The Capacity & Networking Project aims to to help exchange information, share the state of the art research, and identify strategies for addressing barriers to enhance mathematics education and to conduct to building a sustainable network for policy makers, scholars and practitioners across those targeted regions.

CANP 5  was launched in February 2016 at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú with a two-week program launch workshop with forty participants, half from Peru and half from Bolivia, Paraguay and Ecuador. It was primarily aimed at mathematics teacher educators, but the program also included mathematicians, researchers, policy-makers, and secondary school teachers. The workshop had associated activities such as public lectures for mathematics teachers.

The follow-up meeting was held in April 2017 in Ecuador to ensure continuity and to discuss future developments and steps for the Network.

Details of the CANP 5 Two-Week Workshop (2016, Peru)

The 5th CANP of ICMI- CDC-IMU was held in Lima, Peru from 01 to 12 February, 2016, hosted by Pontifícia Universidad Católica del Perú – PUCP with the participation of four countries of South America: Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru.

The total number of participants was 105, composed by 52 participants (5 IPC, 8 LOC, 33 delegates, 6 invited lecturers) plus 53 Peruvian school teachers, who were invited for special 2-day program on 8 - 9 February.

Countries of the participants: Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, USA.

The workshop was supporte by CDC-IMU; ICMI; PUCP; CASIO-LA.

The coordination of the two-week workshop was undertaken by an international scientific committee (IPC), with equal participation by mathematicians and mathematics educators from the region and from the international ICMI and IMU community. The committee members are mathematics educators and mathematicians. The Program Coordinator and chair of the IPC was Yuriko Yamamoto Baldin (Brazil). 

The members of the IPC of the initiation workshop were:

• Michèle Artigue (France)
• Angel Ruiz, (Costa Rica)
• Luis Radford, (Canada/ Guatemala)
• Jose Miguel Contreras, (Spain)
• Salome Martinez, (Chile)
• Roger Metzger, (Peru)
• Christian Schaerer (Paraguay)

The program is supported by national liaisons as well as a local organizing committee (LOC). The  Local Program Chair was Uldarico Victor Malaspina Jurado from Peru.

The members of the Local Organizing Committee were:

• Rosa Cecilia Gaita Iparraguirre (Peru), 
• Rudy José Rosas Bazán (Peru), 
• Estela Aurora Vallejo Vargas (Peru)
• Jesús Victoria Flores Salazar (Peru), 
• Olimpia Rosa Castro Mora (Peru), 
• Sonia Ximena Nivia Cordero Cardenas (national liaison and LOC from of Bolivia), 
• Gabriela Gómez Pasquali (national liaison and LOC from Paraguay), 
• Margarita Helena Martínez Jara (national liaison and LOC from Ecuador), 

The Local Organizing Committee selected together with the Program Coordinator/ Manager the participants for the CANP first workshop programme. 

Summary of objectives: The CANP 5 has been organized according to the general objectives of Capacity and Network Project as established by ICMI aiming at the improvement of the quality of mathematics education in the region. In August 2015, during the pre-meeting with the representatives of participating countries and local organizing committee, it has been agreed and established the main focus of the activities to compose the scientific program of CANP5: the issue of “Initial and Continued Teacher Education” that would lead and permeate the discussions split in themes: stimulus to mathematical thinking; curriculum of mathematics in the education of all levels; assessment; relations among the mathematics, mathematics education, the sciences and the technology; the collaborative network among the participant countries in the region.

 The lectures/workshops delivered by international experts:

·       Ferdinando Arzarello (Italy, Universitá di Torino, ICMI President)- Opening Lecture “Cómo promover el pensamiento matemático en el aula”; Workshop “En la búsqueda del sentido de la prueba en el aula”.

·       Alan Schoenfeld (USA, University of Berkeley) – Video Conference “¿Cuáles son las propiedades de las aulas matemáticamente poderosas, y como podemos ayudar a los profesores a crearlas?”

·       Patrick Scott (USA, New Mexico State University, CIAEM Vice president), Lecture “Cinco prácticas para orquestar las discusiones productivas en Matemáticas”; Workshop “De los Princípios a la Acción: Actividades para desarrollar una comprensión conceptual para promover la fluidez con procedimientos”

·       Jose Miguel Contreras (Spain, Universidad de Granada, IPC CANP5)-Video Conference “Probabilidad para razonar lo cotidiano: la importancia de evaluar sesgos”

·       Vicenç Font (Spain, Universidad de Barcelona), Workshop (2 sessions) “Evaluación de la calidad de los procesos de Enseñanza y Aprendizaje de las Matemáticas”

·       Angel Ruiz (Costa Rica, Universidad de Costa Rica, ICMI Vice president, CIAEM President, IPC CANP 5), Lecture “Cómo diseñar e implementar una reforma de la educación matemática en un país en desarrollo y no morir en el intento: Lecciones desde Costa Rica”

·       Michèle Artigue (France, Université Paris-Diderot, IPC CANP5), Lecture ”La enseñanza de las funciones y del pensamiento functional en el siglo 21: reflexiones curriculares y didácticas”; Workshop with Technology “Las aportaciones de las tecnologías digitales a la enseñanza de la noción de función”

·       Luis Radford (Canada, Laurentian University, IPC CANP5), Lecture ”La enseñanza y aprendizaje del álgebra”; Workshop “La enseñanza-aprendizaje de las matemáticas desde una perspectiva histórico-cultural”

·       Masami Isoda (Japan, University of Tsukuba), Workshop (2 sesiones) “Pensamiento matemático: Cómo desarrollarlo en la sala de clases”

·       Cesar Lau (Peru, CASIO Latino America), Workshop with technology “Actividades educativas con calculadoras CASIO”.

On 2-day special program on  8- 9 February besides lectures and workshops designed to benefit the Peruvian school teachers , there were short oral presentations from the participants to share the scientific contributions: Margarita Martinez, Gabriela Gómez, Rudy Rosas and Maria del Carmen Bonilla.

The delegations have brought to the event the Country Reports on the main theme of teacher education system of each country to share and to detect common issues that might be worked through a collaborative network. The reports were based on a guiding script of CANP-ICMI with questions about the main theme of “Mathematics Teacher Education: initial and continuous”.

As concrete outcome of the CANP5, the following decisions have been made:

-        -The constitution of a network, the Comunidad de Educación Matemática de America del Sur - CEMAS, with website accessed through a link in the site of REDUMATE: //ciaem-redumate.org/ciaem/?q=en/principal, associated to IACME-CIAEM. 

-        Project of publishing the “Country reports”, as an academic publication by Cuadernos de Investigación y Formación en Educación Matemática (//revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/cifem).

-        Participation, as CEMAS, in II CEMACYC Colombia, 29 October – 01 November, 2017, possibly proposing a round table discussion about networking activities.

-        Preparation to participate in XV CIAEM in 2019, Colombia.

Follow up activities and future implications

The follow up activity was held in Ecuador in 2017,  organized by the delegation of Ecuador, under the coordination of Margarita Martinez.

As future implications, the decisions made to participate actively in the academic events of REDUMATE, CEMACYC, as well as in the international events of ICMI, such as ICME13, are very promising for the integration of the CEMAS in the ICMI activities.