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Across the United States, there is a growing number of students for whom English is not their first language. These students experience many challenges adjusting to new educational environments. These students are often denied access to the full curriculum in mathematics (Reyes & Fletcher, 2003) and the resulting opportunities for higher level educational experiences in mathematics and the resulting higher economic employment options. Educators need support in understanding and responding to the linguistic and cultural challenges that these students face in learning mathematics. A course entitled Language, Culture, Mathematics and the LEP Learner is part of the doctoral courses available to Curriculum and Instruction students at UNC Charlotte. The course focuses on theoretical and applied models of teaching and learning mathematics for English as Second Language Learners. Research and current practice are reviewed with an emphasis on the design, implementation, and assessment of instruction for this population of learners. A qualitative analysis of students’ final research projects using narrative analysis methodologies showed that students (1) position issues within a larger sociocultural framework (2) advocate for the negotiation of pedagogical principles that blend language learning strategies with effective mathematics pedagogy and (3) identify assessment policies and processes that are supportive and limiting for these learners.

Single sex classes have recently been emphasized as an effective way to promote mathematics learning. Despite their popularity, the research on the effectiveness of such programs is mixed underscoring the need for additional research and discussion. This research is set in one of the twenty-five largest public school systems in the United States, where schools have recently been allowed to begin instructional initiatives with same sex classes in mathematics. Preliminary data on the effectiveness of one program will be highlighted. Achievement data, compared to traditional classes, will be considered to demonstrate the academic effectiveness of the project. Qualitative data analysis will provide a rich description of the affective issues relative to this innovation. The current project will be framed in critical analysis of the research literature and will discuss the potential benefits and disadvantages both from this current project and from the related literature.

The complete solution of real/life problems starts with the specification of the problem, its expression using mathematical concepts, solving it using a mathematical apparatus and interpreting its results using the terminology of the original problem area. In this four-stage process, graphic calculators can be efficiently used for speeding up its third (“purely mathematical”) stage. The application of ICT will free the teachers’ hands and allow them to concentrate on the pre-solution and post-solution relationships between the problem and its mathematical classification, representation, and meaning. During our 60-minute hands-on workshop, this principle will be demonstrated on examples from financial mathematics and other real-life problems using CASIO ClassPad. The workshop participants can play the role of learners. They are also invited to discuss and express their opinions on even more effective exploitation of this flexible tool. No previous experience with CASIO ClassPad is needed.

In this presentation I will report on a work-in-progress study that I am presently undertaking with second year General Mathematics undergraduate B.Ed students at a private institution for teacher education in South Africa. I first implemented the idea of reflective writing informally with scholars and then later for assessment purposes with undergraduate students. These tasks provoked very different responses from the scholars and university students, both positive and negative and prompted informal research by myself to ascertain how reflective practices can be incorporated into the mathematics curriculum. My primary objective is to investigate how I, as a lecturer can encourage and motivate students to engage in and make reflective practices an integral part of both their learning and understanding of mathematics and their teaching practice. Thus the focus of my presentation will be on different types of reflective practices and how they can be incorporated into a higher education mathematics programme.

This research aimed to discuss the indigenous students’ learning effects of mathematics which was based on the self-designed localization and materialization of mathematics activities and had proceeded for one year. The quasi-experimental method was used in this research. There were 58 indigenous first grade students which were divided into three experimental groups (A, B, C) and one control group (D). Experimental instruments embodied written tests and manipulative tests which were designed by researchers according to the indicators proclaimed by Ministry of Education. The main findings were as followed: (1) The influence of localization and materialization of mathematics activities on the indigenous first grade students’ learning effects was limited. (2) According to the result of Paired T-test of the written and manipulative tests, most of scores of manipulative tests were higher written tests.

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This workshop aims to share the success of the Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP) in bringing mathematics to life for students and teachers. A range of interactive enrichment programmes and their innovative ideas and resources will be shared. Two MMP outreach projects will be explained in detail as the main focus of the workshop: (1) The Enigma Project, (2) The Risk Roadshow. Both projects travel to primary and secondary schools as well as universities, organisations, science festivals and residential camps, both nationally and internationally.

This paper presents the interest of the “instrumental conflict” concept, developed by Marquet (2005), to understand the relationship between didactics and classroom management in the training programs of math teachers. It also shows some results of a survey, conducted in 2008 among pre-service teachers in the Université du Québec en Outaouais (Canada), revealing a perceived gap between both domains. However, those two domains are closely related during teaching in the classroom. The paper also presents a plan to better understand and improve the situation. Cooperation between classroom management and didactics specialists is highlighted.

Drawing on some 30 years’ experience in the UK and Central Europe, the author offers four assertions, three about education generally and the fourth that of the title. There the case is argued that statistics is a branch of logic, and therefore should be taught by experts in such subjects as philosophy and law and not exclusively by athematicians. Education in both Statistics and these other subjects would profit in consequence.