WG 1a:

Mathematics education in the aboriginal community

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

One of the recommendations found in the Minister of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development’s National Working Group on Education’s final report is that “post-secondary institutions and teacher education programs adopt multiple strategies to increase substantially the number of Aboriginal secondary school teachers…” (p. 43). The report also identifies the importance of developing culturally relevant curricula, pedagogy and resources that would address the identified weaknesses in mathematics and science. In what way or ways might the mathematics education community in Canada contribute to the development of these curricula, pedagogy, and resources?

Objectives

In this working group the following questions will form a framework for our discussion as to the way(s) in which the mathematics education community in Canada can respond to the identified need within the Aboriginal community.

• In what ways do the aboriginal sense of knowing effect the teaching of mathematics in aboriginal communities?
• Is it possible to separate the challenges of learning and teaching mathematics in the aboriginal community from those encountered for other disciplines?
• What type of education about aboriginal communities should teachers of mathematics receive?
• What types of programs might universities offer to help aboriginal students to make the transition into mathematics and science programs?
• How is mathematics viewed within the aboriginal community?
• How might the efforts of this working group be shared after the forum?

WG 1b:

Early numeracy: Developing Mathematical Literacy in the Early Years

Working Group Leaders

Description

Several provinces have large scale efforts in a direction that they call “early numeracy;” how is early numeracy defined? Are these efforts interventions for “students at risk” at an early age or are the efforts focused on something else? What are the underlying values to these provincial efforts?

Objectives

In this working group the following questions will form a framework as to consider early numeracy in Canada:

• Which provinces do have “early numeracy” directions? What are these directions? Is early numeracy only counting?
• What is the philosophy underlying each of those directions?
• What types of “guidelines” exist for preschool or early numeracy programs?
• In what way(s) do these directions encourage programs to acknowledge the understandings that children come with and then build on that understanding?
• What types of initiatives can encourage the development of early numeracy through home connections?

WG 1c:

Why is mathematics relevant in our society?

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

In the conversations leading to the 2005 Forum, the question of the relevance of mathematics for our students often came out as an issue. This working group considers this question in the following way: what is relevant for the general citizen living in our society?

There are different answers to this question, but it is often hard to make the link between these answers and what is done in our classrooms. Teachers say they need more than just reasons why mathematics is important; they need examples that can be worked on in classes.

Objectives

• Identify some good examples which illustrate both the relevance and the feasibility in a classroom setting.
• Address some of the less conventional connections with respect to relevance, namely in other human creative endeavours like visual arts, dance and music.
• Document resources which address this question.
• In what ways do these examples fit in the school mathematics program? How would things have to change so they did?

WG 1d:

Supporting Student Success – Helping students reach their potential

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

Virtually all jurisdictions across Canada are showing great concern for students who are “at risk” or in other words, are struggling to learn Mathematics. This concern is appropriate because the students that graduate from our schools must be able to cope in a highly technological and information-based world whether they pursue studies in higher education or enter the workforce Even if students are doing well they may not reach their potential in terms of mathematical understanding and may not be able to fully contribute to society. The definition of “at risk” Mathematics students should be broad enough to include those students who are in jeopardy of receiving their high school diploma because they cannot meet the Mathematics course requirements and those students who may be “passing” but are not learning the Mathematics they are capable of learning.

Objectives

This working group should address the following guiding questions:

1. How can we truly engage students in Mathematics throughout their schooling years?
2. For those students who are struggling, how can we address their needs so that they can reach their potential?
3. What initiatives are governments and boards of education from across Canada taking to meet the needs of struggling learners in Mathematics?
4. Should society (governments, boards of education) provide large amounts of resources so that all high school graduates meet an acceptable "numeracy" standard?

WG 2a:

Creating a curriculum that affords learners opportunity to develop powerful mathematics

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

As evidenced by recent “back-to-basics” and “teaching-for-understanding” movements, much of the debate about grade school mathematics curricula is organized around the assumption that there is a tension between technical proficiency and conceptual understanding. Is this tension a necessary one? Or is it possible to create a curriculum in which proficiency and understanding are framed in terms of complementary—indeed, codependent—relationship? What sorts of resources and preparations would be needed to ensure the successful introduction of such a curriculum?

We will explore these sorts of questions in this working group. Discussions will be informed by brief presentations of the origins of the proficiency/understanding debate and recent research into the interdependencies of technical competency and conceptual competence.

WG 2b:

Learning in the presence of technology

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

This working group will bring together mathematics education researchers and mathematics educators from across Canada to explore how research, practice, hardware and software can combine to ensure that learning mathematics does in fact take place in the presence of technology.

• What might a technology-rich curriculum look like?
• Articulate the skills and concepts that can be enhanced through the use of the different technologies (e.g., critical thinking).
• Explore the issue of equity in access to and use of technologies to learn mathematics.
• Explore effective teacher professional learning models to support the effective use of technology for new and existing teachers of mathematics.
• Explore what role technologies might play in elementary mathematics education.

WG 2c:

Mathematics through the eyes of a child

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

The working group will analyse examples of practices which take Mathematics through the eyes of a child into consideration in a constructive way. The children referred to are meant to be in grades K-8. This analysis will touch upon the following questions.

• How do teachers (and possibly families, societies or communities) adjust their point of view so that they better understand their children's view of the world?
• If there is a specific context in a given example, then what makes it an interesting context for children? When and how is the transition made from the context to the introduction of the mathematical concepts? Must some of these concepts be taught before discussing the specific context?

Objectives

1. Increase our understanding of the characteristics of activities taking Mathematics through the eyes of a child into consideration in a constructive way, their advantages as well as the obstacles to undertaking such activities.
2. Come up with some specific recommendations to be shared with the wider mathematics teaching and education community.

WG 2d:

Classroom practice and mathematics education research

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

The relationship between educational research and educational practice has often been described in terms of separate worlds. The working group is concerned with models and means to bring practice and research into more complementary relationship. The group will consider issues around collaborative projects, teacher-research, communications between groups, and the development of resources.

Objectives

1. Provide a space where teachers and researchers can discuss this issue together.
2. Analyse projects of research and teaching, with a view toward articulating a complementary relationship.
3. Discuss projects and models in which research clearly informs practice and practice informs research.
4. Develop some recommendations, including means to address the tendency to conceive of teacher-research relationships in terms of hierarchies and gaps.

WG 3a:

Developing a national mathematics teaching community

Working Group Leaders

Description

This working group will address the question: in what ways might we develop and sustain a national mathematics teaching community? The interest in developing a national mathematics teaching community developed following the 2003 Forum. Since that time, two meetings have occurred with representatives from different provincial mathematics teachers organizations to discuss the possibility of organizing a national organization for mathematics teachers. The deliberations at these meetings saw value in the development of such an organization, and the Canadian Association for the Teaching of Mathematics (CATM)/Association canadienne pour l’enseignement des mathématques (ACEM) is in the process of being been formed.

Objectives

The focus of this working group will be to identify projects and initiatives that will establish sustainability of the ACEM/CATM.

WG 3c:

Supporting Teacher Success

Report

Working Group Leaders

Description

This working group will address the question: how do we support teacher success? The aim will be to identify what support the mathematics education community, at the elementary and secondary levels, needs, and to consider those issues that can be addressed at a national level. It is anticipated that members of the working group will represent two constituencies, namely, individuals who are well placed to know the support which is desired that is, teachers, mathematics consultants, mathematics education representatives from ministries of education, etc., and individuals who can assist in the delivery of that support.

It is hoped that participants will provide good examples of mathematics teacher support, both at the elementary and secondary level, which can be shared and considered for generalization to other parts of Canada. Such examples could include individual mathematics courses for teachers being offered across the country, and other in-service, pre-service and professional development activities, discussing how they can be designed to support teachers' success. In particular, the working group will be interested in the mathematical knowledge useful for teaching.

Objectives

There are two specific objectives for this working group:

1. to engage in a national conversation about these issues,
2. to recommend a few concrete actions to support teacher success at a national level