New Directions and Methodologies in Mathematics Education Research

The Didactics of Mathematics Research Group is organizing a mathematics education research forum entitled "New Directions and Methodologies in Mathematics Education Research." It features two talks: one by Dr Jinfa Cai of the University of Delaware and another by Dr Arindam Bose of the Center of Excellence in Teacher Education of Mumbai. 

Registration is open at: https://forms.gle/SoLhXZt9bXKMnTY59

Mathematical Problem Posing Research: Advances and Future Directions
Dr Jinfa Cai

ABSTRACT

There has been increased emphasis on integrating problem posing into curriculum and instruction with the promise of potentially providing more and higher-quality opportunities for students to learn mathematics as they engage in problem-posing activities. This presentation starts with a historical review of problem posing. Then, based on a Problem-Posing Based Learning (P-PBL) instructional model, current advances about problem posing in curriculum and instruction will be discussed. The presentation concludes with the identification of six areas of future research on problem posing.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Jinfa Cai is the Kathleen and David Hollowell Professor at the University of Delaware, an elected member of USA National Academy of Education (NAEd) and a Fellow of American Educational Research Association (AERA). He served as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and as Program Director at National Science Foundation. Currently, he is the vice-president of International Commission of Mathematical Instruction (ICMI). His research is well-funded from funding agencies, such as the USA National Science Foundation and the Department of Education. Currently, he is working on a 4-year longitudinal research project on problem posing.

Revisiting research on out-of-school mathematics to trace implications for school learning: using lens of funds of knowledge, archaeology and discourse analysis
Dr Arindam Bose

ABSTRACT

The late sixties and early seventies witnessed a spurt in research focusing on alternate ways of learning outside of school, which drew on cultural anthropology to analyse various contexts that created the ground for learning in general. Such approaches often referred to as mathematico-anthropological studies focused on the cultural contexts of thinking and learning. This talk will focus on funds of knowledge, discourse analysis, and archaeological unpacking as frameworks to examine the potential resources available in the community in the form of embedded mathematical practices in the community-based, income-generating work-contexts with the underlying idea that such cultural resources available in the community can potentially support "school mathematics" learning of the children. The talk will argue that such opportunities available to the children create affordances for them to gather mathematical knowledge and to build a connection with their school mathematics learning. Examples of situation-specific competencies developed in everyday contexts that are often linked with “physical referents” and with “socio-cultural meanings” will be discussed and demonstrate how such competencies reflect consistent logical/mathematical principles across different work-contexts.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr Arindam Bose is an Associate Professor at the Centre of Excellence in Teacher Education (CETE, formerly CEIAR), TISS, Mumbai. He also holds a position of Collaborative Professor in the Postgraduate Programme of Mathematics and Science Teaching (PECMA) in Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Brazil. He has been involved in several curriculum development work in many states of India and in conducting professional development workshops for teachers, teacher educators and curriculum planners. He also serves in the Editorial Boards of several international journals of mathematics education research. His current areas of work are history of mathematics education, culture and mathematics cognition and language diversity and mathematics learning. He teaches courses mainly on history of education, child cognition, development and learning, and pedagogy of mathematics.