sungsook Kim(Korea) sskim@pcu.ac.kr 
                          Nicholas Mousoulides(Cyprus) n.mousoulides@ucy.ac.cy 
                          Jussara de Loiola Araújo(Brazil) jussara.loiola@gmail.com, jussara@mat.ufmg.br 
Liaison IPC Member : Morten Blomhoej blomhoej@ruc.dk