Search

Taking as its point of departure, situations arising in classrooms exposed to a heavy use of CAS, exemplified by the Danish upper secondary school mathematics program, the paper discusses the use of "old" cognitive frameworks of mathematics education as an alternative to more recent theoretical developments in the field. The paper draws on three rich examples of CAS use in relation to the following: mathematical concept formation; mathematical proofs and proving; and classroom teaching. Each of these examples illustrates aspects of CAS use that appear better captured and addressed through "old" frameworks. This includes the mathematics specific learning difficulties that a heavy CAS use gives rise to; the inexpedient use of CAS in proofs in textbooks; and the tacit norms and contracts surrounding CAS use in the classroom. The paper thus serves as a call to continuously consulting our research back catalogue, also when addressing problems and challenges which at first sight appear "new", such as the constantly evolving digital technologies for learning and teaching mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reflect on our experiences teaching and working with mathematics teachers in Canada, Ghana, India and Swaziland to explore challenges and opportunities for creating mathematics tasks for peace and sustainability. Our exploration of these experiences is oriented around our interest in embedding peace and sustainability into mathematics education following the Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations. We claim that attention to local contexts affords mathematics educators a medium for engaging in authentic, meaningful and context-driven mathematics tasks that address issues of local environmental, cultural and societal concerns. However, we argue that globalisation has already colonised local communities. The associated "technoscientificity", along with the conservative nature of textbooks, time constraints and the dominant force of poverty remain hindrances in creating mathematics tasks that are issue centric and socially relevant to address concerns of the local community. We end this paper by suggesting a development of a mathematics task to illustrate the possibility of creating what we call a "situated mathematics task" for students that respond to issues of local community using rural Ghana as a context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research suggests that young children can develop a partial understanding of the equal sign as an operator rather than as a relational symbol of equivalence. This partial understanding can be the result of overemphasis on canonical equation syntaxes of the type a + b = c in elementary school mathematics. This paper presents an examination of context and syntax nuances of relevant sections from the grade 1 Greek series of textbooks and workbooks. Using a conceptual framework of context variation, the analysis shows qualitative differences between equations of similar syntax and provides a nuanced determination of contextual and structural aspects of 'variation' in how the equal sign is presented in elementary mathematics. The paper proposes that since equations have context-specific meanings, context variations should constitute a separate element of analysis when investigating how the equal sign is presented. The implication for practice and future research is that nuanced considerations of equation syntax within varied contexts are needed for elaborating analyses of the equal sign presentation that move beyond dichotomized categorizations of canonical/non-canonical syntaxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wenger's theory of learning proposes the concepts of participation and reification as dimensions of educational design. Based on this proposal, this position paper looks at the design of one Mathematics Professional Development Program (MPDP) through the lenses of these concepts. We argue that the reification concept allows professional designers to keep in mind the resources they should use to organize teachers' learning, while the participation concept allows them to ponder the types of activities that should be implemented in order for the teachers to adequately assimilate the meaning of those resources. The example that serves as the context in which we situate our discussion is the Data Analysis Project, a professional development project on statistics in which 5 in-service secondary school teachers participated. Due to the dialectic relation between participation and reification, we explain how these two processes intertwine to maintain the balance needed to allow teachers' learning to proceed within an MPDP. We argue that this dialectic relation is the key element for MPDP designers to connect the resources produced by research in mathematics education to the practice of mathematics teaching. Such a connection allows an MPDP to act as a bridge between two communities of practice: that of researchers in the field of mathematics education and that of mathematics teachers. Ultimately, the article shows how Wegner's concepts of participation and reification may be used to design an MPDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses teachers' activity when working with digital technologies (DT) in their classrooms. We build upon a model that considers teaching as managing open dynamic situations. Within the model, teachers' activity is viewed as diagnosing students' mathematical activity, managing uncertainties due to the characteristics of the situation and decision-making about didactic interventions. The study extends our earlier work and focuses on teachers' interventions in DT-based lessons, as they manage disturbances caused by unexpected difficulties. Our first observation is that there is a substantial change in how teachers diagnose these difficulties compared to paper-and-pencil environments. Notably, they need to make more inferences about the pedagogical support that is provided. Second, we show that in such conditions, rather than facing the single dynamicity of the class as a whole, the teacher has to deal with multiple, open dynamic situations (small groups named mini-classes), which are themselves intertwined in the dynamics of students' interactions with technology. Moreover, even if teachers are able to make reliable inferences concerning an individual student's current difficulties, they must also be able to make inferences about the scope of such difficulties within the class as a whole. We present four case studies that illustrate the diverse approaches that teachers take when managing such open dynamic situations and use them to illustrate the concepts and analytical tools that are introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (CJSMTE) is celebrating its 20 years in 2020. This paper compares the data from the 2009 review (Wallace, 2009) and the 2015 review (Wiseman & Pegg, 2015) to the data from the past 20 years, from 2001 to 2020. The findings suggest that there was an increase in mathematics education articles, balancing the proportion of science articles to mathematics articles, as well as an increased focus on technology education articles and STEM articles. In very recent volumes, the journal has increased the number of articles from five or six per issue to 12 articles per issue in its transition to Springer. The findings support the 2015 review findings that CJSMTE has increased the number of contributions from other countries around the world. The journal should continue to encourage manuscripts from Africa and South America to further pursue its international recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving student participation and achievement in post-secondary STEM courses continues to be an important concern of many governments and educational institutions since this is one avenue by which the number of STEM professionals can be increased. This paper examines and compares the gendered participation, performance and attrition rate of candidates in two post-secondary mathematics courses over a 5-year period from 2013 to 2017. This study used the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) results from the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which is the main public examination board in the Caribbean, for 15,220 candidates (N = 19,585) from 71 post-secondary educational institutions in Jamaica. 'CAPE' applies to both the course of study and the associated examination. The study found that, on average, approximately one-fifth of the candidates who pursue CAPE courses in Jamaica opt to study a mathematics course and that across the 5 years this remained relatively stable. There was, however, a marked decrease in the number of candidates choosing to enrol in Unit 2 courses on completion of the related Unit 1 course. Another key finding was that, while a higher percentage of males chose to undertake Applied Mathematics Unit 2 and equal proportions of male and female candidates the other three courses, there was a significant difference in the overall performance by gender with females outperforming their male peers. These findings suggest that initiatives are needed which improve student performance and experience in CAPE mathematics Unit 1 subjects which could then reduce student attrition across units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I introduce the ideas of Sylvia Wynter, in particular, her concepts of Man and After Man. I argue that the M in STEM is implicated in this discursive assemblage, which traces a lineage back to the political economy of mathematics that emerged during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and which is related to plantation economics and logics of underdevelopment. I provide a description of this logic and attempt to unsettle the privileged position of human beings in thinking of an ethics for Mathematics Education. I propose that the M in STEM be oriented towards a goal of multispecies' flourishing and an ethics of kinship, which involves structural coupling and partnering with other species. I illustrate some first steps with student curations of their experience of learning to teach mathematics and with my own photographs and experiments in honouring the challenge of this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current conceptions of STEM focus on the Western views of distinct academic disciplines—sciences, technologies, engineering, and mathematics. There are national and international initiatives aimed at increasing workforce and postsecondary participation in STEM-related fields, including individuals in under-represented groups. While the emphases of these initiatives are clear, further consideration regarding the meaning and purpose of STEM is necessary. From our indigenous and ecological perspectives, limited questioning around STEM not only marginalizes other cultural forms of knowing—especially those which are connected to the environment—but also denies the potential for other cultural forms of knowing to contribute to the development and advancement of STEM. We are particularly interested in how STEM might be re-imagined within indigenous and ecological perspectives; what alternative meanings of STEM are enabled; and in light of these, what other purposes are possible for STEM? In this paper, we consider other cultural forms of knowing, specifically those forms of knowing deeply connected to the environment, to explore how such practices enable a re-imagining of STEM. Focusing on living landscapes, topography, architecture, and algo-rhythms, we engage the reader to play with these ideas, question taken for granted meanings of STEM, and re-imagine STEM within ecological and indigenous perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper braids together experiences from three Canadian projects committed to creating learning opportunities where Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, being, and doing might circulate together. Show Me Your Math/Connecting Math to Our Lives and Communities (Mi'kmaw territory/Nova Scotia), the First Nations and Métis Mathematics Voices Project (Anishnaabe territory/Ontario), and the READress Project (Kanien'kehá:ka territory/Québec) are each described, and individually and collaboratively explored to identify the ways in which STEM and mathematics emerged (or did not) from community, and contributed back to those communities. While unique in their own ways, each of the projects engaged in collaborative, reflective, cyclical processes of teaching and learning that were deeply rooted in community and ethical relationality. Unresolved tensions are reviewed regarding what is lost when mathematics and STEM more generally are privileged in these contexts, and questions about curriculum reform are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]