Plenary Lectures
The International Program Committee is delighted to announce that the following scholars will be presenting Plenary Lectures at ICME-15.
Jill Adler
University of the Witwatersrand
Immediate Past President of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, South Africa
Jill Adler is a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Education at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Jill was president of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) 2017-2020 and held the Wits SARChI Mathematics Education Chair from 2010-2019. Jill’s research focuses on teaching and learning in multilingual classrooms and teacher professional development. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her work in mathematics education, including the 2012 Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) Gold Medal for Science in the Service of Society and the 2015 ICMI Hans Freudenthal medal in recognition of a major cumulative program of research.
Bi-directionality of research in mathematics education in ‘the Global South’ and ‘the Global North’ matters for the growth of our field.
Abstract:
To what extent and how does research grounded in mathematics education practices in ‘the Global South’ influence ‘the Global North’ and vice versa? Does this matter? For what? For whom? This talk is premised on the position that research in mathematics education needs to speak to and for educational development across the globe. Accordingly, it needs to be mutually informed by insights from learning and teaching across socio-economic and cultural contexts and so across mathematics education practices in the global North and global South. I will argue the case for bidirectionality by tracing the evolution of research on mathematical language in/for teaching particularly with respect to teaching and learning in multilingual classrooms; and research on teachers’ interactions with resources. What of other domains? Turning to recent research on teacher education and professional development, and ICMI’s interventions towards inclusion particularly in teacher education, I suggest why there remains much to be done and how we might enable a research journey that builds the global relevance of our field.
Iddo Gal
Associate Professor (PhD)
University of Haifa, Israel
Iddo Gal is an Associate Professor (Retired), Dept. of Human Services, University of Haifa, Israel. Iddo enjoys multidisciplinary interests; his activities focus on the development and assessment of statistical literacy and adult numeracy, and on management of service processes and empowerment of workers and clients of service organisations. Among other things, he chaired the Numeracy Expert Group of the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), is a Past-President of the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE), past-Editor of the Statistics Education Research Journal, and has worked with UNESCO on assessing adult numeracy for the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.
What does it mean to prepare our graduates for adult life? Perspectives from statistics education and adult numeracy
Abstract:
Educators, in whatever level and context of teaching they work, usually aspire to prepare their graduates for effective life as adults, among other goals. However, how well does this work in the field of mathematics education (broadly viewed)? What should we emphasize in a future world that faces both local and global disruptions and many civic pressures? In this plenary lecture, I will draw on insights and findings from two diverse and evolving fields of work, statistics education and adult numeracy, which exist both within and outside mathematics education and in which I have been involved over the last 30+ years. The lecture will focus on and illustrate four separate but related topics, involving the need to merge cognitive and dispositional elements when setting overarching curricular frameworks, understand and prepare graduates for real-world adult practices, develop criticality and a critical stance, and build graduates’ capacity to be critical consumers of authentic texts. Addressing such topics may stretch existing approaches, but is essential for creating more effective and inclusive mathematics, statistics, and numeracy education programs.
Jason Sharples
Professor, Bushfire Dynamics at University of New South Wales
Director, UNSW Bushfire Research Group
Professor Jason Sharples is a mathematical scientist at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). As an internationally recognised expert in dynamic bushfire behaviour and extreme bushfire development, his research has extensively influenced policy and practice in Australia and internationally. He uses complex mathematical and computational models to understand the dynamics of wildfire propagation and to pinpoint geographic features and weather conditions more likely to generate extreme bushfires. Jason is involved in several national research projects and contributes to international professional dialogue. A Bundjalung man, Jason says Indigenous Australians have been innovators and scientists for thousands of years, a heritage that can continue today, especially through fire and land management.
The Mathematics of Bushfire
Abstract:
In this talk I will discuss how mathematics has been used to help us understand bushfire behaviour and to predict its propagation. Specifically, I will discuss some of the basic mathematical models that have traditionally been employed and how they are combined with geometric notions to model the spread of bushfires across a landscape. I will also touch on some of the more recent developments in bushfire research and describe some of the more sophisticated mathematical models that are being considered in this context. Finally, I will discuss how bushfire can be used as a topic to motivate and enhance mathematics education, while weaving in Indigenous perspectives.
Rina Zazkis
Professor, Faculty of Education
Canada Research Chair in STEM Teaching and Learning
Associate Member, Department of Mathematics, SFU, Canada
Rina Zazkis is a Professor of Mathematics Education at the Faculty of Education and associate member in the Department of Mathematics at the Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her research is in the area of undergraduate mathematics education, with a general focus on mathematical knowledge of teachers, and the ways in which this knowledge is developed, modified, and used in teaching. She holds a position of Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, a prestigious recognition of excellence in research and research training. She serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Mathematical Behaviour.
Mathematical scenery en route between teaching and research
Abstract:
My work, as a mathematics teacher educator, aims at enhancing teachers’ mathematics. As a researcher, I design tasks with a pedagogical flavour that are geared towards revealing and then extending teachers’ mathematical knowledge. In particular, I am interested in how connecting undergraduate mathematics to mathematics taught in schools can influence instructional interactions. In my presentation I will focus on the interplay between my teaching and research in mathematics education by sharing several stories in which (a) instructional interactions led the way to research projects and (b) research results informed task design and instructional activity. I will describe pedagogical tasks that unveil the related mathematical knowledge of teachers, exemplify the use of such tasks in research, and demonstrate how subsequent instructional choices build upon and expand teachers’ knowledge whilst highlighting links between tertiary and school mathematics.
Plenary Panels
Plenary panels facilitate shared understanding between different communities of mathematics educators by providing a forum to debate a contested area of work in the field. ICME-15 will see panellists address two major challenges currently facing mathematics educators across the globe:
Plenary Panel 1: Mathematics education effectively responds to humanity’s problems
This panel will take the form of an Oxford debate. Panellists will explore the interaction between mathematics education and issues of enormous importance to society, such as climate change, pandemics, international conflicts, and ongoing inequities. What role, if any, should mathematics education play beyond ensuring that countries have mathematical literate citizens? What are the ethical and practical challenges?
Plenary panellists:
- Chair | Prof. Francis Su, Harvey Mudd College
- Member | Prof. Rochelle Gutierrez, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Member | Prof. Lisa Darragh, University of Auckland
- Member | Prof. Jayasree Subramanian, SRM University Andhra Pradesh
- Member | Prof. Paola Valero, Stockholm University
Plenary Panel 2: What counts as evidence in mathematics education?
Policy makers, teachers, and other stakeholders require evidence in support of calls for change in mathematics teaching and learning. This panel will explore what counts as evidence in mathematics education, including forms of evidence, and the implications for research agendas and methodologies that arise from the need for evidence. How can mathematics education researchers influence the understanding of what constitutes quality evidence? How can we ensure that research evidence is heard, understood, and recognised?
- Chair | Prof. Bharath Sriraman, The University of Montana
- Member | Prof. Fou Lai Lin, National Taiwan Normal University, Chinese Taipei
- Member | Prof. Adrian Simpson, Durham University
- Member | Prof. Trena Wilkerson, Baylor University
- Member | Prof. Despina Potari, University of Athens
