In Poland there are no ‘specialized mathematics schools’. There are,
however, a few schools with good mathematical traditions, in particular,
with many laureates of various mathematical olympiads. I can only say a
few words about one such school in Wroclaw, in which I have had classes
for one and a half year.
Extended deadline: submissions due Friday 2nd March, 2012
This is a sequel to the Symposium on Mathematical Practice and Cognition held at the AISB 2010 convention at de Montfort University, Leicester, UK. The Symposium on Mathematical Practice and Cognition II (http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/apease/aisb12/home.html) will be one of several forming the AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012 (http://events.cs.bham.ac.uk/turing12/), in honour of Alan Turing.
You might find this interesting :
Everything You Thought You Knew About Learning Is Wrong
Sounds relevant for designing homeworks at minimum.
The Royal Society launched a new project Vision for science and mathematics education 5–19 which will be aiming to produce a vision for the future of science and mathematics education 5-19.
There is a Call for Views with the 16 March 2012 deadline. The RS is also commissioning studies. All enquiries should go in the first instance to vision@royalsociety.org.
Formal announcement from the Department for Education.
Meanwhile, Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, is quoted by The Telegraph as saying:
It should not be up to the Government to decide which exams are of more merit than others. This is something which should be assessed by major stakeholders such as the teaching profession and awarding bodies.
Employers could not care less about “points” and “equivalences”. They look at whether young people have got qualifications that they recognise and value.’
Alison Wolf is the Sir Roy Griffiths professor of public sector management at King’s College London. In 2011, she carried out the Wolf Review of Vocational Education.
A comment on the specialist mathematics schools proposal: some facts Fazekas, a specialist mathematics school in Hungary:
Some important aspects:
Some important principles:
This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the specialised math classes at Fazekas. I can imagine a nice cooperation with the UK math schools, we might share our experience and give help.
From BBC, by Hannah Richardson:
Ministers have cut the value of more than 3,100 vocational qualifications, ending their recognition in England’s school league tables.
Courses such as a diploma in horse care can be worth the same as four GCSEs.
But from 2014 only 70 “equivalents” will count in the tables’ headline GCSE measure and on a like-for-like basis with GCSEs. […]
The move is a clear disincentive for schools to continue offer such qualifications, and the government had instructed them to wait for its final list before changing their timetables for September 2012.
Education Secretary Michael Gove said the changes would extend opportunity because only qualifications which had demonstrated rigour, and had track records of taking young people into good jobs or university would count in the future. […]
As well as the 70 equivalents that will count towards the school’s five good GCSE grades including English and maths, a further 55 will be valid for other league table measures.
In my opinion, JMC‘s report Digital technologies and mathematics education deserves a careful analysis but not perhaps for reasons envisaged by its authors. In particular, I feel that the report exhibits a patronising attitude to school teachers.
From the begining of JMC’s work on the Report, one of its principal aims was defined as
Identify the reasons why ICT is not being exploited by the majority of teachers of mathematics
And the reason was found: teachers. This is what the Report says:
The recent report from the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM) [22] concluded that mathematics teachers‘ concerns about the use of digital technologies related to:a lack of confidence with digital technologies;
- fears about resolving problems with the technology;
- fears about knowing less than their learners;
- access to digital technologies;
- inappropriate training;
- lack of time for preparation;
- a lack of awareness of how technology might support learning;
- not having technology use clearly embedded into schemes of work.
From a colleague:
It was in School of Education of one of the universities that I heard a lecturer say “To prove something you use this calculator [he clearly meant that you verify the result with lots of numerical examples]. The word proof is an elitist term which for far too long has been used by professional mathematicians when they speak to one another”.
Great stuff, eh!
De Morgan Gazette 