At each ICME, a small set of countries and regions highlight their achievements and challenges in mathematics education by presenting a snapshot of important areas of scholarship and work. These presentations typically consist of a series of oral presentations with time for questions and discussion. The session time will be one and a half hours.
Presenting countries and regions are identified through an application process conducted by the IPC. National Representatives of ICMI member states and academic groups representing ICMI member states submitted initial National Presentation proposals for consideration by the IPC in 2022.
ICME-15 National Presentations
Three applications for ICME-15 National Presentations have been accepted to date.
Cambodia
Chan Roath, New Generation Pedagogical Research Center (NGPRC)
Luey Sokea, National Institute of Education (NIE)
Ngeth Youdarith, Academy of Digital Technology (ADT)
Sam Monirath, Provincial Teacher Training Center (PTTC)
Chhay Sophorn, Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, Cambodia (MOEYS)
Teng Senghong, Regional Teacher Training Center (RTTC)
Chea Soth, Phnom Penh Teacher Education College (PTEC)
Kim Cham Roeunvuthy, Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE)
Outline of topics to be covered:
Mathematical Education in Cambodia Before and After Education Reform (2013
We offer a brief history of education in Cambodia and review main characteristics of mathematics education in Cambodia between 1979 and 2013. This will be followed by a focus on the 2013 reform and what followed, including the current plan for the future of mathematics education in Cambodia.
The evolution of mathematics education in Cambodia is naturally strongly related to the country’s economic, social, and political development. It is generally known that in the 1970’s Cambodia went through a difficult period (3 years, 8 months, and 20 days of the killing field regime) in which very few Cambodian intellectuals survived, including teachers. After 1979, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport was forced to minimally trained human resources under the slogan “Those who know more must teach those who know less, those who know less teach those who do not know” (MoEYS, 2019). Efforts to restore the national economy as well as the education sector also included sending students to pursue vocational, intermediate, technical and higher education abroad, through scholarships from many friendly and collaborative countries around the world. Since 1994, most of the students who graduated abroad returned to Cambodia to contribute to the national economic development. But systemic issues are still very vivid, as we face a lack of schools, teachers, study materials (including textbooks) and so on. Most teachers in place lack training about teaching methods, their wages level is often insufficient to make a living, and school management appears to be limited. All this directly affected Mathematics education.
The end of 2013 marked a new turn, when the Cambodian government began to reform the education including significant increase budget for education. To improve the education in general, and mathematics education especially, focus was set on curriculum reform, textbooks development, teaching methods training, and the incorporation 21st century skills as part of the school system’s objectives. Increasing the qualification of teachers emphasize constructivism teaching methods in which students are active learners, problem solving, project-based learning, and the use of technology in teaching mathematics. Since 2015, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport now adds focused on STEM Education from primary education to post-secondary education level. Lifelong learning and professional development of teachers thus appear increasingly important. For most mathematics teachers, a STEM orientation implies going far beyond their field of expertise, thus presenting a considerable challenge. Our current effort to support them in the new development within a larger framework geared for the evolution of the education sector towards “sustainable development” around eight priorities:
Priority 1: Safe school reopening, re-enrolment and resumption study
Priority 2: School reform
Priority 3: Development of high-quality teachers
Priority 4: Digital Education
Priority 5: Promoting STEM Education
Priority 6: Youth Development to Improve 21st Century Skills
Priority 7: Establishment of the Center of Excellence in Higher Education
Priority 8: System Building and Capacity Development
These are strongly related with the global Cambodia Industrial Development Policy’s goal to transform the country’s economy to an industrial and post-industrial era by 2050.
Kenya
Dr. Marguerite Miheso-O’Connor – Kenyatta University
Dr Mary Ochieng – Strathmore university
Dr. Penina Kamina – State University of New York (SUNY) Oneonta university
Prof George Lawi- Masinde Muliro university of science and technology
Dr Duncan Oganga – Masinde Muliro university of science and technology
Dr Michael Obiero – Maseno university
Dr James Musyoka – Maseno university
Ms Mary Sichangi – CEMASTEA
Dr Herine Otieno – IDEMS International
Mr Zachary Mbasu – INNODEMS
Prof David Stern – IDEMS International
We intend for this presentation to inform, inspire, and excite ICME-15 participants as follows:
- Inform: The Kenyan education system has changed immensely over the past 15 years. These changes have included a transformation of the whole of basic schooling toward a Competency Based Curriculum, an explosion of Kenyan Universities from 7 public institutions to over 30 and of course, a societal transformation through the introduction and increasing availability of technology. This presentation will give an accessible overview of the Kenyan context, which intends to inform the international community of the challenges many African countries face.
- Inspire: The extreme challenges faced in many low-resource contexts will be presented through a lens of optimism and hope, by focusing on innovations that are working in this challenging environment. Given our challenging context, we believe that what works for us may be relevant for others.
- Excite: Although we have a small group of committed researchers, the opportunity for research in Mathematics education in the Kenyan context far outweighs our current capacity. We hope our context may attract international researchers to collaborate with us to draw out deeper learnings of global importance from working in low resource environments on topics like implementing CBC reforms.
Lithuania
Rimas Norvaiša – Vilnius University
Bronė Narkevičienė – Kaunas University of Technology
Marytė Skakauskienė – formerly LR Ministry of Education and Science
Outline of topics to be covered:
- A historical overview of mathematics education covering as long a period as possible. It would be necessary to cover the period starting at 1990 in more details after regaining independence from Soviet Union and general outline before 1990.
- Overview of changes in formal mathematics education programs.
- Informal mathematics education in Lithuania: after school mathematics programs, national academy of schoolchildren.
- A system of mathematics teacher training.
- Overview of mathematics Olympiad movement in Lithuania.
- School mathematics education research and mathematics didactics.
Realm of Aotearoa/New Zealand, including Niue and the Cook Islands
This presentation is aligned with two key aims of ICME-15, firstly, to address geographic and other forms of disadvantage in relation to mathematics teaching and learning and secondly, to have a central focus on Indigenous mathematics informing global efforts in mathematics education. This presentation will examine educational systems that have been heavily influenced by colonization and a Eurocentric approach with a resulting negative impact on both Indigenous Māori and Pacific peoples in relation to mathematics teaching and learning. With the underpinning of centering Indigenous knowledge and developing social justice and equitable mathematics classrooms, the presentation will provide an overview of policy, curriculum changes, initiatives, and research projects that have transformative potential. There are many countries that have similar histories of colonization and Eurocentric education systems and this presentation will provide interesting exemplars of the potential for anti-colonization practices in mathematics classrooms and the de-centering colonization.
Tunisia
Inen Akrouti, Jendouba University
Slim Mrabet, Carthage University
Imed Mahnen, Jendouba University
Abdelkader Hamdouni, Carthage University
Outline of topics to be covered:
In Tunisia, the Mathematics curriculum has undergone five major reforms since independence in 1956: the reforms of 1958, 1968, 1978, 1993, and 2008. The first reform of 1958 emphasized the teaching of algebra and analysis as the foundation of mathematical study. The second one in 1968 was influenced by modern mathematics and Bourbaki’s structuralism. The third reform, in 1978, decided to abandon the axiomatic approach. The focus of the official program is no longer the notion of set and algebraic structures. In the 1993 reform, the teaching of mathematics seems characterized by an orientation toward the concrete and a return to elementary algebra. Finally, the modern reform of 2008 seems to respond to social goals assigned to education. The last reform of 2008 seemed to be a response to some societal goals which were conceived as being reached by educational means (within the educational system).
Integration is always one of the most central topics in Tunisian mathematics programs in secondary school. It has been constantly revised and its ecosystem constantly revised. Reimann integral has been included in the programs (1968-1978), while antiderivative has been suggested by the reform introduced in 1993 and applied by the rectangle and trapezium methods and the volume of the solid of revolution method. The 2008 reform suggested the omission of the trapezium and the calculation of the volume methods. Currently, in secondary education and in certain higher education institutions, antiderivative is being taught stricto sensu, while Reimann integral is being taught in the faculties of science and preparatory higher schools.
It seems that all these reforms have failed to face the problems related to the teaching of integration. These difficulties emphasized by teachers and addressed by various reforms are not specific to the Tunisian curriculum. Previous research (particularly in France) highlights the existence of such problems and argued that they cannot be solved by reducing the programs successively, but by adopting coherent approaches that fit the learner’s vision of reality, instead. Thus, if we are convinced that the problem that arises from the way integration is taught is related to the concept of integral, we will not be long in wondering about the relevance and the limits of the approach of the integration by antiderivative must be reviewed.
By way of conclusion, it could be affirmed that the promotion of mathematical reasoning was among the main goals of the five reforms. In these reforms, the learner is supposed to master several types of reasoning, such as deductive, inductive, and absurdum, as well as reasoning by recurrence, and to call up the most appropriate type of reasoning to the situation.
