# Mathematics Education for the next Decade, September 10-15, 2017

The 13th International Conference of the Mathematics Education for the Future Project in Catania, Sicily September 2015, was attended by 130 people from 22 countries. The next conference will be held NEXT YEAR at Balatonfüred, Balaton lake, Hungary from September 10-15, 2017. The conference title, Mathematics Education for the next Decade, continues our search for innovation in mathematics, science, computing and statistics education. Our thirteen previous conferences since 1999 were renowned for their friendly and productive atmosphere, and attracted many /movers and shakers/ from around the world.

We now call for papers and workshop summaries for presentation at the conference and publication in the printed conference proceedings. For further details and updates please email alan >>at<< cdnalma.poznan.pl

# The international conference on E-Assessment in Mathematical Sciences

The international conference on E-Assessment in Mathematical Sciences is a two-day academic conference organised by Newcastle University.

The conference aims to bring together researchers and practitioners with an interest in e-assessment for mathematics and the sciences. It will consist of a mix of presentations of new techniques, and pedagogic research, as well as workshops where you can get hands-on with leading e-assessment software.

The conference website is http://eams.ncl.ac.uk/.

The deadline for talk proposals is next Tuesday, the 31st of May (though that might be extended if we don’t get too many proposals in the next week), and the deadline for delegate registration is the 30th of June.

Thanks,
Christian Lawson-Perfect

# Mathematics in the news this week

France DGSE: Spy service sets school code-breaking challenge

France’s external intelligence service, the DGSE, has sponsored a school competition to find the nation’s most talented young code-breakers.

It is the first time the DGSE has got involved in such a project in schools.

The first round drew in 18,000 pupils, and just 38 competed in the final on Wednesday, won by a Parisian team.

“The main message is mathematics is not about numbers and figures,” [Mark] Saul said. “It’s about figuring things out. Whenever you’re figuring something out, you’re doing something mathematical.”

Rebecca Hanson has opened her agency Authentic Maths to help Primary School Teachers in the UK offering solutions to the difficulties being experienced with the implementation of the Government’s changes to the primary mathematics curriculum.

UK follows Russia’s example to set up specialist sixth form maths colleges:

A key figure in the establishment of specialist maths institutions in the UK was Baroness (Alison) Wolf, a professor at King’s College London. She knew about Russian maths skills because of her work in universities, where maths departments often attract a fair few Russian academics.

Initially, the idea in the UK was for universities to set up a nationwide network of specialist maths schools. However, only King’s College London and Exeter have taken the plunge.

# Tony Brown: Can England Staff its Schools?

Key issues in the supply of Qualified Teachers in the light of the Education White Paper 2016 – a Scrutiny Seminar 4-6pm Monday June 6th 2016.

The Education White Paper 2016 makes bold claims for the supply of teachers in English schools and the future training of qualified teaching staff. The key thrust of the paper is to shift the balance of teaching into schools, asserting that existing moves to schools’ level, notably School Direct, have proved successful. Involvement of universities (HEIs) is to be limited to a few ‘top’ universities, while standards would be set by headteachers in a few elite training schools.

But are the proposals in Chapter 2 acceptable? Given the widely reported claims of teacher shortages, have the current systems proved successful? And will the proposals improve or damage the supply of Qualified Teachers? How do they relate to the ongoing policy of academisation, with the intention of allowing all schools to employ unqualified teaching staff?

It is a fundamental contradiction that schools following the plans outlined must apply a lengthy, variable accreditation process for qualification – without Qualified Teacher Status being granted – but academies can employ unqualified staff in the classroom.

The Scrutiny Seminar will examine three key issues in the light of the overall thrust of the paper and the ongoing debate on teacher shortages in English Schools. These are

• the implications for teacher training/education in English schools through accreditation at school level
• the role of school based training notably School Direct
• the effect on individual subject provision, with mathematics as a case study, with the definition of a mathematics teacher and the current drive through bursaries and adverts to attract staff suggesting specific and general issues with supply.

The speakers will be

• Alison Ryan of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers on the implications for schools
• Professor Tony Brown of Manchester Metropolitan University on the latest research on School Direct provision
• Dr Sue Pope of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics on the case study of supply of Mathematics teachers

The meeting will be chaired jointly by Lord Watson of Invergowrie and Trevor Fisher of SOSS

To book a place at the seminar send your details to richardksidley >>at<< gmail.com. It will take place in the House of Lords. Attendance applications must be received by 5pm on 3rd June.

Sponsored by the Symposium on Sustainable Schools (SOSS)

# Three PhD studentships at Loughborough

The Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University has three fully-funded PhD studentships available to start in October 2016. Each project is full time for three years.

# Tony Gardiner: “The Man Who Knew Infinity”

The film The Man Who Knew Infinity  goes on UK general release from 8th April.

It is a compressed, and beautifully dramatised version of the theme treated more fully in Robert Kanigel’s double biography of the same name – which treats Ramanujan alongside a partial portrait of G.H.Hardy.
Mathematicians can be remarkably unforgiving about attempts to present mathematics to a general audience.  And Ramanujan’s story could so easily be cheapened – with awkward aspects being trivialised, in order to pander to current prejudices.  The Good News is that, not only has this been avoided, but the film manages to incorporate much of the detail and spirit of what we know, while using its dramatic freedom to confront important issues that are often either treated too tritely, or passed over in silence.  The project may have taken 10 years in the making, but the result has been worth it.
As someone who does not usually watch movies, I simply encourage everyone to see it
(perhaps several times), to encourage others to see it, and to use it to discuss the issues which it raises.
A film is not meant to be a reflection of reality.  This film would seem to be a fairly faithful representation of what we know in those areas where fidelity matters. In other respects it  exercises flexibility.  In contrast to Ramanujan, Dev Patel is slim and beautifully formed; yet he manages to capture an essential seriousness and devotion which is entirely plausible.  His wife is portrayed as older and I suspect much more beautiful than the real Janaki; yet her portrayal of profound simplicity is moving in a way that seems entirely appropriate (whether or not it is documented).
In his review for the February issue of the Notices of the AMS
George Andrews suggested that the film will help students appreciate the importance of “proofs”.  In fact, the struggle between proof and intuition, between Hardy and Ramanujan, is not so cleanly resolved, and there is a danger that the film may leave many strengthened in their belief in mathematical invention as “magical intuition”.  So the film should be used to actively encourage a deeper discussion of the relative importance of proof, and what is too often simply labelled “intuition” (as if it were not susceptible to, any further explanation).
Here is a chance to grapple with the often neglected interplay between
(a) technical, or formal, training in universal methods – whereby my individual “mental
universe” is disciplined to fit with yours (or with some imaginary “Platonic ideal”),
and
(b) our individual, idiosyncratic way of thinking about these shared objects and processes – whereby my thoughts avoid being mechanical replicas of everyone else’s, and so provide scope for originality.
Without the second, we are little better than machines.  And without the first, we are almost bound to go astray.
Almost all students need a significant dose of (a) before their (b)-type thoughts can become fruitful.  But some individuals’ (b)-type thoughts flourish – mostly unerringly – with relatively little (a)-type formalism. One thinks of Euler, or Schubert, or 19th century Italian algebraic geometers, or Feynman, or Thurston, or … .  The problem is then how to check the resulting claimed insights, to embed them within mathematics as a whole, and to make the methods available to the rest of us.  By neglecting such delicate matters we leave a vacuum that is too easily filled by half-truths.
Tony Gardiner

# Tony Gardiner Receives the 2016 Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education

Citation for the 2016 Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education to

Dr. Anthony David Gardiner

It is with great pleasure that the Award Committee hereby announces that the 2016 Award is given to Dr. Anthony D. Gardiner, currently retired from University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, in recognition of his more than forty years of sustained and multiple major contributions to enhancing the problem-solving skills of generations of mathematics students in the United Kingdom (UK) and beyond.

Gardiner’s major achievements include:

• orchestrating teams of volunteers from many constituencies, including teachers, mathematics educators and university mathematicians, to create a portfolio of mathematics contests, leading eventually to the creation of the UK Mathematics Trust, which creates problem-solving challenges taken by well over half a million students per year;
• creating structures that dramatically increased and broadened participation in mathematics competitions and other activities supporting UK participation in the International Mathematics Olympiad;
• leading the UK IMO team (1990 – 95);
• creating problem solving journals for school students (including grading thousands of solutions personally), leading eventually to the Problem Solving Journal for Secondary Students (edited by Dr. Gardiner since 2003, with a circulation over 5,000);
• authoring 15 books on mathematical thinking and mathematical problem solving, including Understanding Infinity, Discovering Mathematics: the art of investigation, Mathematical Puzzling (all reprinted by Dover Publications), the four volume series Extension Mathematics (Oxford), and the recent Teaching mathematics at secondary level (Open Book Publishers).

In addition, Gardiner’s expertise on the problem-solving abilities of English schoolchildren, and his insights into omissions in UK mathematics education has led to his being consulted by multiple UK Ministers of State for Education, and have influenced significant changes in the UK mathematics curriculum. Gardiner has also served in multiple high level leadership positions in mathematics education both in the UK and internationally, including Council of the London Mathematical Society, and member of the Education Committee (1990s), Presidency of the (UK) Mathematical Association in 1997-98, chair of the Education Committee of the European Mathematical Society (2000-04), and Senior Vice President of the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions (2004-08). He has addressed major teacher conferences in more than 10 countries, and he was an Invited Lecturer at the 10th International Congress of Mathematics Education in 2004. He has organized many meetings and programs to support mathematics education, teacher professional development, and to promote problem solving. He has contributed numerous articles to newspapers and magazines to communicate the goals of successful mathematics education to a broader public. Both the extent and impact of Gardiner’s efforts are remarkable. He provides an inspiring example of how a mathematician can have a positive impact on mathematics education; he is a most worthy recipient of the Texas A&M Award for Excellence in Mathematics Education.

Gardiner received his doctorate in 1973 from the University of Warwick, UK. He taught at the University of East Africa from 1968-69, University of Birmingham from 1974 to 2012. During that time he worked at the Free University of Berlin on a fellowship, and held numerous visiting positions including at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, University of Waterloo, the University of Melbourne and the University of Western Australia.

This  award  is  established  at the Texas  A&M  University to  recognize  works  of  lasting significance  and  impact  in advancing  mathematics  education  as  an  interdisciplinary field  that  links mathematics,  educational  studies  and  practices.  In  particular,  the award  recognizes major  contributions  to  new  knowledge  and  scholarship  as  well  as exemplary contributions  in  promoting  interdisciplinary  collaboration  in  mathematics
education.
This  is  an  annual  award  that  consists  of  a  commemorative  plaque  and  a  cash  prize ($3000). A recipient will be selected yearly and will be invited to give a keynote talk, with all travel expenses covered, at a workshop dedicated to advancing mathematics education. Moreover, subject to the availability of the recipient, a housing allowance and a$5000  stipend  will  also  be  provided  to  the  recipient  to  spend  two  weeks  in residence  at  Texas  A&M  University  interacting  with  students  and  faculty  in  seminars and  informal  mentoring  sessions.

# Simon Jenkins: Our fixation with maths doesn’t add up

in The Guardian, Thursday 10 March 2016. A random paragraph:

There is nothing, except religion, as conservative as a school curriculum. It is drenched in archaic prejudice and vested interest. When the medieval church banned geography as an offence against the Bible, what had been the queen of the sciences never recovered. Instead Latin dominated the “grammar” curriculum into the 20th century, to the expense of all science. Today maths is the new Latin.

# A. Borovik: Sublime Symmetry: Mathematics and Art

A new paper in The De Morgan Gazette:

Form the Introduction:

This paper is a text of a talk at the opening of the Exhibition Sublime Symmetry: The Mathematics behind De Morgan’s Ceramic Designs  in the delighful Towneley Hall  Burnley, on 5 March 2016. The Exhibition is the first one in Sublime Symmetry Tour  organised by The De Morgan Foundation.

I use this opportunity to bring Sublime Symmetry Tour to the attention of the British mathematics community, and list Tour venues:

06 March to 05 June 2016 at Towneley Hall, Burnley
11 June to 04 September 2016 at Cannon Hall, Barnsley
10 September to 04 December 2016 at Torre Abbey, Torbay
10 December 2016 to 04 March 2017 at the New Walk Gallery, Leicester
12 March to 03 September 2017 at the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow

William De Morgan, Peacock Dish. The De Morgan Foundation.

# UK Mathematics Trust: Teacher Meetings

These one-day professional development seminars, held at various venues throughout the United Kingdom, offer maths teachers the opportunity to discover inspirational ideas for motivating pupils across the ability range. They provide a number of ways in which teachers can continue their professional development and all delegates will benefit from:

• Developing ideas for making maths fun and engaging for students;
• An interesting day out of the classroom with ideas for creating an engaging and motivational learning environment;
• Receiving a delegate pack filled with resources to take back to the classroom, along with a CPD attendance certificate;
• Meeting other mathematics professionals from their region and beyond, with the time to discuss and exchange best practice.

The dates and venues of the 2016 teacher meetings (with links to agendas/speakers) are as follows:

• 20 May:  Edinburgh University of Edinburgh
• 10 June: Belfast W5 Odyssey, Belfast
• 21 June: Greenwich Greenwich Campus, University of Greenwich
• 24 June: Cardiff Cardiff City Hall
• 27 June: Cambridge Centre for Mathematical Studies, Cambridge
• 1 July:    Leeds University of Leeds

Would you like to book a place? Click here for the booking form.