K-subadditive and K-superadditive set-valued functions bounded on “large” sets

Aequationes mathematicae - We prove that every K–subadditive set–valued map weakly K–upper bounded on a “large” set (e.g. not null–finite, not...     

Designing and using professional development resources for inquiry-based learning

This paper describes an attempt to design, analyse and refine professional development (PD) resources that encourage the implementation of inquiry-based learning (IBL). We describe the iterative development of the resources in England with over 100 mathematics teachers from secondary, tertiary and adult education and then analyse the impact these resources had on teachers’ beliefs and practices and the issues arising. This evaluation revealed that teachers had moved away from transmission-based orientations, encouraged by the use of less structured tasks and sample lesson plans, but some found it difficult to adopt IBL pedagogies. The most significant issues for teachers may be summarised as: confusing IBL with ‘discovery’ learning; developing and managing collaborative cultures within the classroom; and planning lessons that adapt to the emerging needs of learners.     

Special issue on “The Eighth International Symposium on Information and Communication Technology—SoICT 2017”

Journal of Heuristics -     

On extensions of the generalized quadratic functions from “large” subsets of semigroups

Let $$(G,+)$$ be a commutative semigroup, $$tau $$ be an endomorphism of G and involution, D be a nonempty subset of G, and $$(H,+)$$ be an abelian group, uniquely divisible by 2. Motivated by the extension problem of J. Aczél and the stability problem of S.M. Ulam, we show that if the set D is “sufficiently large”, then each function $$g{:} Drightarrow H$$ such that $$g(x+y)+g(x+tau (y))=2g(x)+2g(y)$$ for $$x,yin D$$ with $$x+y,x+tau (y)in D$$ can be extended to a unique solution $$f{:} Grightarrow H$$ of the functional equation $$f(x+y)+f(x+tau (y))=2f(x)+2f(y)$$.     

Prospective mathematics teachers’ development of noticing in an online teacher education program

In this study we aimed to characterize the development of prospective mathematics teachers’ noticing in an online teacher education program. Prospect     

Franco Giannessi: “Every Mathematician Can do a True Theorem. Only a Genius Can Make an Important Mistake”

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications -     

Research into teacher knowledge: a stimulus for development in mathematics teacher education practice

In this paper, we document some developments in teacher education practice at one university, brought about by reflection on research into mathematics teacher knowledge. The authors are three members of the Cambridge-based research team who developed the Knowledge Quartet (KQ), a theory of mathematics teacher knowledge, with a focus on classroom situations in which this knowledge is applied. At the same time as being researchers, the authors were elementary mathematics teacher education instructors. They found that the KQ research brought about new awareness of the importance of some components of mathematics didactics, as well as providing new tools for undertaking some aspects of their teacher educator role. The paper explores some of these awarenesses and tools in detail.     

Classroom video in teacher professional development program: community documentational genesis perspective

We examine classroom video recordings as a means of supporting the learning of teacher communities. Drawing on a longitudinal professional development program for middle years mathematics teachers in the USA, we first outline two contrasting episodes in which the teachers analyzed same segments of classroom video in two different points in the program, 2 years apart. We document that the teachers considered dramatically different aspects of video-recorded instruction as relevant to their professional interests and learning in the two episodes. We then analyze the episodes, and the intervening developments, from point of view of the community documentational genesis. In doing so, we highlight the teacher community’s creation of shared repertoire of ways of reasoning.     

The relationship of theory and practice in mathematics teacher professional development: an activity theory perspective

This paper describes certain interactions between the activity of “teaching” and the activity of “researching” in which the teachers participate in a 52-h professional development course aiming to introduce them to research in mathematics education as a tool for inquiry in their teaching. The teachers are involved in different research tasks such as: reading and presenting research papers; analyzing classroom dialogues and tasks; and designing, implementing, and evaluating collaboratively a classroom teaching intervention. From an activity theory (AT) perspective, and in particular Engeström’s (2001) third generation AT, distinguish two activity systems, the activity system of research and the activity system of teaching, to identify links that the participating teachers make. These links indicate the development of an inquiring stance to mathematics teaching and learning as a means of professional learning.     

On the instructional model of a blended learning program for developing mathematical knowledge for teaching

ZDM – Mathematics Education - Blended learning, which combines face-to-face workshops with self-directed online learning, is becoming a good alternative in designing and deploying...     

Book Review: “Designs from Linear Codes”, second edition,by Cunsheng Ding and Chunming Tang,World Scientific, 2022

Designs, Codes and Cryptography -     

Examining the design features of a communication-rich,problem-centred mathematics professional development

While there is considerable scholarship describing principles for effective professional development, there have been few attempts to examine these principles in practice. In this paper, we identify and examine the particular design features of a mathematics professional development experience provided for middle grades teachers over 14 weeks. The professional development was grounded in a set of mathematical tasks that each had one right answer, but multiple solution paths. The facilitator engaged participants in problem solving and encouraged participants to work collaboratively to explore different solution paths. Through analysis of this collaborative learning environment, we identified five design features for supporting teacher learning of important mathematics and pedagogy in a problem-solving setting. We discuss these design features in depth and illustrate them by presenting an elaborated example from the professional development. This study extends the existing guidance for the design of professional development by examining and operationalizing the relationships among research-based features of effective professional development and the enacted features of a particular design.     

Using narrative inquiry for investigating the becoming of a mathematics teacher

This article presents narrative inquiry as a method for research in mathematics education, in particular the study of how pre-service teachers’ views of mathematics develop during elementary teacher education. I describe two different, complementary approaches to applying narrative analysis, one focusing on the content of a narrative, the other focusing on the form. The examples discussed are taken from interviews with and teaching portfolios compiled by four pre-service teachers. In analysing the content of the students’ narratives, I use emplotment to construct a retrospective explanation of how one pre-service teacher’s own experiences at school were reflected in the development of her mathematical identity. In analysing the form of the narratives, I also look at how the students told their stories, using linguistic features, for example, to identify core events in the accounts. This particular focus seems to be promising in locating turning points in the trainees’ views of mathematics.     

Olga Taussky,a torchbearer for mathematics and teacher of mathematicians

Olga Taussky-Todd's mathematical and personal life (1906-1995), her achievements and obstacles, her scientific reasoning and teaching all have served as inspiration to many mathematicians. We describe her role in the mathematics world of the previous century as a torchbearer for mathematics and mathematicians, bearing the “torch of scientific truth” that burns inside of mathematics and its applications. Besides her many deep math contributions – too many to elaborate – she excelled at distilling and presenting mathematical concepts and ideas in her work and gave us many visionary papers and math talks. By sharing her mathematical vision freely she has inspired many of us. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Effective design of massive open online courses for mathematics teachers to support their professional learning

Three MOOCs for Educators (MOOC-Eds) were designed for mathematics and statistics teachers based on principles of effective online professional development     

Online collaborative mind mapping in a mathematics teacher education program: a study on student interaction and knowledge construction

The inclusion of alternative and multimodal methods for online interaction and knowledge construction in mathematics teacher education is still an incipien     

Standards for professionalization of mathematics teachers: policy, curricula, and national teacher employment test in Korea

International comparative studies such as the Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) indicate that Korean students have consistently performed well. In addition, a recent study titled Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century (MT21) compared prospective teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about teaching and learning in six participant countries, reporting that Korean prospective secondary mathematics teachers were better prepared than those in other countries. In this context, this study has examined the curricula for mathematics teacher education and teacher employment tests in order to investigate the social expectation for teacher professionalization in Korea, particularly focusing on teacher knowledge. The analysis shows that while elementary mathematics teacher education emphasizes pedagogical knowledge, the secondary mathematics education curricula are highly content knowledge oriented. However, the secondary mathematics teacher education includes various aspects of pedagogical content knowledge in its curricula and teacher employment test. This research also identifies the discourse concerning mathematics instruction for diversity and equity and the emphasis of reflective practice as the significant development of the current Korean teacher education.     

Influence of mentoring and professional communities on the professional development of a cohort of early career secondary mathematics and science teachers

A challenge for public schools is to successfully support and professionally develop early career teachers (ECTs) and thereby prepare them for long and successful careers in education. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe how the professional practices of early career science and mathematics teachers, some of whom are career changers, were influenced by their interactions with mentors and professional communities. Topics examined included the contextual elements that influenced the ECTs’ interactions with mentors and professional communities, how teachers positioned themselves within multiple professional communities, and how they perceived these experiences had influenced the development of their teaching practice. An extensive semi-structured interview of the ECTs generated data that were analyzed to identify emergent themes and patterns. The findings of this study indicated that navigating professional communities and interacting with mentors had influenced the ECTs’ decisions to adopt important components of a learner-centered approach to teaching that included engaging students in active learning processes, utilizing formative assessment, and responding to students' individual needs. These findings have implications for school policies and approaches related to supporting and professionally developing unique cohorts of ECTs.     

The conception and development of textbooks for distance learning courses: a case study of a teacher education course

The aim is to contribute to the research on the conception and development of mathematics textbooks for undergraduate distance education courses (EAD). In particular, we acknowledge the EAD undergraduate courses in Brazil as an important governmental initiative for teacher education. Amongst other specificities of the Brazilian model of distance education, one aspect consists of writing proper material and textbooks, raising a need to investigate the results of their conception and development. We report on a case study in which a chapter in a written textbook developed by a group of professors is analysed according to hermeneutics, describing the tessiture of the text and context of the implemented task. Aware that the task demanded processes different from those used when writing textbooks for face-to-face lecture courses, though at the same time not coinciding with the wordings of the interactions of a classroom lecture, the group of authors agreed on a notion of lessons on paper. Our analysis faces the challenge of problematising qualitative differences regarding the semiotic means of the mathematics embedded in face-to-face versus distance learning activities, raising questions on the nature of their results and the development of induced thinking in both contexts. Investigating the kind of mathematical knowledge produced for the lessons on paper texts, we drew on whether the written lesson for distance education is closer to the pedagogical-content knowledge than to the classical academic knowledge.