[ICMI-News] ICMI News 12: October 2009
J Carvalho e Silva
jaimecs at mat.uc.pt
Sat Jan 2 04:20:28 CET 2010
ICMI News 12: October 2009
A Bimonthly Email Newsletter from the
ICMI-International Commission on Mathematical
Instruction
Editor: Jaime Carvalho e Silva, Dep. Matematica,
Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal
CONTENTS
1. Editorial: ICMI Reflected in Russian Mathematical education
2. International Congress of Mathematicians - 2010
3. New and recent NISS volumes
4. MILLENNIUM YOUTH CAMP - International science camp for the young people
5. Proceedings of the Symposium Celebrating the Centennial of the ICMI
6. New international journal
7. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community
8. ICMI encounters: Heinrich Bauersfeld by Paul Cobb
9. Subscribing to ICMI News
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Editorial: ICMI Reflected in Russian Mathematical education
Education is a relatively slow changing system,
experiments over it are costly and the results
are usually controversial. So, observations,
first-hand evaluations and open discussion of the
decisions and outcomes in other countries are the
way, effective and reliable enough, to make our
own decisions. In this way we can see (and
foresee) that there are many choices and not only
one being right. I believe that this more then
justifies the international cooperation in the
field of mathematical education and explains why
the International Commission on Mathematical
Instruction lives energetic and productive life
in its eleventh decade.
We had more evidence for this in Sankt Petersburg
this September. Besides a meeting of our EC there
we had an international seminar at the Euler
Institute where the issues of Russian national
math education at pre-university level were
discussed in the international perspective.
Over the last decade Russian education, and, even
more specifically, mathematical education is in
the process of radical transformations. The
transformations are induced by the authorities of
the country and generated from inside.
The mostly discussed change in general education
is the so called Single (or Unified) State
Examination. Before XXI century the math exam
(after 11-th grade) was organized as a set of 5
to 8 problems from simple to medium difficulty.
These problems were traditionally of pure
mathematical matter (solving equations,
calculating of geometrical values of a
configuration, etc.). At the same time entrance
examinations were conducted also by every
university with engineering or science programs.
So, high school graduates were obliged to pass
two exams, the second one was pretty tough at
some universities. One of the negative trends in
the examinations was the "narrowing" in the sense
that the examination problems were becoming more
and more specially designed 'exam-problems'. In
the Single State Examination this trend was
negatively combined with the exam structure: up
to 30 problems, most of which were
multiple-choice. The implementation was far from
perfect and suffered from corruption of different
kinds. The essential cause of it was the common
interest of all participants to produce better
examination marks. So, we started a
'counter-reform' of the Single Examination and
succeeded! The President of Russia established an
ad hoc commission (where different groups
participated). My position in the Commission was
supported by the Rector of Moscow State
University Prof. Sadovnichy. Eventually the
changes were supported by President Medvedev and
by the Ministry of Education and Science. Now,
the exam of 2010 will be broader its basic part
is understandable for everybody, it includes
applications, etc. And the international context
was important for us.
Another novelty in our country is the new Federal
Standard for primary school. We included more
visual discrete math, more counting,
manipulation, and mathematical games, more
connections and investigations. This is a result
of our more then 20 years work in hundreds of
schools in the country. I shared this vision in
the ICMI events and the reaction was productive
for us.
We believe that our experience can be valuable
for other educational communities and appreciate
any reaction and sharing experience from our
colleagues in other countries.
In this article I would like to thank all the
members of EC for activities so important for my
country, for the pleasure of human communication
and understanding, and also for the support of EC
and our President Michèle Artigue. This resulted
in the decision of UNESCO Director General Irina
Bokova to designate me as a laureate of the 2009
UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for
the Use of Information and Communication
Technologies in Education
(http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=46952&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html).
Alexei Semenov, Rector of Moscow Institute of
Open Education, Member-at-large, ICMI-EC,
alsemenov at umail.ru
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. International Congress of Mathematicians - 2010
India is to host the International Congress
(ICM-2010) of the IMU-International Mathematical
Union for the year 2010. The congress will take
place in the city of Hyderabad during August
19-27.
Mathematics is the language of science and India
is proud to have coined one of the most important
words of its lexicon - "zero" - in the distant
past; and we have a long tradition of pursuit of
mathematics. India joined the IMU soon after it
was revived after the second world war. The
Indian mathematical community feels greatly
honoured that the IMU has accepted our bid to
hold the ICM 2010 in India, thereby extending
recognition to our efforts at promoting
mathematics. We look forward to welcoming our
colleagues from all over the world in Hyderabad,
the venue of the Congress and expect to learn a
great deal that is new. The Congress will be of
great help to us to raise the level of public
awareness about mathematics in our country.
India has been a professional destination for
many mathematicians over the last 75 years and
more. Many British academics had come to India to
teach mathematics in our colleges during the
colonial period. W H Young, the British analyst
accepted a part-time chair, the Hardinge
Professorship of Pure Mathematics in Calcutta
University which he held from 1913 to 1917. Andre
Weil spent two years at an Indian university as a
professor during 1930 - 32.
R A Fisher spent several extended periods of time
at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata
(ISI), his first visit dating back to 1937. ISI
also hosted visits by Norber Wiener and A N
Kolmogorov. Many other distinguished
mathematicians, mainly probabilists from the
erstwhile Soviet block visited ISI during the
cold war years. In later years, after that
institution set up branches in Delhi and
Bangalore, also at the same time broadening its
areas of research, it has had a string of
visitors, many of them big names in mathematics.
The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
(TIFR), Mumbai, too had a regular stream of
visitors almost from its inception in 1945, many
of them spending extended periods of time in
Mumbai. Carl Ludwig Siegel and Laurent Schwartz
made several visits each of a duration of two
months and more during the fifties and sixties.
Armand Borel and David Mumford made several
visits to TIFR during the sixties and seventies
(and later). The visitors' list to TIFR includes
several Fields Medalists and other renowned
mathematicians. The International Colloquiua held
once in every four years by TIFR have been an
important forum for international exchange at the
highest level.
To mention a few more distinguished visitors who
spent extended periods of time in TIFR during the
fifties and sixties: H Rademacher, H Mass,
Eichler, J L Lions, K Yosida, B Malgrange, F
Bruhat, J P Kahane, M Deuring, G de Rham, K Ito,
G D Mostow, R Bott, R Langlands....... Many
others have come on shorter visits mainly to
participate in conferences: A Selberg, H Grauert,
R Thom, A Grothendieck, M F Atiyah, L Hormander,
J Milnor, I Pjatetskii-Shapiro, J P Serre, H
Furstenberg, G A Margulis, D Kazdan .....These
visits were of course of great help to us in
building mathematics in the country.
Hyderabad the venue of the Congress is home to
several IT companies and rivals Bangalore as an
IT hub in the country. The city is well
connected, with many airlines flying to and from
it. It was founded in the 15th century and is
steeped in history. It is also famous for its
cuisine. India of course has a lot to offer by
way of tourism catering to a wide range of
interests: wild life, scenic splendour,
historical monuments, art and music, great food
and sports as well.
On behalf of the Indian mathematical community I
would like to urge mathematicians from all over
the world to participate in ICM 2010 and help us
make it a great success.
For more information: http://www.icm2010.org.in/
M.S. Raghunathan, Chairman of the organizing committee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. New and recent NISS volumes
A NEW NISS VOLUME
I am pleased to inform you that the Study Volume
resulting from the 17th ICMI Study has just
appeared in the New ICMI Study Series (NISS)
published by Springer:
Celia Hoyles and Jean-Baptiste Lagrange (Eds.)
"Mathematics Education and Technology -
Rethinking the Terrain: The 17th ICMI Study."
New ICMI Study Series, Vol. 13
Springer, 2010, XIV, 494 p., 50 illus., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-4419-0145-3
Information about the book can be found on the
NISS webpage, inside Springer website:
http://www.springeronline.com/series/6351
RECENT NISS VOLUMES
You are reminded that the Study Volumes resulting
from the 15th and 16th ICMI Studies have appeared
by the end of 2008, also in the NISS series:
-- Ruhama Even and Deborah Loewenberg Ball (Eds.)
"The Professional Education and Development of
Teachers of Mathematics: The 15th ICMI Study."
New ICMI Study Series, Vol. 11
Springer, 2009, XII, 280 p., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-387-09600-1
-- Edward J. Barbeau and Peter J. Taylor (Eds.)
"Challenging Mathematics In and Beyond the Classroom: The 16th ICMI Study."
New ICMI Study Series, Vol. 12
Springer, 2009, XIII, 337 p., 5 illus., Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-387-09602-5
ICMI DISCOUNT --- ONLINE ORDERING OF THE NISS VOLUME
I USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO REMIND YOU THAT MEMBERS
OF THE ICMI COMMUNITY PURCHASING THE NISS BOOKS
FOR PERSONAL USE ARE ENTITLED TO A 60% DISCOUNT
ON THE HARDBOUND PRICE AND A 25% DISCOUNT ON THE
SOFTBOUND PRICE.
In order to obtain the society discount granted
to ICMI, the appropriate "SpringerToken" must be
entered during the online ordering process
through the Springer NISS website.
Please visit the ICMI website http://www.mathunion.org/ICMI/ under
Useful Links > NISS Volumes Discount
for instructions on how to obtain the ICMI discount.
Bernard R. Hodgson, Secretary-General of ICMI, bhodgson at mat.ulaval.ca
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. MILLENNIUM YOUTH CAMP - International science camp for the young people
MILLENNIUM YOUTH CAMP - International science
camp for the young people, HELSINKI, FINLAND
06-13.6.2010
The targets of the Camp are to network young
people from all over the world together and with
top Finnish scientists and Finnish business life
and to increase the awareness of the Millennium
Technology Prize.
The participants will be 30 young students, 16 to
19-year-old, keen on natural sciences,
mathematics and technology.
The participants will be selected and thus
invited on the grounds of their application.
Please, find the application form on the
websites. The Camp is free of charge, including
also travelling, accommodation and dining.
Themes of the camp
Environmental science and technology (climate
change, renewable natural resources, renewable
energy, water), information and communication
technology, and digitalization, applied
mathematics.
Organizers
National LUMA Centre, Technology Academy
Foundation, Ministry of Education and The Centre
for School Clubs, in cooperation with e.g.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, National
Board of Education, University of Helsinki,
Helsinki University of Technology, Finnish
Industry and many other organizations.
More information and the application form on the
webpage of Technology Academy Foundation:
http://www.technologyacademy.fi/millennium-youth-camp-fi.html
Juha Oikkonen, Juha.Oikkonen at helsinki.fi
------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Proceedings of the Symposium Celebrating the Centennial of the ICMI
ISTITVTO DELLA ENCICLOPEDIA ITALIANA
FONDATA DA GIOVANNI TRECCANI
The First Century of the International Commission
on Mathematical Instruction (1908-2008).
Reflecting and Shaping the World of Mathematics Education
Edited by
M. Menghini, F. Furinghetti, L. Giacardi, F. Arzarello
CONTENTS
Introduction
HYMAN BASS, Moments of the life of ICMI
JEREMY KILPATRICK, The development of mathematics
education as an academic field - Reaction by JEAN
LUC DORIER
DINA TIROSH and PESSIA TSAMIR, Intuition and
rigor in mathematics education - Reaction by ALDO
BRIGAGLIA
MOGENS NISS, Perspectives on the balance between
application & modelling and "pure" mathematics in
the teaching and learning of mathematics -
Reaction by TOSHI IKEDA
JO BOALER, The relationship between research and
practice in mathematics education: International
examples of good practice - Reaction by JOAO DA
PONTE
GERT SCHUBRING, The origins and early incarnations of ICMI
FULVIA FURINGHETTI, MARTA MENGHINI, FERDINANDO
ARZARELLO, LIVIA GIACARDI, ICMI Renaissance: The
emergence of new issues in mathematics education
BIENVENIDO NEBRES, Centres and peripheries in
mathematics education - Reaction by GELSA KNIJNIK
Panel on ICMI's challenges and future: MORTEN BLOMHØJ; MAMOKGETHI SETATI
MICHÈLE ARTIGUE, ICMI: One century at the
interface between mathematics and mathematics
education - Reflections and perspectives
BERNARD R. HODGSON, Some views on ICMI at the dawn of its second century
Short Talks (Coordinators Alan Bishop and Lee Peng Yee)
EILEEN F. DONOGHUE - The inception of ICMI: David
Eugene Smith and the founding of ICTM; ALAN
BISHOP - The past four decades: consolidation and
diversification; DEREK HOLTON - The process of
an ICMI Study: The teaching and learning of
mathematics at university level; FREDERICK K.S.
LEUNG - The significance of the ICMI Study on
mathematics education in East Asia and the West;
UBIRATAN D'AMBROSIO - ICMI and its influence in
Latin America; JILL ADLER - The development of
AFRICME; CLAUDI ALSINA - What is the impact of
hosting an ICME for the organizing country? - The
case of ICME8 in Spain; LIM-TEO SUAT KHOH - ICMI
Activities in East and Southeast Asia: Thirty
years of academic discourse and deliberations
Working Groups - Reports
BILL BARTON & FREDERIC GOURDEAU: Disciplinary
mathematics and school mathematics; DEBORAH BALL
& BARBRO GREVHOLM: The professional formation of
teachers; HILARY POVEY & ROBYN ZEEVENBERGEN:
Mathematics education and society; MARCELO BORBA
& MARIOLINA BARTOLINI BUSSI: Resources and
technology throughout the history of ICMI; GILAH
LEDER & LUIS RADFORD: Mathematics education: An
ICMI perspective.
ORDERING THE VOLUME
The proceedings of the Symposium held on the
occasion of the Centennial of ICMI in Rome, from
March 5th to March 8th, 2008, are now being
published.
The price of the volume comes to 60 Euros (about
90 USD) shipping fees included.
Participants of ICME's and of conferences of the
affiliated groups of ICMI, in the period 2004 -
2008, may enjoy a special 33 % reduction.
To receive the volume, we ask that you send in the following request:
# I would like to receive a copy of the volume:
#
# The First Century of the International
Commission on Mathematical Instruction
(1908-2008).
# Reflecting and Shaping the World of Mathematics Education
#
# * at the price of 40 Euros, shipping and
handling included; I was a participant of
#
ICME/PME/HPM...................................................in
the period 2004 - 2008
# * at the price of 60 Euros, shipping and handling included
#
# Please send the volume to the following address:
#
# I will be paying by:
# * Credit Card
# Amount to Charge: Type of Card: __
# Name on Card: __ Card Number: __
# Expiration Date: __ Signature:
# Bank transfer (please send a copy) to:
Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
# IBAN IT48 L010 0503 2060 0000 0007 699
The request may be sent to
By Mail: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
Ufficio Vendita Diretta
Piazza della Enciclopedia Italiana, 4
I - 00186 Roma (Italia)
By Email: venditadiretta at treccani.it
By fax: +39 06 68982294
For all other information, please use the above addresses.
The request form is also available at the Symposium's website:
http://www.unige.ch/math/EnsMath/Rome2008
------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. New international journal
We are pleased to announce the launch of the
first issue of the International Journal for
Studies in Mathematics Education.
The International Journal for Studies in
Mathematics Education (JIEEM) aims to stimulate
reflection on mathematics education at all
levels: to generate productive discussion; to
encourage enquiry and research; to promote
criticism and evaluation of ideas and procedures
current in the field.
It is intended for the mathematics educator who
is aware that the learning and teaching of
mathematics are complex enterprises about which
much remains to be revealed and understood.
It reflects both the variety of research concerns
within the field and the range of methods used to
study them. We accept for submission articles in
Portuguese, English, French and Spanish.
The journal emphasizes high-level articles that
go beyond local or national interest.
This journal is a semi-annual and peer-reviewed
professional academic research journal.
The first number is on line at
http://periodicos.uniban.br/index.php/JIEEM/index
Editors,
Janete Bolite Frant jfrant at uniban.br
Alessandro Ribeiro alessandro.ribeiro at uniban.br
------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community
The 15th International Seminar of Mathematics Education on
Talented Children and Creativity Development
Woosuk Univ., Samrye, Korea, February 19-20, 2010
http://society.kisti.re.kr/~ksmed/
foreign participants, contact Prof. Young H. Choe <ksme_ser_d at yahoo.co.kr>
Thirteenth Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
Marriott Raleigh City Center - Raleigh, North
Carolina, USA, February 25-28, 2010
http://rume.org/crume2010/
International Consortium for Research in Science
and Mathematics Education - 2010 Consultation
BlueBay Los Angeles Locos Hotel, La Manzanilla, Mexico, March 9-12, 2010
http://ehe.osu.edu/groups/icrsme/
Educational Interfaces between Mathematics and Industry (EIMI)
Lisboa, Portugal, April 19-23, 2010
http://eimi.mathdir.org/
ICOTS8: 8th International Conference on Teaching Statistics
Data and context in statistics education: towards an evidence-based society
Ljubljana, Slovenia, July 11-16, 2010
http://icots8.org
5th International Conference on Origami in Science, Mathematics and Education
Singapore Management University, Singapore, July 13-17, 2010
org: Eileen Tan (origamiwolf at gmail.com), Patsy
Wang-Iverson (pwangiverson at gmail.com)
ESU-6 - 6th EUROPEAN SUMMER UNIVERSITY ON THE
HISTORY AND EPISTEMOLOGY IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Vienna, Austria, July 19-23, 2010
http://www.algebra.tuwien.ac.at/kronfellner/esu6/
EARCOME5 - The Fifth East Asia Regional Conference on Mathematics Education
Tokyo, Japan, August 18-22, 2010
http://www.earcome5.jp/
YESS-5 - FIFTH YERME SUMMER SCHOOL
Palermo, Italy, August 18-25, 2010
http://math.unipa.it/~grim/YESS-5/Home_YESS-5.html
International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM)
Hyderabad, India, August 19-27, 2010
http://www.icm2010.org.in/
epiSTEME - 4: Fourth international conference to
review research on Science, TEchnology and
Mathematics Education
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (TIFR),
Mumbai, India, January 5-9, 2011
http://www.hbcse.tifr.res.in/episteme4
CERME 2011 - Conference of the European Society for Research in Mathematics
Rzeszow, Poland, February 9-13, 2011
ICTMT10 - 10th International Conference on Technology in Mathematics Teaching
University of Portsmouth, July 5-8, 2011
http://www.ictmt10.org/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. ICMI encounters: Heinrich Bauersfeld by Paul Cobb
Heinrich Bauersfeld
In 1986, I was invited to attend and make a
presentation at the Gordon Research Conference on
Cybernetics. The Conference was held at a small
college in New Hampshire during the summer when
the students were absent. All participants were
required to share a room and to eat together in a
common dinning room in order to foster sustained
dialogue. As a beginning researcher who had
completed his doctorate three years previously, I
was both surprised and intimidated to find that I
was assigned to share a room with Heinrich
Bauersfeld. I knew Bauersfeld by reputation as a
primary intellectual leader of mathematics
education as an emerging field of research. I
had also read several of his papers and had been
impressed by the depth of his thinking,
particularly the distinction he drew between the
intended curriculum, the implemented curriculum,
and the attained curriculum.
Heinrich exercised his considerable natural charm
to put my initial concerns to rest. In doing so,
he engaged me in discussions of a wide range of
topics that included baroque music and fourteenth
century European art as well as issues in
mathematics education. I was appreciative of his
generosity of spirit and fascinated by the scope
of his knowledge about a seemingly endless range
of issues. During these conversations, I first
learned about the analyses that Heinrich and his
colleagues Gotz Krummheuer and Jorg Voigt were
conducting of mathematics classrooms from a
strong social perspective. At that time,
mathematics education research in the US
typically drew almost exclusively on cognitive
and developmental psychology as a source of
theoretical ideas. Viewed against this
background, the work that Heinrich and his
associates were conducting was path breaking.
This encounter played an important role in my
development as a mathematics education
researcher. Shortly after the Conference,
Heinrich sent me one of his papers that had been
published in Educational Studies in Mathematics
in 1980 titled "Hidden Dimensions in the
So-called Reality of a Mathematics Classroom".
In this paper, he described and illustrated an
approach for analyzing classroom interaction
patterns in terms of the largely implicit
obligations that the teacher and students attempt
to fulfill in particular situations, and the
expectations that they have for each other's
activity. It was readily apparent this approach
had (and continues to have) considerable
explanatory power. As a consequence, my
colleagues Erna Yackel, Terry Wood, and I worked
to develop a social perspective on the classrooms
in which we were conducting teaching experiments
by building directly on the theoretical
constructs that Heinrich had developed.
The ongoing exchange between our two research
groups eventually led to a three-year
collaboration that was funded by the Spencer
Foundation. The explicit goal of this
collaboration was to formulate an approach for
integrating social and cognitive perspectives on
mathematical learning. To this end, we met for a
week approximately every nine months to try and
hammer out theoretical constructs. The
discussions during these meetings typically
continued for several hours and proved to be both
provocative and stimulating. We eventually
concluded that it was not possible to develop a
single, overarching set of constructs and instead
attempted to achieve the more modest goal of
developing a way of coordinating social and
cognitive perspectives on mathematical learning.
This collaboration resulted in a book that
Heinrich and I co-edited that was published in
1995 and was titled "Emergence of Mathematical
Meaning: Interaction in Classroom Cultures." The
collaboration was particularly valuable to my
colleagues and I as it gave us access to ideas of
symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology.
These ideas proved to be foundational in
orienting the studies we subsequently conducted.
Paul Cobb, paul.cobb at vanderbilt.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. SUBSCRIBING TO ICMI News
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