[Maths-Education] Symposium ATATEMLO

[Tom Roper]

>From John Monaghan (University of Leeds) on behalf of Fabrice Vandebrouck (University of Paris 7)

Symposium ATATEMLO 
"Activity theoretic approaches to technology enhanced mathematics learning orchestration"

Call for short proposals (deadline 10 of May)

Activity Theory (AT) is a cross disciplinary theory adopted for studying various forms of human practices, such as teaching/learning, that are seen as developmental processes mediated by artefacts, where individual and social levels are simultaneously interlinked. It gives us a framework, a vocabulary as well as notions associated with those terms, useful for understanding and informing the design of technology enhanced learning orchestrations in the domain of mathematics as well as conceptualising various mediations occurring in these situations. By orchestration we mean the process of productively coordinating supportive interventions across multiple learning activities occurring at multiple social levels (Fischer and Dillenbourg 2006), including classroom orchestration of technology involving students and teachers as well as other settings where human being can learn mathematics from various sources and collaborations.

The goal of the symposium is to share and integrate competences, methodologies and ideas of researchers in the field of AT and mathematical teaching and learning, in order to better address issues related to orchestrations of mathematics learning with technology. The final output will be a peer-reviewed book or a special issue of a scientific journal.

AT has its roots in the classical German philosophy of Kant and Hegel, the dialectical materialism of Marx and the socio cultural and socio historical tradition of Russian psychologists such as Vygotsky, Leontiev and Luria. In the domain of mathematical education with technology, it allows one to state the mediation role played by technological tools during the teaching and learning situations. Beyond these roots, recent developments of AT have taken place in several directions. 

- The French school of cognitive ergonomic (Vergnaud, Leplat, Rogalski) developed AT to study cognition at the workplace and introduced the idea of instrumental genesis (Rabardel and Verillon) which gives rise to a dialectic by which learner and artefact are mutually shaped in action. This focus has been specified to mathematical teaching/learning situations by Artigue, Lagrange, Guin and Trouche. Robert and Rogalski also developed a didactical and ergonomic approach to study teaching practices and learning situations initially not devoted to technological situations but now adapted to such situations. 

- In other countries, the initial theory was extended to communities (teachers and/or learners) : particularly Cole and Engeström conceived a systemic model expressing the complex relationships between elements in an activity, useful for studying the relationships that take place in teaching/learning activity with technological tools. Wertsch has developed the dialectic between agent and mediational means. Saxe developed a cultural approach with three components of which the first, based on a four parameters model and the notion of emergent goals, has been used in studies examining teaching with technology. 

Several researchers in math education and technology used some of the above AT frameworks in order to address specific issues linked to technology enhanced orchestrations, especially the role of the teacher in organising and conducting technology based lessons.  These works are promising, but remain unconnected. In parallel, the functioning of a mathematics classroom using technological artefacts, and more generally the complex orchestration of learning with technology, remains very problematic. We expect that activity theoretic approaches will offer tools to address learning orchestrations in terms of dynamical features of the activities to be carried out by learners and teachers. These are related with new elements involved in classroom orchestration such as the nature of the tasks for the students, with new forms of interactions occurring in computer-based pedagogical settings, offering more opportunities for experimentation with dynamic and interconnected mathematical representations and with the challenge of integrating these aspects into teachers' activity.

The outputs of the symposium are expected to contribute to existing research at two levels: 
1) the level of theoretical work in technology enhanced mathematics learning (e.g. integrating research approaches following an AT perspective, highlighting the role of AT concepts in designing, implementing and analyzing research studies in the field of mathematics education); 
2) the level operational approaches for orchestrating and instrumentalising mathematics learning with technology and for taking critical aspects of context into account.

The proposals, not longer than 10 pages, will be articulated around some or all of the four following questions 
-	What key aspects in the complexity of technology enhanced learning (TEL) situations does your AT framework help to address? What tools does it provide to support teachers and designers?
-	How does your AT framework help to conceptualize the changing roles and relationship to mathematics knowledge by learners and teachers?
-	How does your AT framework help to conceptualize constraints specific to the orchestration of learning, like the necessity of assessing and certifying knowledge and skills in the context of digital technologies?
-	How does your AT framework help to take into account the ways in which TEL orchestration are mediated by the context.

The symposium will be held in October in Paris.
Proposals will only be made at the invitation of the organizing committee and are expected to September 30. Interested candidates should send before May the 10th a summary of one page. The organizing committee of the symposium will be held during May to decide on invitations.


Please send your proposal to
Fabrice Vandebrouck, vandebro at math.jussieu.fr


Tom Roper
Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education

Telephones
Work   0113 3434547
Fax    0113 3434541