The ICMI Emma Castelnuovo Award for Excellence in the Practice of Mathematics Education
The Emma Castelnuovo Award was established to recognize outstanding achievements in the practice of mathematics education and to reflect a main aspect of the ICMI ‘essence’ . The award was named after Emma Castelnuovo, an Italian mathematics educator born in 1913, in celebration of her 100th birthday and in honor of her pioneering work.
The Emma Castelnuovo Award for outstanding achievements in the practice of mathematics education will honor persons, groups or projects engaged in the development and implementation of exceptionally excellent and influential work in the practice of mathematics education related to classroom teaching, curriculum development, instructional design (of materials or pedagogical models), teacher education programmes and/or field projects with a demonstrated influence on schools, districts, regions or countries. The Emma Castelnuovo Award seeks to recognize and to encourage efforts, ideas and their successful implementation in the field, as well as to showcase models and exemplars of inspirational practices to learn from.
Nominees for the award will be evaluated in light of the following criteria:
Nominations for the Emma Castelnuovo Award should be made by the nominator on the nomination form (found below) and include the following attachments:
The nomination should be send to the Chair of Emma Castelnuovo Award Committee via email. The email will be published here shortly.
Emma Castelnuovo (12 December 1913 – 13 April 2014) was an Italian mathematician, daughter and niece of two famous Italian mathematicians, Guido Castelnuovo and Federigo Enriques, respectively. She graduated from the University of Rome in 1936 with a thesis on algebraic geometry. In 1938, when Italy passed new laws preventing Jews from holding state positions, she was fired from Rome University. After the Second World War ended, she decided to become a secondary school teacher until her retirement in 1979. In parallel, she committed herself to research and development of learning materials in mathematics education, which inspired many students, teachers and fellow educators. She was deeply influenced by her father and uncle and also by educators and psychologists such as Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget. Her pedagogical vision was based on encouraging young children and students to use observation, visualization, fantasy and imagination before any formalization. She encouraged students to use concrete objects, to experiment, to puzzle over unexpected outcomes and eventually to arrive at previously unknown results, without being told. She also stimulated looking at daily life phenomena through mathematical eyes. She published in the first volume of Educational Studies in Mathematics and presented at the first ICME in Lyon (1969) and at the third ICME in Karlsruhe (1976). Her international collaborations included the French network IREM, UNESCO, teaching school children in Niger, her involvement with many ICMI activities and she deeply influenced mathematics education in Italy and Spain.
In honor of her contributions and impact, ICMI decided to name the Award for Excellence in the Practice of Mathematics Education in her name on the occasion of her 100th birthday in 2013.