Experimental mathematics and proofs in the classroom

Experimental mathematics is a serious branch of mathematics that starts gaining attention both in mathematics education and research. We given examples of using experimental techniques (not only) on the classroom. At first sight it seems that introducing experiments will weaken the formal rules and the abstractness of mathematics that are considered a valuable contribution to education as a whole. By putting proof and experiment side by side we show how this can be avoided. We also highlight consequences of experimentation for educational computer software.     

Investigations and explorations in the mathematics classroom

In Portugal, since the beginning of the 1990s, problem solving became increasingly identified with mathematical explorations and investigations. A number of research studies have been conducted, focusing on students’ learning, teachers’ classroom practices and teacher education. Currently, this line of work involves studies from primary school to university mathematics. This perspective impacted the mathematics curriculum documents that explicitly recommend teachers to propose mathematics investigations in their classrooms. On national meetings, many teachers report experiences involving students’ doing investigations and indicate to use regularly such tasks in their practice. However, this still appears to be a marginal activity in most mathematics classes, especially when there is pressure for preparation for external examinations (at grades 9 and 12). International assessments such as PISA and national assessments (at grades 4 and 6) emphasize tasks with realistic contexts. They reinforce the view that mathematics tasks must be varied beyond simple computational exercises or intricate abstract problems but they do not support the notion of extended explorations. Future developments will show what paths will emerge from these contradictions between promising research and classroom reports, curriculum orientations, professional experience, and assessment frameworks and instruments.     

Visualization and art in the mathematics classroom

In this paper we summarize our concepts and practice on computer-aided mathematical experimentation, and illustrate them byMathematica projects that we have developed for our research and the courses “Computer-aided mathematical modelling” and “Computer Algebra I–II” held for students of life sciences at University of Szeged and computational engineering at TFH Berlin, University of Applied Sciences.     

Ancient accounting in the modern mathematics classroom

Florida State University owns a collection of twenty-five cuneiform tablets, acquired from Edgar J Banks in the 1920s. We describe their rediscovery, present an edition of one of them (a twenty-first century BC labour account from the Sumerian city of Umma), and discuss their potential for use in undergraduate mathematics education.1 ¹We are very grateful to Steve Garfinkle, Denise Giannino, John Larson, Lucia Patrick, Plato L Smith II, and Giesele Towels for their help in the research and writing of this article.      

The mathematics of medical imaging in the classroom

The article presents an integrated exposition of aspects of secondary school mathematics and a medical science specialty together with related classroom activities. Clinical medical practice and theoretical and empirical literature in mathematics education and radiology were reviewed to develop and pilot model integrative classroom topics and activities. The techniques of computer-axial tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET) are discussed, followed by a presentation of accessible mathematical applications in numeration and linear algebra for use in a high school classroom. This discussion of the mathematics of a medical speciality, and the related activities, might not only offer teachers and students specific examples of the connections between their everyday study and a professional discipline, but also might foster further investigation into the importance and relevance of mathematics in other technology-based careers.     

MobileMath: exploring mathematics outside the classroom

Computer games seem to have a potential for engaging students in meaningful learning, inside as well as outside of school. With the growing availability of mobile handheld technology (HHT), a number of location-based games for handheld mobile phones with GPS have been designed for educational use. The exploitation of this potential for engaging students into meaningful learning, however, so far remains unexplored. In an explorative design research, we investigated whether a location-based game with HHT provides opportunities for engaging in mathematical activities through the design of a geometry game called MobileMath. Its usability and opportunities for learning were tested in a pilot on three different secondary schools with 60 12–14-year-old students. Data were gathered by means of participatory observation, online storage of game data, an online survey and interviews with students and teachers. The results suggest that students were highly motivated, and enjoyed playing the game. Students indicated they learned to use the GPS, to read a map and to construct quadrilaterals. The study suggests learning opportunities that MobileMath provides and that need further investigation.     

Transformation of the mathematics classroom with the internet

ZDM – Mathematics Education - Growing use of the internet in educational contexts has been prominent in recent years. In this survey paper, we describe how the internet is transforming the...     

Problem solving in the mathematics classroom: the German perspective

In Germany, problem solving has important roots that date back at least to the beginning of the twentieth century. However, problem solving was not primarily an aspect of mathematics education but was particularly influenced by cognitive psychologists. Above all, the Gestalt psychology developed by researchers such as Köhler (Intelligenzprüfungen an Anthropoiden. Verlag der Königlichen Akademie des Wissens, Berlin, 1917; English translation: The mentality of apes. Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1925), Duncker (Zur Psychologie des produktiven Denkens. Springer, Berlin, 1935), Wertheimer (Productive thinking. Harper, New York, 1945), and Metzger (Schöpferische Freiheit. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt, 1962) made extensive use of mathematical problems in order to describe their specific problem-solving theories. However, this research had hardly any influence on mathematics education—neither as a scientific discipline nor as a foundation for mathematics instruction. In the German mathematics classroom, problem solving, which is according to Halmos (in Am Math Mon 87:519–524, 1980) the “heart of mathematics,” did not attract the interest it deserved as a genuine mathematical topic. There is some evidence that this situation may change. In the past few years, nationwide standards for school mathematics have been introduced in Germany. In these standards, problem solving is specifically addressed as a process-oriented standard that should be part of the mathematics classroom through all grades. This article provides an overview on problem solving in Germany with reference to psychology, mathematics, and mathematics education. It starts with a presentation of the historical roots but gives also insights into contemporary developments and the classroom practice.     

Cultural distance and identities-in-construction within the multicultural mathematics classroom

In this paper we present and exemplify our interpretation of some theoretical constructs that have proved useful to our understanding of the complexity of multicultural mathematics classrooms. Constructs such as culture, cultural distance, cultural conflict and identities-in-construction have oriented our study of the complexity of highly multicultural mathematics classrooms in Barcelona. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how cultural distance arising from the different meanings that students, being local or immigrant, inevitably bring to the mathematics classroom may turn into cultural conflicts when cultural interaction is not facilitated through classroom discourse. The lack of cultural interaction and communication may give rise to strong negative feedings and refusal to participate on the side of the students. Students' nonparticipation can be understood as an active response to cultural distance and negative opinions in order to safeguard the identities they (wish to) construct within a context that they perceive as hostile.     

Envisioning my mathematics classroom: Validating the Draw-a-Mathematics-Teacher-Test Rubric

Teachers need the opportunity to reflect, rethink, and adapt as they continually develop their image of their role in their mathematics classrooms. Thus, the purpose of this research was to examine how the Draw-a-Mathematics-Teacher-Test (DAMTT) and rubric can be used to assess preservice elementary teachers’ images of and beliefs about their future mathematics classrooms and validate the Draw-a-Math-TeacherTest-Rubric (DAMTT-R). Results suggest that the DAMTT-R is a valid measure and yields consistent results. Additionally, analysis of preservice elementary teachers’ (PETs) DAMTT revealed that only slightly more than one-third (36.9%) drew a picture and described their classroom in such a way that it reflected beliefs aligned with student-centered pedagogic practices. While mathematics educators may aim for the majority of PETs to leave their programs having developed beliefs aligned with and supportive of student-centered pedagogic practices, the results of this study revealed that 25% of PETs held beliefs that align with teacher-centered pedagogic practices. Lastly, 38.1% of the PETs reflected beliefs about their pedagogic practices, as measured by the DAMTT and the DAMTT-R, aligned with a transition between teacher-centered and student-centered.     

Gender justice,human rights and measurement in the mathematics classroom

In line with international trends, the new South African mathematics curriculum implores mathematics educators to realize a pedagogy in their classrooms that is more practical, activity-oriented, and connected to their learners' lives. Drawing on data from a larger study that explores theory–practice relations in mathematics education, this paper shows how such progressive practices, when interpreted with respect to the teaching of measurement which required learners to use different measuring instruments for measuring the school grounds in learning about length and perimeter, were found to be deeply gendered. In two different contexts of an ‘African' township school and a predominantly ‘Indian' suburban school, girls in a grade 6 mathematics classroom faced direct sexism as they struggled to take the opportunity to participate in the activity and learn how to measure – an important mathematical competence and everyday knowledge and skill. The article analyses the data with reference to the human rights imperatives of the new national curricula and approaches to addressing disadvantage and discrimination for girls in mathematics classrooms.     

Online education for in-service secondary teachers and the incorporation of mathematics technology in the classroom

This paper reviews existing research on how in-service high school teachers have learned about, worked on or thought about the incorporation of mathematics technology into their teaching practices. The paper reviews different scenarios of instruction issuing from important research related to teacher professional development. Specifically, we will deal with contributions to online in-service mathematics teacher education that refer to the use of digital technologies in classroom teaching practices. The different articles reviewed belong to a range of teams of researchers from several universities and countries, and who have implemented distinct online education approaches. That work has allowed the gaining of knowledge on the specificities of using Web 2.0 tools for mathematics professional development (MPD), the function that online teacher interaction has in teacher learning, and the actual classroom conditions in which mathematics technology is incorporated into instructional practice. This paper describes and discusses the design features of those approaches emphasizing the main concepts and their underpinning theoretical frames, noting important design elements, and specific results. Finally, the paper discusses how some of these research findings are connected with emergent issues in the field of MPD.     

Cultivating inquiry about space in a middle school mathematics classroom

During 46 lessons in Euclidean geometry, sixth-grade students (ages 11, 12) were initiated in the mathematical practice of inquiry. Teachers supported inquiry by soliciting student questions and orienting students to related mathematical habits-of-mind such as generalizing, developing relations, and seeking invariants in light of change, to sustain investigations of their questions. When earlier and later phases of instruction were compared, student questions reflected an increasing disposition to seek generalization and to explore mathematical relations, forms of thinking valued by the discipline. Less prevalent were questions directed toward search for invariants in light of change. But when they were posed, questions about change tended to be oriented toward generalizing and establishing relations among mathematical objects and properties. As instruction proceeded, students developed an aesthetic that emphasized the value of questions oriented toward the collective pursuit of knowledge. Post-instructional interviews revealed that students experienced the forms of inquiry and investigation cultivated in the classroom as self-expressive.     

Examining the didactic contract when handheld technology is permitted in the mathematics classroom

The use of mathematics analysis software (MAS) including handheld scientific and graphics calculators offers a range of pedagogical opportunities. Its use can support change in the didactic contract. MAS may become an alternative source of authority in the classroom empowering students to explore variation and regularity, manipulate simulations and link representations. Strategic use may support students to direct their own learning and explore mathematics, equipping them to share their findings with the teacher and the class with more confidence. This paper offers a framework for examining the impact of the use of MAS on the didactic contract. Lessons were observed in 12 grade 10 classes, with 12 different teachers new to MAS. MAS technology was used with a variety of didactic contracts, mostly traditional. The framework drew attention to many ways in which the teaching differed. Analysis of the didactic contract must consider both the teaching of mathematics and of technology skills, because these have different characteristics. In all classes, both teachers and students saw the teacher as having a responsibility to teach technology skills. Students saw technology skills as the main point of the lesson, but the teachers saw the lesson as primarily teaching mathematics—one of the mismatches which may need negotiation to adapt didactic contracts to teaching with MAS.     

Conceptions of Turkish mathematics teachers about the effectiveness of classroom teaching

This study investigated how Turkish mathematics teachers evaluate the effectiveness of classroom teaching in terms of improving students’ mathematical proficiency. To this purpose, teachers were asked to evaluate a mathematics lesson as presented them in a vignette. By means of cluster analysis, the participants’ evaluations of the lesson were described in five thematic dimensions, which could be further assembled into two overriding categories: students’ understanding of the subject, and teachers’ classroom practices. The overall aim of the current paper is to propose a preliminary model of the framework that Turkish mathematics teachers use to evaluate a mathematics lesson.