TSG 6: Adult and lifelong mathematics education

Team Chairs
Tine Wedege, Norwegian Center for Mathematics Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Address: Høgskoleringen 5, NO-7034 Trondheim, Norway
tiw@ruc.dk

Jeff Evans, Mathematics and Statistics Group, Middlesex University Business School
Address: The Burroughs, Hendon, London NW4 4BT, United Kingdom
j.evans@mdx.ac.uk

Team Members
Marta Civil, Department of Mathematics, University of Arizona, USA
civil@math.arizona.edu

Gail FitzSimons, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia
gail.fitzsimons@education.monash.edu.au

Wolfgang Schlöglmann, Department of Mathematics, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria
wolfgang.schloeglmann@jku.at

Aims and Focus (updated 290903)

Call for Papers (updated 110204 - guideline for presenters)

Practical Information (updated 201003)

Programme (updated 25060604)

Papers and Discussion Documents (updated 250504)

Photos from the four sessions (updated 170605)

Aims and Focus

TSG6 will gather together a group of Congress participants who are interested in presentations and discussions of important new trends and developments in research or practice related to the topic “Adult and lifelong mathematics education”, from a variety of perspectives. The sessions will be organised with the purpose of providing both an overview of the current state-of-the-art in the topic, and expositions of significant recent contributions to it, as seen from international perspectives.

Adult and lifelong mathematics education is the focus of TSG6. Adults are engaged in a range of social practices, such as working (or seeking work), parenting and caring for other dependents, budgeting and organising consumption, voting, etc. The term lifelong indicates that education takes place in all stages and spheres of life. By mathematics we mean multiple activities and knowledge, including academic mathematics, vocational mathematics, ethnomathematics, folk mathematics and adult numeracy. Regarding education we have adopted the terminology of UNESCO (2000) as a point of departure:

- Informal education means the lifelong process whereby adults are learning mathematics in everyday life (e.g., work, family, leisure, society).

- Formal education refers to the adult educational system from adult basic education and vocational training through further and higher education.

- Non-formal education is defined as any educational activity organized outside the established formal system that is intended to serve identifiable learning objectives.

Some of the issues to be studied and discussed in TSG6:

- Adult numeracy as a competence, building a bridge between school and personal, civic and working life.

- Adults’ beliefs, attitudes and emotions to mathematics, including their resistance and motivation to learn mathematics.

- The role of technology in adult lifelong mathematics education (informal, formal and non-formal).

- Global aspects, such as the role of large-scale studies of adults’ mathematical “needs”.

Adult and lifelong mathematics education has multiple dimensions and we have to approach this subject area from psychological, sociological, anthropological, linguistic, philosophical, economic and political perspectives. The studies and experiences are likely to be linked with issues of class, gender and race.

Key words: globalisation, exclusion, equity, participation, technological and economic development.

Call for Papers
Aims and focus - please see above.

Invitation

If you are interested in participating in TSG6, this call for contributions invites you to send in a proposal. Based on the received proposals the Organizing Team of TSG6 will compose the program. Please keep in mind that Congress policy is that each individual is restricted to one major speaking appearance. The program of TSG6 is thus subject to final approval by the IPC of ICME-10.

Proposals should be in English and should have the following content:

- name(s) of the author(s)

- institution, address, country, e-mail

- title

- abstract with up to four references (400-500 words)

Proposals should be sent to Tine Wedege (a chair of the Organizing Team (OT) of TSG6). Proposals received will be acknowledged upon reception. All members of the OT are willing to give informal advice to anyone preparing a proposal. All OT addresses are listed below.

Proposals must be in the hands of the OT before 30 November, 2003.

Proposers will be informed about the decision of the OT before 15 January, 2004.

Deadline for sending in a full paper is 15 March, 2004.

Organisation and presentation

All proposals received by the due date (see above) will be reviewed by the Organising Team, leading to one of the following outcomes:

(a) The proposal is accepted for the full paper to be published on the TSG6 website before the Congress, plus 'hard-copy' distribution during the TSG6 meetings (if desired, by the contributor) – the normal outcome for successful proposals.

(b) The proposal is accepted as a 20-minute oral presentation in TSG6 during the Congress – the outcome for a small subset of proposals accepted.

(d) The paper is rejected.

The group has four sessions at ICME-10: three 60-minute sessions (Tue, Wed, Fri) and one 90-minute session (Sat). These will be organised by the OT so as to maximise focus, discussion and participation. Parallel sessions may be used.

All papers accepted will be published on the TSG6 website before the Congress.

The Organising Team intend to edit a special issue of an international journal with selected papers accepted for TSG6.

Please consult this website of TSG6, which will be updated continously. On our website, we will also put background papers.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Organizing Team of TSG6

Chairs

Dr. Tine Wedege

Centre for Research in Learning Mathematics

IMFUFA

Roskilde University

P.O. Box 260

DK-4000 Roskilde

DENMARK

e-mail: tiw@ruc.dk

Dr. Jeff Evans

Mathematics and Statistics Group

Middlesex University Business School

The Burroughs

Hendon, London NW4 4BT

UNITED KINGDOM

e-mail: j.evans@mdx.ac.uk

Members

Dr. Marta Civil

Department of Mathematics

University of Arizona

Tucson, AZ 85721

USA

e-mail: civil@math.arizona.edu

Dr. Gail FitzSimons

Faculty of Education

P.O. Box 6

Monash University

Victoria 3800

AUSTRALIA

e-mail: gail.fitzsimons@education.monash.edu.au

Professor, Dr. Wolfgang Schloeglmann

Didaktik der Mathematik

Department of Mathematics

Johannes Kepler University of Linz

Altenbergerstrasse 69

A-4040 Linz

AUSTRIA

e-mail: wolfgang.schloeglmann@jku.at

Short guideline for presenters (TSG6, 2004)

Practical Information
Preliminary time schedule:

Call for Papers 30 September 2003

Proposals 30 November 2003

Papers accepted/rejected 15 January 2004

Full papers 15 March 2004

Papers on the TSG website 15 May 2004

Programme
Topic Study Group 6: Adult and lifelong mathematics education

TSG 6 Building 306 Room A 37

Session 1

Tuesday

Session 2

Wednesday

Session 3

Friday

Session 4

Saturday

12.00

–

13.00

Wedege

00 – 05

FitzSimons

05 – 25

Gillespie

25 – 45

Comments & discussion

45 – 00

Knijnik

00 – 20

Díez-Palomar

et al.

20 – 40

Comments & discussion

40– 00

Coben

00 – 20

Henningsen

20 – 40

Comments & discussion

40 – 00

12.00

–

13.30

Panel & plenary discussion

Evans (chair)

Civil

Groenestijn

O’Donoghue

Volmink

TSG6 will focus on important new developments in research or practice related to adults’ and lifelong mathematics education from a variety of perspectives. The approaches represented in our discussions embrace a range of disciplines (psychology, sociology, politics, pedagogy, anthropology and androgogy), and a spectrum of concerns about inclusion – along lines of gender, class, ethnicity, age and language group. The contributors come from all six continents.

A range of themes will be addressed in the oral presentations, the web-based contributions, and in the final plenary discussion. These include:

· Overviews of recent developments in adult numeracy and mathematics research and practice – session 1 and 3 (FitzSimons; Coben).

· Parents and community as intellectual resources – session 2 (Knijnik; Civil; Wagh).

· Issues of affect, beliefs, motivation, anxiety and identity in adult learners – session 1 and 3 (Evans & Wedege; Schlöglmann; Swain et al.; Viskic & Petocz; Wagh).

· Pedagogic resources: measurement, proportions and reading tables – session 2 (Diez et al.; Civil; Tomlin et al.; Kemp).

· Gender "mainstreaming" and movements of the dispossessed – session 3 and 2 (Henningsen; Knijnik).

· Issues for pre-service teachers and for professional development – session 1 and 2 (FitzSimons; Benhayon & Olivia; Hobden; Maguire & O’Donoghue).

· Roles for functional skills and understanding and commonsense – session 1 and 3 (Coben; Gillespie; Johansen; Colleran & O’Donoghue).

· Methodological issues, such as designing a classroom observation schedule – session 2 (Diez et al.; Knijnik; Rhodes et al.).

· Global issues, including national efforts to survey “skills” in the population – session 1 and 3 (FitzSimons; Gillespie; Henningsen;).

Programme

Session 1

Tuesday 12.00-13.00

Setting the scene. Tine Wedege (Denmark)

An Overview of Adult and Lifelong Mathematics Education. Gail E. FitzSimons (Australia)

The “Skills for Life” national survey of adult numeracy in England. What does it tell us? What further questions does it prompt? John Gillespie (UK)

Comments and discussion

*** Recommended preparatory reading: papers by FitzSimons; Gillespie; Johansen; O’Donoghue & Colleran; Rhodes et al. (see Papers and Discussion Documents)

Session 2

Wednesday 12.00-13.00

“Profaning the holiness” of school mathematics: Adult Education and oral mathematics in the Brazilian Landless Movement. Gelsa Knijnik (Brasil)

Cognitive trajectories in response to proportional situations in adult education. Javier Díez-Palomar, Paloma García Wehrle, and Joaquim Giménez Rodríguez (Spain)

Comments and discussion

*** Recommended preparatory reading: papers by Knijnik; Diez et al.; Benhayon & Olivia; Civil; Hobden; Kemp; Maguire & O’Donoghue; Tomlin et al. (see Papers and Discussion Documents)

Session 3

Friday 12.00-13.00

Putting adult numeracy and mathematics research on the map. Diana Coben (UK)

Gender mainstreaming of adult mathematics education: opportunities and challenges. Inge Henningsen (Denmark)

Comments and discussion

*** Recommended preparatory reading: papers by Coben; Henningsen; Evans & Wedege; Schlöglmann; Swain et al.; Viskic & Petocz; Wagh (see Papers and Discussion Documents)

Session 4

Saturday 12.00-13.30

Panel/plenary discussion: Perspectives on adult and lifelong mathematics education

Speakers include: Marta Civil (USA), Jeff Evans (UK, chair), Mieke van Groenestijn (the Netherlands), John O’Donoghue (Ireland), John Volmink (South Africa).

Organising team

Tine Wedege (tiw@ruc.dk) , Jeff Evans (j.evans@mdx.ac.uk) , Marta Civil (civil@hedgehog.math.arizona.edu) , Gail E. FitzSimons (gail.fitzsimons@education.monash.edu.au) and Wolfgang Schlöglmann (w.schloeglmann@jku.at)

Nordic liaison officer

Morten Blomhøj (blomhoej@ruc.dk)

Papers and Discussion Documents

The 20 papers published on the TSG6 website have been peer-reviewed.

2004. Copyright remains with the authors.

Background papers

Global Directions in Adult Education Policy

Kjell Rubenson Canada/Sweden

Papers to be presented in TSG6 Adult and lifelong mathematics education

When non-constructive paradigms become an opportunity to innovate in mathematical education