savoy081

The final plenary session at PME-NA was “Reexamining some widely promoted ideas: What do we know, and what do we believe?” by Suzanne Wilson and Deborah L. Ball. They started off by talking about urban myths vs. knowledge. After having described these two concepts, they listed seven popular themes in our field that they wanted to discuss in relation to those two terms – urban myths and knowledge. The first theme they started discussing was teachers’ mathematical knowledge. They started off by presenting some of the main issues in the discussion. Do teachers need college level mathematics courses to be properly prepared for teaching? Knowing the material in depth, knowledge beyond the curriculum, perspectives on mathematics as a discipline are some aspects to it. There also seem to be an unclear relationship between academic study and SCK, PCK. Another perspective is that mathematics needed for teaching is not well-aligned with curriculum for college level mathematics. SW had some inter...

Yesterday, I finished my own presentation at PME-NA in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I presented a paper on behalf of my colleague, Janne Fauskanger and myself. The title of our paper (and my presentation) was: "Wrong, but still right" – Teachers reflecting on MKT items . Obviously, I was a little bit nervous before the presentation – positive kind of being nervous, that is – but I ended up enjoying both my own presentation and the following discussion/comments session. If you want to see the slides I made for the presentation, you can download them here . I also made audio recordings of my presentation, so when I get home I plan on embedding the audio and the slides and post them here. So, stay tuned for that if you are interested :-) For now, I just want to thank everyone of those who came to my presentation! Thanks a lot for all the positive feedback, the comments and the questions!!!

The second plenary at PME-NA was “Articulating a learning sciences foundation for learning trajectories in the CCSS-M” by Jere Confrey . In her presentation, Professor Confrey explained how the learning trajectories were connected with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. Having been a member of the National Validation Committee for the Common Core State Standards, she was able to give some more personal (and very interesting) insights into the development of the common core standards. The details are laid out in her paper (see the proceedings ). As part of her talk, she also shared some of her own experiences with the math war that appears to be going on (and which Jo Boaler talked about in her plenary yesterday). Having listened to her presentation, however interesting it was, I am happy to be a spectator from another country - both when it comes to the CCSS and the ongoing math wars :-) Towards the end of her presentation, she shared some ideas about the importance of u...

The 34th annual conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education ( PME-NA 2012 ) takes place in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The conference started today – Thursday afternoon – with a plenary lecture of Jo Boaler . Boaler is professor of mathematics education at Stanford University, and she is one of the most prominent researchers in our field of research. The topic for her plenary lecture was: "Scaling up innovation: using research to make a difference". The two main foci of her talk was on research design and the communication of research results. Our aim is for research to have more impact. A question then is how to conduct research so as to have more impact on practice? An interesting observation that she made: researchers who are critical about teaching as telling, often do the exact same thing when communicating the results of their research to teachers. We need to translate our research results into “records of pra...

Tomorrow morning, I am starting my journey from Stavanger to Kalamazoo, MI. The reason for my travel is, of course, the coming PME-NA conference . This is going to be my second time at PME-NA, and I am looking forward to it. On Saturday (2:45 pm), I am presenting a paper that I co-authored with my colleague, Janne Fauskanger. For more information about my session, see this direct link  to the online program . If you are interested in reading our paper (Fauskanger & Mosvold, 2012), you can download it below. If you are going to PME-NA yourself, please feel free to get in touch :-) So, now that all is set and I am getting ready for my trip, the only thing I am a little bit worried about is how (or if) the hurricane Sandy is going to affect my trip. Hopefully, I'll only hear about it in the news! References:  Fauskanger, J. & Mosvold, R. (2012). “Wrong, but still right” – Teachers reflecting on MKT items . In L.R. Van Zoest, J.J. Lo, & J.L. Kratky (Eds.), Proceedings of t...

This week, I'll give my first ever lecture in Second Life ! It will take place on Wheeler Island , a virtual island owned by the David Wheeler Institute for Research in Mathematics Education at Simon Fraser University (Canada). Below is a poster about the lecture: [scribd id=108601437 key=key-1905y1zom6b69zjtc55i mode=scroll] If you are interested in attending, please contact Melody Li (melodyjamieli_AT_gmail.com) as soon as possible to help setting up an avatar and gain entry to Wheeler Island!

The latest issue ( volume 44, issue 4 ) in Journal of Curriculum Studies should be of high interest to researchers in mathematics education. It contains six articles that all focus on different aspects concerning the relationship between teacher knowledge (in particular mathematical knowledge for teaching – MKT) and curriculum standards. The articles are written by researchers who all have a connection with the "MKT group" at the University of Michigan, although some of them are employed at other universities at the moment. Here is a list of the articles in the issue: Teacher knowledge, curriculum materials, and quality of instruction: Unpacking a complex relationship , by Charalambos Y. Charalambous & Heather C. Hill Teaching (un)Connected Mathematics: Two teachers' enactment of the Pizza problem , by Heather C. Hill & Charalambos Y. Charalambous Two negatives don't always make a positive: Exploring how limitations in teacher knowledge and the curriculum con...