This book aims to develop theoretical frameworks of the phenomena of internationalisation and globalisation and identify related ethical, moral, political and economic issues facing mathematics and science educators. It provides a wide representation of views some of which are not often represented in international publications. This is the first book to deal with issues of globalisation and internationalisation in mathematics and science education.
"This book addresses the challenges that face science and mathematics education if it is to be relevant to 21st century citizens, as well as the ways that outstanding specialists from several countries around the world think it should deal with those challenges. Starting with the issue of science and mathematics teacher education in a changing world, it moves on to deal with innovative approaches to teaching science and mathematics. It then discusses contemporary issues related to the role played by technology in science and mathematics education, the challenges of the STEM agenda, and ways of making science and mathematics education more inclusive. Finally, it focuses on assessment issues, as the success of science and mathematics education depends at least in part on the purposes for which, and ways in which, students' learning is assessed. There is a worldwide trend towards providing meaningful science and mathematics education to all children for the sake of literacy and numeracy development and a need to produce enough science and technology specialists. This trend and need, coupled with the concern raised by students' disengagement in these two knowledge areas and the role that technology may play in countering it, put increasingly high demands on teachers. As shown in this book, science and mathematics education may offer a unique contribution in developing responsible citizens by fostering skills required in order to assume wider responsibilities and roles, focusing on personal, social and environmental dimensions. For instance, it offers unique insights into how teachers can build on students' complicated and interconnected real-worlds to help them learn authentic and relevant science and mathematics. Additionally, the book highlights potential positive relationships between science and mathematics, which are often envisaged as having a conflicting relationship in school curricula. By uncovering the similarities between them, and by providing evidence that both areas deal with issues that are relevant for citizens' daily lives, the book explores ways of linking and giving coherence to science and mathematics knowledge as components of everyday life settings. It also provides directions for future research on the educational potential of interconnecting science and mathematics at the different educational levels. Therefore, this is a worthwhile book for researchers, teacher educators and schoolteachers. It covers theoretical perspectives, research-based approaches and practical applications that may make a difference in education that is relevant and inclusive for citizens in the 21st century"--
Amid current efforts to improve mathematics and science education in the United States, people often ask how these subjects are organized and taught in other countries. They hear repeatedly that other countries produce higher student achievement. Teachers and parents wonder about the answers to questions like these: Why do the children in Asian cultures seem to be so good at science and mathematics? How are biology and physics taught in the French curriculum? What are textbooks like elsewhere, and how much latitude do teachers have in the way they follow the texts? Do all students receive the same education, or are they grouped by ability or perceived educational promise? If students are grouped, how early is this done? What are tests like, and what are the consequences for students? Are other countries engaged in Standards-like reforms? Does anything like "standards" play a role in other countries? Questions such as these reflect more than a casual interest in other countries' educational practices. They grow out of an interest in identifying ways to improve mathematics and science education in the United States. The focus of this short report is on what the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a major international investigation of curriculum, instruction, and learning in mathematics and science, will be able to contribute to understandings of mathematics and science education around the world as well as to current efforts to improve student learning, particularly in the United States.
This report aims to 'crack the code' by deciphering the factors that hinder and facilitate girls' and women's participation, achievement and continuation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and, in particular, what the education sector can do to promote girls' and women's interest in and engagement with STEM education and ultimately STEM careers.
Argues that teachers and schools should create hybrid third spaces--neither classroom nor home--in which underserved students can merge their personal worlds with those of math and science.
This book discusses examples of discrete mathematics in school curricula, including in the areas of graph theory, recursion and discrete dynamical systems, combinatorics, logic, game theory, and the mathematics of fairness. In addition, it describes current discrete mathematics curriculum initiatives in several countries, and presents ongoing research, especially in the areas of combinatorial reasoning and the affective dimension of learning discrete mathematics. Discrete mathematics is the math of our time.' So declared the immediate past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, John Dossey, in 1991. Nearly 30 years later that statement is still true, although the news has not yet fully reached school mathematics curricula. Nevertheless, much valuable work has been done, and continues to be done. This volume reports on some of that work. It provides a glimpse of the state of the art in learning and teaching discrete mathematics around the world, and it makes the case once again that discrete mathematics is indeed mathematics for our time, even more so today in our digital age, and it should be included in the core curricula of all countries for all students.
This book provides an overview of current research on a variety of topics related to both large-scale and classroom assessment. First, the purposes, traditions and principles of assessment are considered, with particular attention to those common to all levels of assessment and those more connected with either classroom or large-scale assessment. Assessment design based on sound assessment principles is discussed, differentiating between large-scale and classroom assessment, but also examining how the design principles overlap. The focus then shifts to classroom assessment and provides specific examples of assessment strategies, before examining the impact of large-scale assessment on curriculum, policy, instruction, and classroom assessment. The book concludes by discussing the challenges that teachers currently face, as well as ways to support them. The book offers a common language for researchers in assessment, as well as a primer for those interested in understanding current work in the area of assessment. In summary, it provides the opportunity to discuss large-scale and classroom assessment by addressing the following main themes: ·Purposes, Traditions and Principles of Assessment ·Design of Assessment Tasks ·Classroom Assessment in Action ·Interactions of Large-Scale and Classroom Assessment ·Enhancing Sound Assessment Knowledge and Practices It also suggests areas for future research in assessment in mathematics education.
In the last thirty years or so, the need to address the challenges of teaching and learning mathematics at university level has become increasingly appreciated by university mathematics teachers, and beyond, by educational institutions around the world. Indeed, mathematics is both a condition and an obstacle to success for students in many educational programmes vital to the 21st century knowledge society, for example in pure and applied mathematics, engineering, natural sciences, technology, economics, finance, management and so on. This breadth of impact of mathematics implies the urgency of developing research in university mathematics education, and of sharing results of this research widely. This book provides a bespoke opportunity for an international audience of researchers in didactics of mathematics, mathematicians and any teacher or researcher with an interest in this area to be informed about state-of-the-art developments and to heed future research agendas. This book emerged from the activities of the research project INDRUM (acronym for International Network for Didactic Research in University Mathematics), which aims to contribute to the development of research in didactics of mathematics at all levels of tertiary education, with a particular concern for the development of early-career researchers in the field and for dialogue with university mathematicians. The aim of the book is to provide a deep synthesis of the research field as it appears through two INDRUM conferences organised in 2016 and 2018. It is an original contribution which highlights key research perspectives, addresses seminal theoretical and methodological issues and reports substantial results concerning the teaching and learning of mathematics at university level, including the teaching and learning of specific topics in advanced mathematics across a wide range of university programmes.
This book presents a carefully developed monitoring system to track the progress of mathematics and science education, particularly the effects of ongoing efforts to improve students' scientific knowledge and mathematics competency. It describes an improved series of indicators to assess student learning, curriculum quality, teaching effectiveness, student behavior, and financial and leadership support for mathematics and science education. Of special interest is a critical review of current testing methods and their use in probing higher-order skills and evaluating educational quality.
Numbers surround us. Just try to make it through a day without using any. It's impossible: telephone numbers, calendars, volume settings, shoe sizes, speed limits, weights, street numbers, microwave timers, TV channels, and the list goes on and on. The many advancements and branches of mathematics were developed through the centuries as people encountered problems and relied upon math to solve them. For instance: What timely invention was tampered with by the Caesars and almost perfected by a pope? Why did ten days vanish in September of 1752? How did Queen Victoria shorten the Sunday sermons at chapel? What important invention caused the world to be divided into time zones? What simple math problem caused the Mars Climate Orbiter to burn up in the Martian atmosphere? What common unit of measurement was originally based on the distance from the equator to the North Pole? Does water always boil at 212? Fahrenheit? What do Da Vinci's Last Supper and the Parthenon have in common? Why is a computer glitch called a "bug"? It's amazing how ten simple digits can be used in an endless number of ways to benefit man. The development of these ten digits and their many uses is the fascinating story you hold in your hands: Exploring the World of Mathematics.
