JEM Publications

Mathematics curriculum development in Finland – unexpected effects

Martio, Olli — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:25:56 +0200

Curricula changes in the Finnish school system have happened in ten year intervals. In mathematics they have followed the international trends. The most obvious changes are the following:

1. Mathematics at school became descriptive - exact definitions and proofs were largely omitted.
2. Geometry and trigonometry were neglected.
3. Computations were performed by calculators and numbers and not on a more advanced level.

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Technologies in the Mathematics University Schools

Xambó, Sebastian — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 01:00:14 +0200

Teachers and students at universities today are surrounded by diverse technologies, but the average profit got from them is not very high, and in addition it presents great variability too. The effects of technology on the curriculum seem to be rather peripheral, even for the new Bologna degrees, and for most people it is not clear, at least in the case of Mathematics, how curricula could be modified to optimize learning with the help of the available technologies. In this talk these issues will be analyzed by first presenting the current situation and then advancing possible ways forward.

Impact of ICT on the Teaching of Maths to VIP (Visually Impaired People)

Archambault, Dominique — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:30:26 +0200

The study of Mathematics has always been particularly difficult for blind individuals. Indeed we can observe that a large majority of blind pupils do not succeed in maths studies, while the average mainstream pupil succeeds more easily. As maths is crucial in most science disciplines, this limits study options and future job opportunities for blind people. We assert that there is no reason that mathematical semantics can not be understood because of blindness; rather the biggest barrier is access to mathematical content, which can only be through speech or Braille.

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Using Web-Based Assignments in Secondary School Mathematics

Viljanen, Marja-Leena — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:53:37 +0200

This paper reports experiences in constructing web-based questions and assignments and delivering weekly exercises and formative tests in mathematics at upper secondary level in the Helsinki School of Natural Sciences.

During the WebALT project 2006-2007 and after it we have been constructing over 1000 algorithmic and interactive web-based questions for upper secondary level. The software we have used is MapleTA.

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EMILeA-stat 2.0 – A web-based learning environment in applied statistics

Burkschat, Marco — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:51:11 +0200

In the time period from April 2001 to December 2004, the development of the web-based learning and teaching environment EMILeA-stat has been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (bmb+f). During this period, a consortium of several German universities was involved in the design and programming of the environment as well as the creation of its contents. EMILeA-stat contains a wide variety of introductory texts, examples, exercises and interactive visualizations for different topics in statistics and probability.

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Enhancing traditional teaching through the STACK CAA system

Hammond, Simon — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:57:11 +0200

A hallmark of the traditional approach to teaching is the importance of practice. Computer aided assessment provides one mechanism to automate this, providing immediate feedback to students and relieving teachers from repetitive marking. This paper is a follow-up to the JEM presentation given in Lisbon in Feb 2007 in which we asked "what is a mathematical question?". In this talk we will provide our answer. In particular we shall demonstrate the concept of mathematical question which has been implemented as part of the STACK computer aided assessment system.

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ICT in the Portuguese Education, the initiatives EECM, PmatE, TexMat, and IntBooks, and the importance of Abstract Abilities

Rocha, Eugénio A.M. — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:00:14 +0200

In this talk, we will discuss three main issues: (a) the importance of ICT in the Portuguese Education System (PES), including new national initiatives and their impact in the New Curriculum for the Portuguese Basic Education; (b) the initiatives EECM, PmatE, TextMat, and IntBooks; and (c) our point of view regarding the current PES, the TERC reform in the US, and how the AA model may help to clarify some questions in Education.

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Should we still teach kids to multiply and to divide?

Seppälä, Mika — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:57:55 +0200

The number of students studying sciences in Europe has steadily declined to such an extent that this is seen as a threat to the competitiveness of Europe. In France the decline has been about 5% each year during the past several years. Inquiry Based Study, IBS, is the paradigm that is generally seen as a possible way to increase students’ interest in sciences.

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Developing and experimenting a Dynamic Geometry and Computer Algebra environment

Lagrange, Jean-baptiste — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:33:11 +0200

Developing and experimenting a Dynamic Geometry and Computer Algebra environment for the upper-secondary algebra and calculus curriculum.

In France, at at upper secondary level, students have to consolidate their algebraic proficiencies in order to tackle pre-calculus.

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Collaborative Enhancement of Mathematical Grammar Libraries

Ranta, Aarne — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:56:04 +0200

The WebALT project created a translator of mathematical teaching material from OpenMath formulas to seven European languages. This translator has recently become open-source, which opens new ways to develop and extend it. One of the main ambitions is to extend the system to cover all of the 23 official languages of the European Union. This goal requires organized collaboration of voluntary work. The main part of the work is the implementation of the GF Resource Grammar Library to new languages.

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