Mathematics education policy enactment in England’s Further Education colleges

What ain’t mathematics education?!

Abstract: In 1996 at the first Iranian Mathematics Education Conference (IMEC1) that was held in Isfahan. I obliged myself as a mathematics educator, to inform the mathematics community at large by presenting a paper entitled “what is mathematics education?” to pave the way for the establishment of the master program of mathematics education in Iran. Now, after 16 years, we need to reflect on t...

Philosophy of Mathematics, Mathematics Education, and Philosophy of Mathematics Education

Empowerment in Mathematics Education

In this paper I explore the meaning of empowerment in the teaching and learning of mathematics. The main part of the paper is devoted to distinguishing three different but complementary meanings of empowerment concerning mathematics: mathematical, social and epistemological empowerment. Mathematical empowerment concerns gaining the power to use mathematical knowledge and skills in school mathem...

Variables in Mathematics Education

This paper suggests that consistently referring to variables as placeholders is an effective countermeasure for addressing a number of the difficulties students’ encounter in learning mathematics. The suggestion is supported by examples discussing ways in which variables are used to express unknown quantities, define functions and express other universal statements, and serve as generic element...

Mathematics in General Education

is the constant of the times. No doubt each generation has felt that its generation was changing more rapidly than any previous one and that a slow-down, a period of consolidation, was just over the next rise for the more fortunate descendants. Mathematics education has experienced a period of change. There is every possibility that these changes will continue and ac celerate. In the following ...