[ICMI-News] ICMI News 5: August 2008
Jaime Carvalho e Silva
jaimecs at mat.uc.pt
Mon Sep 1 23:37:13 CEST 2008
ICMI News 5: August 2008
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: Yes, it was worth it!
2. Impressions of ICME-11 (1)
3. Impressions of ICME-11 (2)
4. Impressions of ICME-11 (3)
5. New Executive Committee of ICMI for 2010-2012
6. The Proceedings of ICME-10 have now been published
7. WFMC welcomes you!
8. PUBLIMATH - Bibliographical database on mathematics education
9. The 1000th subscriber to ICMI News
10. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community
11. Historical vignettes: The unexpected fate of a mathematics curriculum
12. Subscribing to ICMI News
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1. Editorial: Yes, it was worth it!
A Congress like ICME-11 takes at least four years
to organize; the budget you need to get is huge,
you need to coordinate more than 500 organizers
and collaborators, you need to balance a program
with more than 500 sessions (and you are not sure
all sessions are worth it), the bureaucratic
problems involved are sometimes frightening. In
brief: you are sure to get hundreds of
headaches. Some people say that to organize such
a huge congress is not worth it. I say it is
worth it, and ICME-11 was worth it. We had very
good 9 plenary activities of a quite diverse
nature, 7 survey teams presenting interesting new
perspectives on very different topics, we had
around 50 regular lectures on a huge array of
themes, there were more than 60 groups to present
and discuss ideas and projects. The International
Program Committee carefully choose proposals that
offered interesting choices, and the quality of
most of the speakers was obvious. Only in a big
congress like this you have the opportunity to
listen to talks and participate in workshops in
such a big number of different themes, with
people from very different parts of the world
speaking about different aspects of research,
personal or national experiences or projects. The
diversity of offerings is a big plus.
But the most important aspect was the impact on
Latin America. When an ICME congress is organized
somewhere you are sure that the people in the
region will benefit most and this was no
exception. We had 392 participants from Latin
American countries when in ICME-10 they were only
72. Even if you subtract the Mexican participants
(164) you still get more participants in ICME-11
from Latin American countries (228) than in
ICME-10. We had participants from 16 different
countries in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama,
Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela. We need
surely to find ways to get even more countries
involved, but this was a good number.
If you add to this the fact that there was also
an Ibero American Program in Spanish inside
ICME-11, you see that this kind of offering and
opportunity is unique. Of course it can be
improved. The problem of the language is still
not at all solved. It is true that English is the
language for international contacts, but a lot of
people do not feel comfortable enough to discuss
educational topics in English. In a presentation
you can always have your slides in English but in
a discussion things are more difficult. This must
be discussed carefully. A nice example connected
to this issue was the final presentation by
Bernard Hodgson where he mixed written slides and
oral presentation in several different languages.
As a final remark I want to present you the list
of the countries with 20 or more registrations.
This is an interesting list because it shows the
enormous diversity of the countries of origin of
most of the participants:
Argentina: 31, Australia: 75, Brazil: 126,
Canada: 68, China: 154, Denmark: 35, France: 53,
Germany: 44, Israel: 22, Italy: 41, Japan: 73,
Mexico: 164, New Zealand: 27, Norway: 20,
Portugal: 51, Singapore: 27, South Africa: 36,
South Korea: 39, Spain: 45, Sweden: 64, United
Kingdom: 92, United States: 412
I have great expectations for ICME-12. I hope we will all meet there.
Jaime Carvalho e Silva, Member-at-large EC ICMI, jaimecs at mat.uc.pt
PS - We have reached 1000 subscribers of our
email newsletter. Please keep spreading
information about our newsletter so that we reach
as many people as possible.
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2. Impressions of ICME-11 (1)
There are two people that attended all the ICME
congresses starting with the first one. They are
known as "old hands": Jerry Becker (USA) and
Claude Gaulin (Canada). Jerry Becker gave us his
impression about this 11th ICME.
IMPRESSIONS OF ICME-11
The program was rich, varied and presented much
from which to choose. In my judgment, it was an
excellent congress and, for me, it ranks among
the very best [and I have participated in all of
them]. Several years ago Alan Schoenfeld gave a
talk which he concluded with a moral, namely, two
theorems: 1. Mathematics is a living, breathing
and exciting discipline of sense-making. 2.
Mathematics students will come to see it that way
if and only if they experience it that way in
their classrooms. A corollary is that virtually
all standard classroom instruction needs to be
enhanced, or replaced, by instruction in which
students grapple with challenging mathematics in
intellectually honest ways. This is the frame I
carry with me to conferences such as the ICMEs,
from which to learn. In addition to the
plenaries, I was able to select numerous
interesting sessions [and thereby had to
eliminate numerous others] that nicely fit
around/into that frame: e.g., the Chinese
national presentation and printed materials, the
session on Japanese national assessment [Shizumi
Shimizu], the teacher as producer of knowledge
[Patricia Sadovsky], the professional development
of teacher educators [Jan van Maanen], assessment
must be formative [Peter Nystrom] and others.
There were other sessions, such as those in my
DG, in which the knowledge of the teacher was
emphasized as crucial in understanding elementary
students' work -- e.g., (1) 9 x 8 = 9 x (11 -8)
= 9 x 3 = 27 = 72; (2) 4.8 - 6.2 = (.8 - .2) + (4
- 6) = -2.6 = -2 + .6 = -1.4. The sessions of my
TSG were also valuable. I was happy to witness
the work of outstanding scholars being recognized
in the Freudenthal and Klein awards and to engage
in light conversation or give-and-take during the
receptions (with excellent snacks and
refreshments). Conferees were delighted with the
cultural program, their excursions, the transport
to and from the university, the large cadre of
young, friendly and helpful students
(everywhere!) and it was wonderful to enjoy
Mexican foods, including along the magnificent
downtown river walk. In the Final Program book,
Marcela Santillan, Carlos Signoret and Aljandro
Diaz Barriga thanked us for coming ... and we
need to thank them and their colleagues for
organizing and implementing an outstanding
congress that was both highly enjoyable and
productive, and for having us in their homeland,
as well. Now I look forward to the ICME-11
proceedings and to ICME-12 in Korea.
Jerry P. Becker, Dept. of Curriculum &
Instruction, Southern Illinois University,
Carbondale, IL, USA, jbecker at siu.edu.
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3. Impressions of ICME-11 (2)
We asked two of the four educators that received
ICMI Medals at ICME-11 to give us their
impressions of ICME-11, the Felix Klein medalist
for 2007, Jeremy Kilpatrick, University of
Georgia, Athens, GA, USA and the Felix Klein
medalist for 2005, Ubiratan D'Ambrosio,
Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil.
Impressions of ICME-11, by Jeremy Kilpatrick
The 11th International Congress on Mathematical
Education (ICME-11) was very much like all the
others I've attended-teeming, sprawling,
innovative, eclectic, diverse, uneven, rewarding,
intense, exhausting-but probably because it was
the first ICME in a Latin American country, it
was also lively, vibrant, and colorful. The
people at the venue, the Universidad Autónoma de
Nuevo León, and in particular the many student
guides, could not have been more helpful.
Moreover, although I had heard that Monterrey was
an ordinary industrialized city that could just
as easily be north of the Rio Grande, it was
nothing like I expected. Located in a valley
surrounded by ruggedly beautiful mountains, the
city has a modern subway system, squares and
parks filled with sculpture, a lively downtown
scene, and many first-rate museums. It may not
be Guadalajara or Guanajuato, but it's not
Galveston or Gary either.
As to the sessions at the congress itself, I very
much enjoyed those I attended, particularly the
plenary activities and regular lectures. There
were numerous lectures that I heard good things
about but could not attend because so many were
scheduled at the same time. I especially enjoyed
the sessions at which the survey teams reported.
Survey teams as a congress feature were begun at
ICME 10, where there were five teams. For
ICME-11, there were seven-all on new topics.
These teams have performed a very useful service
to the field, giving a more comprehensive picture
of developments in different countries than any
one speaker could offer.
I had the privilege of chairing the nominations
committee for the 2010-2012 Executive Committee
(EC) of the International Commission on
Mathematical Instruction (ICMI), and at the ICMI
General Assembly in Monterrey, I presented the
slate of nominees and announced the results. It
was a historic occasion. Previous EC members had
been chosen by the General Assembly of the
International Mathematical Union, and this was
the first time that the ICMI chose its own
officers. Special appreciation for this peaceful
revolution is due the recent ICMI EC members, and
especially presidents Hyman Bass and Michèle
Artigue and secretary-general Bernard Hodgson,
for their efforts to help make ICMI a more
self-governing organization.
Personnal Reflections on ICME-11, by Ubiratan D'Ambrosio
It is difficult to say something about ICME-11,
other than the usual congratulations to the
organizers, without mentioning my personal
feelings.
I have attended all the ICMEs, since 1976. It has
always been very rewarding to meet friends, to
listen and to learn about new progresses in
mathematics education, and to have the
opportunity of telling about my ideas and to
benefit from critics.
ICME-11, in Monterrey, was not different, but
with some additional emotional features. It was
in Latin America. I felt at home, and I am sure
this was the feeling of all my colleagues from
other Latin America countries. And I received the
Felix Klein Medal.
This activated my memories of Karlsruhe, 32 years
ago, and of Adelaide, 24 years ago. In ICME 3 I
was courageous to propose that reflections about
"why teach mathematics?" should emphasize history
and sociology. In ICME 5 I was even more
courageously when I presented Ethnomathematics.
The reactions, in both occasions, were mixed,
from completely ignoring my talk to heavy
criticism to my proposals. The Felix Klein Award
reassured me that Mathematics and Society and
Mathematics and Culture, specifically
Ethnomathematics, are important research areas in
Mathematics Education. The feeling of having
contributed to the advancement of these areas is
indeed rewarding.
As a personal feeling, I must confess how good I
felt when colleagues, both established
professionals and younger people in the beginning
of their career, valued being in a picture with
me. I think it is not vain vanity to feel honored
when colleagues from Latin America, and also from
the entire World, asked me to pose for a picture
with them.
This made me reflect about the value of
organizing such big congresses as ICMEs. I am
aware that many mathematics educators are critic
of ICMEs. The number of participants is very
large, with many beginners and without important
contributions to the area. Established
mathematics educators claim that the opportunity
to share ideas with colleagues is minor. Indeed,
I met only once, in a rush, some colleagues with
whom I had much to discuss. Indeed, compared with
a meeting like the recent 100 years of ICMI, in
Rome, ICMEs are academically less attractive. But
the benefit for the younger teachers, from all
over the World, with so many doubts, questions
and much professional hopes and dreams, amply
justify the investment, in time and resources, in
ICMEs. The stimulus resulting from shacking hands
and taking a picture with the real researchers,
which are the authors of many papers and books
they read, is a lifetime experience. I remember
when, in the sixties I went to my first ICMs. To
meet personally some of the intellectual mentors
of my research was an unforgettable experience.
I disagree with colleagues, established
researchers, who claim that going to ICMEs is not
a worthwhile academic challenge. Academically, I
gained much in ICME-11, as in other ICMEs. I was
surprised with the amazing presence of technology
in mathematics education. Technology is
absolutely integrated in the actions of the
younger generation. Indeed, it is part of their
everyday-life. Also, I was happy to see that
mathematics educators are increasingly concerned
with the role of mathematics education in facing
the challenges and issues of the 21st century.
More than improving the teaching of traditional
contents, there was a feeling that the mission of
mathematics educators is to prepare students to
be able to face the challenges and solve the
issues of the 21st century, educating students in
the various academic disciplines, language,
science, social science and mathematics through a
cultural history context and an interdisciplinary
approach to instruction. I find myself totally
identified with this new trend, although
sometimes it is difficult to keep pace with the
amazing technological innovations.
Indeed, participating in ICME-11 was a very rewarding experience.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Impressions of ICME-11 (3)
We asked two first timers to ICMEs to give us
their impressions of coming to ICME-11: Ajit
Kumar, from the Department of Applied
Mathematics, Institute of Chemical Technology,
University of Mumbai, India and David F Hervas,
Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad San
Francisco de Quito, Quito - Ecuador who was also
the representative from Ecuador in the ICMI
General Assembly.
First timer: Ajit Kumar, UICT, Mumbai, India, ajit72 at gmail.com
I attended the ICME for the first time and it was
really a wonderful experience for me. I was
really astonished to see the intensity and
enormity of the event. Academically, it was very
well organized and structured properly. Most of
the regular lectures were quite good, though
there is a room of improvements. This congress
gives a platform for people from different
countries to meet, discuss and exchange their
ideas. In this regards, TDG's and DG's are really
wonderful and most important activities of the
conference. At least, I benefited a lot from two
activities. There were so many good and
interesting talks/topics at the same time that it
was difficult to decide which one to skip. In my
opinion there should have been more stalls of
different mathematical models and school/college
kids from the host country should be invited to
have look at them. The local organizing committee
should encourage such activities. Bringing out
ICMI news bulletin is a wonderful idea and it
should have been done long back. ICME proceeding
should also be brought out as soon as possible so
that many people who could not attend the
conference will have access to its contents. I
also believe that there should be more
participation of working mathematicians in the
congress so that one can have healthy interaction
between the math educators and mathematicians.
This will help in improving the standards of
mathematics education at large. I was also very
impressed to see the booklet on "Mathematics
Education in United States", which was
distributed to the participants. I think, more
countries can follow this suit, so that others
can learn from them. Monterrey with its rich
infrastructure and natural beauty was a good
choice to hold the ICME-11 and we must
congratulate the IPC for their choice. The local
arrangements were quite good, but still there was
some room of improvements, especially
communication was little poor. Thus as a first
timer in ICME, I can say that it was very
fruitful and enjoyable and hope this is just a
beginning for me.
First timer: David F Hervas, Universidad San
Francisco de Quito, Quito - Ecuador,
dhervas at usfq.edu.ec
A few words about my wonderful experience attending ICMI GA and ICME-11
My name is David Hervas. I am a mathematician
from Ecuador involved in teaching at Universidad
San Francisco de Quito, a small and wonderful
Liberal Arts College. I am deeply concerned
about the current status of the teaching of
mathematics in public schools in my country which
is in a very bad shape in need of help. My
compromise with teaching and learning of
mathematics lead me to know and learn about ICMI
and ICME. I was happy to get an invitation to
come for the first time to a general assembly of
ICMI as a representative from my country.
Ecuador was admitted as an associate member of
IMU in 2006 and we are trying to give shape to
our mathematical environment so that we can
acquire full membership in the next six to eight
years. I didn't know exactly what to expect in
this general assembly and I had a slightly better
idea about ICME since I have been in a few math
conferences before but never in such a big one.
I showed up in the meeting room a few minutes
earlier just to see and get acquainted with the
environment. I could sense immediately that the
air was full of friendship and curiosity since
all of us came from different countries. I felt
very welcome and I thank the ICMI EC and all the
participants who helped me to overcome my shyness
for such event. Along the day and the week I
thought I was attending a festival about
brotherhood of the human race through
mathematics. I was so inspired for so many
people I met but I prefer not to mention names
because I don't want to leave anybody out. I
just want to share that I was overwhelmed to be
there present when Ubiratan D'Ambrosio received
The Felix Klein Medal. I may have forgotten his
words but his ideas are still in the air through
his question "How Mathematics Education can help
in shaping a better World?"
I was excited to learn about The ICMI Studies and
the new projects lunched by ICMI. I learnt so
much and I feel fascinated that 100 years ago
Felix Klein was the first president of ICMI and
now his famous book wants to take a different
shape through a new project for the 21st century.
Just to keep it short I want to thank Bernard
Hodgson and Carlos Signoret who made my
participation possible and Jaime Carvalho e Silva
who asked me to write a few lines about my
experience in Monterrey, México.
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5. New Executive Committee of ICMI for 2010-2012
A new Executive Committee of the
ICMI-International Commission on Mathematical
Instruction, was elected at the ICMI General
Assembly held July 6 in Monterrey, México.
ICMI is an official commission of IMU and till
now the election was held at the General
Assemblies of IMU. It was the first time that the
ICMI General Assembly elected the Executive
Committee of ICMI; this was decided by the IMU
General Assembly held in Santiago de Compostela,
August 12-13, 2006.
The procedure for the elections began with the
creation of a Nominating Committee, chosen
according to the regulations adopted by the same
IMU General Assembly of Santiago de Compostela:
http://www.mathunion.org/organization/ec/procedures-for-election/
The ICMI Nominating Committee was chaired by
Jeremy Kilpatrick (USA) and included also Michèle
Artigue (France), László Lovász (Hungary), Attia
Ashour (Egypt), Lee Peng Yee (Singapore), Elon
Lima (Brazil) and Evgenia Sendova (Bulgaria).
The slate proposed to the General Assembly
included one candidate for each of the officers
and seven candidates for Members at large. The
ICMI General Assembly could propose other
candidates under certain conditions described in
the regulations.
The members of the 2010-2012 ICMI EC, with the
various positions held, according to the results
of the elections, are:
PRESIDENT:
William (Bill) Barton (New Zealand)
SECRETARY-GENERAL:
Jaime Carvalho e Silva (Portugal)
VICE-PRESIDENTS:
Mina Teicher (Israel)
Angel Ruiz (Costa Rica)
MEMBERS AT LARGE:
Mariolina Bartolini Bussi (Italy)
Sung Je Cho (Korea)
Roger Howe (USA)
Renuka Vithal (South Africa)
Zhang Yingbo (China)
The term of this next EC will start on January 1, 2010.
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6. The Proceedings of ICME-10 have now been published
It was announced by the organizers, Elin Emborg,
Morten Blomhøj, Henrik Nielsen, and Mogens Niss,
that the Proceedings of ICME-10 have finally been
completed. It consists of a book and a CD. Every
registered participant in ICME-10 is entitled to
receive a printed copy of the Proceedings,
including the CD. Moreover, the entire
Proceedings are available on the web at
<http://www.icme10.dk/>www.icme10.dk
The 559 pages book contains texts of
* the Opening and Closing Ceremonies,
* the eight Plenary Activities, including the
Plenary Lectures delivered at the Congress,
* the lectures based on the work of the five so-called Survey Teams,
* lectures by the first two recipients of the ICMI Awards
- the Felix Klein Medal (Guy Brousseau)
- the Hans Freudenthal Medal (Celia Hoyles),
* reports of the five themes of the so-called Thematic Afternoon,
* reports of the 29 Topic Study Groups and
* reports of the 24 Discussion Groups
The CD contains the ICME-10 Proceedings as a single file and as separate files.
Furthermore, the CD also contains 64 papers based on 64 of the 74
Regular Lectures given at ICME-10.
As quite some time has passed since the post
address of the participants was registered, and
as no one would benefit from the organizers
sending the Proceedings to a wrong address, every
ICME-10 participant is asked to notify the
organizers of the post address to which he or she
prefers a copy of the Proceedings be sent (also
if it hasn't changed since ICME-10).
This is a prerequisite for receiving the printed version cum CD.
The post address should be entered in the form
that you find at the web page
<https://secure.ccconsult.com/icme2004/>https://secure.ccconsult.com/icme2004/
Please expect three to four weeks for delivery.
The service of sending out printed copies of the
proceedings would be running until November 1, so
please make your request before this date.
ICME-10 Congress Secretariat
Congress Consultants
Martensens Allé 8
DK-1828 Frederiksberg C
Denmark
Tel: +45 70 20 03 05
Fax: +45 70 20 03 15
Mail: congress at congress-consult.com
Web: http://www.congress-consult.com
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7. WFMC welcomes you!
World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions
An Affiliated Study Group of the International
Commission on Mathematical Instruction
The World Federation of National Mathematics
Competitions (WFNMC) appeared as a natural
response to the need of international
collaboration in the field of Mathematics
Competitions and other related activities. It was
initiated by Peter O'Halloran and officially
founded in 1984 during the fifth International
Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME 5) held
in Adelaide, Australia. WFNMC became an
Affiliated Study Group of ICMI in 1994. The
major activities of the Federation are:
o Regular conduction of a Conference
(every even-numbered year after ICME);
o Recognition (trough the Federation Award
"Paul Erdös") of persons with outstanding
achievements in detection, motivation and
development of mathematically talented young
people. The Paul Erdös Award is given every even
numbered year.
o Publication (twice yearly) of the Journal
"Mathematics Competitions" and continuous
development and maintenance of the web-site of
the Federation;
o Participation in activities initiated and
supported by other organizations;
o Participation in Discussion Groups and Topic Study Groups at ICME's.
WFNMC operates on the basis of a Constitution
which was first accepted in 1996 and slightly
amended in 2004 and 2008. The name of the
Federation leaves the impression that its major
goals are related to competitions only. To some
extent, this might have been the case in the
earlier stages of development of the Federation.
Today its activities are in accordance with the
"Policy Statement on Competitions and
Mathematics Education" approved in 2002:
"The scope of activities of interest to the
WFNMC, although centered on competitions for
students of all levels (primary, secondary and
tertiary), is much broader than the competitions
themselves. The WFNMC aims to provide a vehicle
for educators to exchange information on a number
of activities related to mathematics and
mathematics learning.
More information about the history of the
Federation, its activities, its Executive Bodies
and officers could be obtained from the official
site of the organization:
http://www.amt.canberra.edu.au/wfnmc.html
Petar S. Kenderov, Institute of Mathematics and
Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,
vorednek at yahoo.com
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8. PUBLIMATH - Bibliographical database on mathematics education
http://publimath.irem.univ-mrs.fr/
PUBLIMATH is a bibliographical database for
mathematics teaching written in French, which has
been developed by the APMEP (French association
of mathematics teachers) and the ADIREM
(committee of the directors of IREMs that are
Institutes of Research into Mathematics Teaching.
The development started in 1996, with the support
of the CFEM (French commission on Mathematics
Education) and of the ARDM (Association for
research in mathematics didactics).
Access to PUBLIMATH on Internet is free and
PUBLIMATH offers a set of short reviews about
publications related to mathematics teaching,
which can be useful for teachers from nursery
school to university, for students, teachers,
teacher educators and researchers, research
workers
PUBLIMATH is half way between a classical
documentary base (author, title and library
information conforming to international
cataloguing standards) and a base of contents
with on-line information. The specificities and
major assets of PUBLIMATH are, on the one hand
the informative summary, and on the other hand
the keywords or key sentences. The summaries,
keywords and key sentences are written and chosen
by field specialists.
PUBLIMATH offers notes about various publications
(books, software, papers from scientific
journals, videos, websites, etc.). The review of
each publication contains an analysis carried out
by members of all contributing associations.
PUBLIMATH also allows users to discover documents
that cannot be found in the usual editing
networks, about various fields: teaching,
didactics, history, culture, arts and
entertainment
PUBLIMATH allows users to consult
- the contents of scientific journals: Bulletin
Vert de l’APMEP, Repères-IREM, l’Ouvert, Petit
Vert, Hypercube, Grand N, Petit x, RDM,
Mathématiques et Pédagogie, etc.;
- references to books and papers linked to one or more keywords of the base;
- the list of publications of IREMs or inter-IREM
committees, of the APMEP, of the ARDM...
PUBLIMATH includes more than 8,600 forms (since
the end of July 2008). Further information in
English, German, Portuguese, Italian or Spanish
is added to some notes.
PUBLIMATH offers access to a glossary (721
definitions in May 2008). These definitions can
be consulted from the general keywords or key
sentences list, from a specific alphabetical list
or using fields (17 fields have been listed).
Michèle Bechler, responsable CII-APMEP PUBLIMATH,
Michele.Bechler at ac-nancy-metz.fr
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9. The 1000th subscriber to ICMI News
Charlotte Bouckaert was the 1000th person to
subscribe to the ICMI newsletter, ICMI News. So
we asked her some questions to know a little bit
more about this 1000th subscriber.
Where are you from?
I am from Belgium. I work at the "Unité de
Recherche sur l'Enseignement des Mathématiques"
of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
I am a secondary school math teacher and teacher
trainer and I am in charge of the website of our
unit
How did you hear about ICMI?
I went to the ICME 10 Congress in Copenhagen,
Denmark, where I heard about ICMI for the first
time
Were you in ICME-11 in Monterrey? Do you intend
to go to ICME-12 in South Korea?
I was not in Monterrey and I don't plan to go to South Korea.
However, I want to publicize the ICME congress among my fellow teachers.
Very few ever heard about it.
What do you expect of ICMI and ICMI News?
I have never seen any ICMI newsletter
Why did you subscribe to ICMI News?
Because I want to inform my fellow teachers of the ICMI publications
How did you hear about ICMI News?
Just by surfing
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10. Calendar of Events of Interest to the ICMI Community
4th European Workshop on Mathematical & Scientific e-Contents
Trondheim, Norway, September 11-13, 2008,
http://www.ntnu.no/delta/workshop/
TIME-2008: Technology and its Integration in Mathematics Education
Tshwane Univ. of Tech., Buffelspoort, South Africa, September 22-26, 2008
http://time.tut.ac.za/
41st Korean National Meeting of Mathematics Education
Donguei National University, Korea, October 31 - November 1, 2008
<mailto:yhchoe1940 at yahoo.co.kr>yhchoe1940 at yahoo.co.kr
ATCM-13: 13th Asian Technology Conference in Mathematics
Bangkok, Thailand, December 15-19, 2008
http://atcm.mathandtech.org
3rd international conference to review research
on Science, TEchnology and Mathematics Education
Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (TIFR),
Mumbai, India, January 5-9, 2009
http://web.gnowledge.org/episteme3/
CERME 6: Sixth Conference organised by the
European Society for Research in Mathematics
Education
University Lyon 1, France, January 27 - February 1, 2009
http://ermeweb.free.fr/cerme6.php
5th Asian Mathematical Conference
Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 22 - 26, 2009
http://math.usm.my/amc2009/
ICTMT-9 - 9th Int Conf on Technology in Mathematics Teaching
Metz, France, July 4-8, 2009
http://www.ictmt9.org
"Models in Developing Mathematics Education"
The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century Project
Dresden, Saxony, Germany, September 11-17, 2009
<mailto:arogerson at inetia.pl>alan at rogerson.pol.pl
------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Historical vignettes: The unexpected fate of a mathematics curriculum
From 1976 until 1994, the Ministry of Education
of Colombia carried out a long, detailed and
systematic process of curricular development that
straddled six presidential periods.
It started with Peace Corps, OAS and Unesco
advisors in 1976, 13 years after the last change
in the Country's primary school curriculum in
1963.
The Colombian primary school comprises five
grades, from 7 to 12 years of age. In a strange
terminological reversal, the four-year Secondary
School starts at the 6th grade and the two-year
Middle School at the 10th. Compulsory basic
education consists of the 9 grades of Primary and
Secondary School.
The Ministry of Education asked the National
University to appoint a Mathematics professor to
advise the team of teachers and educators in
charge of designing the new syllabus, of writing
detailed teachers' handbooks, and of designing
and conducting teacher training, experimental
trials and evaluations of the new curriculum.
The initial advisor was Dr. Carlo Federici, an
Italian mathematician and physicist who had been
teaching in Colombia since 1948. He retired in
1978, and I was appointed to succeed him in this
difficult advisory post. A first draft of the
syllabus for the first five grades had been
agreed upon, and pilot experiments and
evaluations were advancing in
a few schools in each province. It followed the
then standard format of behavioral Educational
Technology and Instructional Design.
My first task was to review the draft from a more
cognitive perspective, inspired mainly by
Piagetian ideas and authors like Dienes, Papy and
Labinowicz. After heated discussions with
critical intellectuals and the National
Federation of Teachers' Unions, another full
revision of the draft and a careful spelling out
of the pedagogical and psychological basis of the
new curriculum was undertaken.
My second task was to convince the successive
ministers of education that the new Primary
School syllabus should not be mandated by decree
to be implemented in the first five grades
simultaneously, but to precede the decree with
widespread teacher training, publication of
official handbooks by the Ministry and
corresponding textbooks developed by private
publishing houses, and then to mandate only
gradual implementation one grade at a time.
Fortunately, Decree 1002 of 1984 came out as I
had suggested, and gradual implementation of the
Primary School curriculum started.
In 1985-86 I spent a year at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education, preparing materials for the
Secondary School curriculum and writing a
detailed book on the theory of Mathematics
Education that had provided a foundation for the
new curriculum. When I came back to Bogota, my
team developed pilot materials for the four
grades, from the 6th to the 9th. Test trials for
those materials were carried out, also grade by
grade, as well as many teachers' workshops to
prepare them for the respective decree
implementing the new Secondary School curriculum.
Test trials were supposed to finish in 1993, to
officially adopt the Secondary School curriculum
by a new decree during that year 1994, in order
to start full implementation in the 6th grade in
1995.
Simultaneously, during those years, a silent and
well-executed campaign was going on. After a
drastic change in the Colombian Constitution in
1991, the more and more powerful National
Federation of Teachers' Unions and their academic
advisors started contacting congressmen of both
Houses to persuade them that a unique central
curriculum was unconstitutional, antidemocratic
and discriminatory, and that it would be better
for Colombian education to grant curricular
autonomy to every school, encourage it to develop
its own educational project, and then develop its
own curriculum according to the particular
educational project.
The campaign was successful. Colombia became the
first (and to my knowledge the only) country in
Latin America to deprive the Ministry of
Education of its curricular power. Law 115 of
February 14, 1994, suddenly stopped the long and
massive-but slow-train of the curriculum reform
process that had been going on for 18 years, the
equivalent of two years for each grade, after an
estimated total cost of 9 million euros. The book
on the theory of Mathematics Education used as
the basis of the new curriculum was never
published, and the full syllabus with its
detailed teachers' handbooks was never
implemented.
Carlos E. Vasco (Universidad Distrital, Bogotá,
Colombia), Carlos_Vasco at pz.harvard.edu
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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