[Maths-Education] CERME5- WG8

[Candia Morgan]

The Fifth Conference of the European Society for Research in Mathematics
Education (CERME 5)
22nd – 26th February 2007

  Working Group 8

Mathematics and Language

Call for papers

The importance of language and communication in learning and in the  
social practices of classrooms has been recognised increasingly in  
recent years both within the mathematics education community and more  
generally among social scientists and educators. This recognition has  
had both theoretical and practical aspects. On the one hand,  
researchers have been seeking to develop theoretical frameworks for  
understanding the nature of mathematical language and other specialised  
semiotic systems and processes of communication in mathematics  
classrooms, the relationships between these and doing and learning  
mathematics, and the role of ‘everyday’ language in mathematical  
activity. They have also sought  to develop methodologies for studying  
language-based practices in mathematics classrooms. The development of  
theory and of empirical research in this area has been marked by the  
use of a wide variety of theoretical and methodological resources  
adopted and adapted from the disciplines of linguistics, semiotics,  
psychology and sociology as well as those developed primarily within  
mathematics education itself.

At the same time, many curriculum reformers have been advocating the  
development and use of activities for teaching and learning mathematics  
that involve learners in generative language use such as discussing or  
writing-to-learn or engaging in argumentation. Such curriculum  
innovations have sometimes arisen from clearly stated principles or  
beliefs about the effects they may have on learning but have also  
sometimes been adopted from a less rigorously articulated belief in the  
benefits of “classroom discourse”.

A basic goal for research in this area is to develop our understanding  
of which aspects of the various semiotic systems used in doing,  
learning and teaching mathematics and which processes of language use  
and communication are critical to the construction of specifically  
mathematical meanings and how these are effective. This is needed to  
lead us to a better understanding of the linguistic and communicative  
competences and means appropriate for doing and learning mathematics.  
It should also provide us with well-founded suggestions for the design  
of language-related practices to develop and support mathematical  
thinking at various levels of education.

This Working Group aims to provide a critical forum for dialogue:
♣	to develop better understanding of the various theoretical  
approaches, what each has to offer and how they may complement or  
present alternatives to each other;
♣	to consider methodological approaches to the study of language and  
other semiotic systems, their use, and communication within mathematics  
and mathematics education;
♣	to share the outcomes of empirical studies of language use and  
communication within mathematical practices;
♣	to consider implications for practice.

Our focus is on language and communication, interpreted in a broad  
sense to include different  forms of representation and channels of  
communication, within the contexts of study of mathematics and  
mathematics education. Any paper of relevance to the overall focus of  
the group will be considered, though we will be particularly interested  
in theoretical, methodological, empirical or developmental papers on  
themes such as:
♣	the nature of semiotic systems and processes in mathematics and their  
interplay
♣	the role of semiotic systems and processes in the development of  
conceptualisation
♣	multi-modal communication in mathematics
♣	mathematics and/or mathematics education as discursive practices
♣	the study of communication in mathematics classrooms
♣	linguistic and/or communicative competence and mathematics learning
♣	development of linguistic and/or communicative competences in  
mathematics
♣	learning mathematics in multilingual settings (contributors on this  
theme should consider before submitting their papers whether these will  
be better suited to the work of this group or of Working Group 10  
“Mathematics Education in Multicultural Settings”)
♣	teaching or curriculum strategies that promote use of language by  
learners of mathematics.
In order for this field of research to develop greater maturity,  
analytic tools need to be published in a form that is explicit enough  
to allow them to be applied by others. This would enable researchers to  
build productively on earlier work and to make meaningful evaluations  
and comparisons between the results of studies undertaken by different  
researchers in different contexts. We therefore particularly welcome  
papers that focus on the development and application of analytic tools  
to address language-related research questions.

Submitting papers
Papers for WG8 should be submitted electronically by the 10th October  
2006, to the Congress Secretary. The submission form and details of  
papers’ format and the reviewing process are given on the CERME5 web  
site http://www.cyprusisland.com/cerme/

Organisation of the sessions during CERME 5
We will have 12 hours over four days in which to meet and progress our  
work on issues related to research in mathematics and language. The  
working program will be organised in order to discuss, in large or  
small groups, common ideas, research programs, difficulties, doubts,  
the international agenda and shared interests.
The participants in the WG8 at CERME4 recommended that some time during  
CERME5 should be devoted to discussion of methodology and analytic  
tools, possibly including some practical activity involving application  
of analytic tools to examples of data. Suggestions for the format of  
such activity and proposals of examples to be used should be sent to  
Candia Morgan (c.morgan at ioe.ac.uk). Such suggestions may be related to  
a paper proposal or may be independent.

Contact and questions
If you have further questions, please contact any of the leaders of the  
group.
Candia Morgan 	c.morgan at ioe.ac.uk
Pier Luigi Ferrari 	pferrari at unipmn.it
Götz Krummheuer 	krummheuer at math.uni-frankfurt.de
Nadia Douek 	ndouek at wanadoo.fr


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Dr Candia Morgan
Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education
School of Mathematics Science and Technology
Institute of Education, University of London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
United Kingdom

tel.	+44 (0)20 7612 6677		fax.	+44 (0)20 7612 6792

c.morgan at ioe.ac.uk

http://www.ioe.ac.uk

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