Challenges and Opportunities: Experiences of Mathematics Lecturers Engaged in Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this paper, we consider the experiences of mathematics lecturers in higher education and how they moved to emergency remote teaching during the initial university closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted in May–June 2020 which received 257 replies from respondents based in 29 countries. We report on the particular challenges mathematics lecturers perceive there to be around teaching mathematics remotely, as well as any advantages or disadvantages of teaching mathematics online that they report. Over 90% of respondents had little or no prior experience teaching mathematics online, and, initially, 72% found it stressful and 88% thought it time-consuming. 88% felt there was a difference between teaching mathematics in this way compared with other disciplines. Four main types of challenges were associated with emergency remote teaching of mathematics: technical challenges; student challenges; teaching challenges; and the nature of mathematics. Respondents identified flexibility as the main advantage of online teaching, with lack of interaction featuring strongly as a disadvantage. We also consider respondents’ personal circumstances during this time, in terms of working conditions and caring responsibilities and conclude by summarizing the impact they perceive this experience may have upon their future teaching. Forty-six percent% of respondents self-identified as having caring responsibilities, and 61% felt the experience would affect their future teaching.

Matematyczne ciało. Wprowadzenie do teorii matematyki ucieleśnionej

Mathematics as a field of knowledge and culture presents researchers with many problems, also of a philosophical nature. One of the issues worth considering when considering the nature of mathematics is the theory of embodied mathematics, which links abstract mathematical thinking with the functioning of the human body in its purely physical dimension. This theory, on the one hand, uncovers new information about the yet unknown neural correlates of mathematics, and on the other hand, it poses important philosophical and cultural questions about the place of mathematics and its role in discovering the rules of reality.

Of the Nature of Math and Math in Nature – a Sequel About Symmetry for Children and Adults

The paper describes activities for developing the notion of symmetries. The activities were performed by a group of children between the ages of 5 and 9 and a parent of two of them. Through play and active work the group explores symmetries in sports, architecture, biology, language, music and mathematics. The activities were carried out outdoors in nature. Ideas for complementary activities with computers are presented. As a result the children demonstrate the ability to recognize symmetries in areas and situations different from the ones set in the activities they performed. This proves the main thesis of the paper: the nature of mathematics can be captured successfully in an informal environment at any age.

Is mathematics created or discovered? Pre-service teachers’ perception on a classic enigma

There are many classic questions about the nature of mathematics which have been an endless debate among philosophers. One of them is about whether mathematics is created or discovered. This research aims to find out the pre-service mathematics teachers’ perception about the classical enigma of mathematics after joining the course of history and philosophy of mathematics education. It was a descriptive qualitative research involving 45 pre-service mathematics teachers in their first-year training. We collected the data using questionnaire and then deepened the findings using semi-structured interview. The results suggest that 40% of the respondents believed that mathematics is created, while the rest 60% believed that mathematics is discovered. The two claims have their basic reasoning in the perspective of the respondents. Those who believed that mathematics is created argued that mathematics exists because of human activities. Therefore, it will never be founded if it is not created first. Meanwhile, those who believed that mathematics is discovered tended to argue that whether or not there is human activities to prove the mathematics phenomena, it is already there as the God created it. Thus, human just discovered it, not create it. Both arguments are interesting and have a potential impact to the mathematics education practice.

Investigation of the Preschool Teacher Candidates’ Philosophical Views on the Nature of Mathematics

Teachers’ views on the nature of maths have a crucial effect on their interactions with children, their choice of method and technique to be used while preparing the curriculum, their decision on the type and frequency of activities to be applied, their behaviors in the classroom, children’s attitudes towards maths and their achievement. With this research, it is aimed to examine teacher candidates’ philosophical views on the nature of maths. The research is in relational scanning model. “The Scale of Philosophical Thoughts on the Nature of Mathematics” was implemented to 141 pre-school teacher candidates studying in 2019-2020, which constitute the sample of the study. As a result of the analysis, it has been found that 52.5% of teacher candidates have an absolutist view, the views of female and male teacher candidates support each other and there is a significant difference between the grade level in they study.

Commentary on Paul Ernest’s Theory about Teachers’ Beliefs and Practice

<p>In this short communication, the author analyzed Paul Ernest’s theory on relationships between teachers’ beliefs, and their impact on teachers’ practice of mathematics. The author considered the teachers’ espoused and enacted models of mathematics assessment in addition to the teachers' views of the nature of mathematics, teaching, and learning models. The author also considered three purposes of mathematics<em> </em>assessment.</p>

Patterns in Mathematics Classroom Interaction

Classroom interaction has a significant influence on teaching and learning mathematics. It is through interaction that we solve problems, build ideas, make connections, and develop our understanding. This book aims to describe, exemplify, and consider the implications of patterns and structures of mathematics classroom interaction. Drawing on a Conversation Analytic approach, the book examines how the structures of interactions between teachers and students influence, enable, and constrain the mathematics that students are experiencing and learning in school. In particular, the book considers the handling of difficulties or errors and the consequences on both the mathematics students are learning, and the learning of this mathematics. The various roles of silence and the treatment of knowledge and understanding within everyday classroom interactions also reveal the nature of mathematics as it is taught in different classrooms. The book also draws on examples of students explaining, reasoning, and justifying as they interact to examine how the structures of classroom interaction support students to develop these discursive practices. Understanding how these patterns and structures affect students’ experiences in the classroom enables us to use and develop practices that can support students’ learning. This reflexive relationship between these structures of interactions and student actions and learning is central to the issues explored in this book, alongside the implications these may have for teachers’ practice, and students’ learning.