Colette Laborde - Böcker

The classroom teaching situation constitutes a pertinent unit of analysis for research into the ternary didactic relationship which binds teachers, students and mathematical knowledge. This work focuses on classroom situations as a unit of analysis, the work of the teacher.

This handbook presents an overview and analysis of the international "state-of-the-field" of mathematics education at the end of the 20th century. The contributors involved come from a range of countries and cultures. They have created a book of 36 original chapters in four sections, surveying the variety of practices, and the range of disciplinary interconnections, which characterise the field today, and providing perspectives on the study of mathematics education for the 21st century. It is first and foremost a reference work, and will appeal to anyone seeking up-to-date knowledge about the main developments in mathematics education. These will include teachers, student teachers and student researchers starting out on a serious study of the subject, as well as experienced researchers, teacher educators, educational policy-makers and curriculum developers who need to be aware of the latest areas of knowledge development.

New research in mathematics education deals with the complexity of the mathematics’ classroom. The classroom teaching situation constitutes a pertinent unit of analysis for research into the ternary didactic relationship which binds teachers, students and mathematical knowledge. The classroom is considered as a complex didactic system, which offers the researcher an opportunity to gauge the boundaries of the freedom that is left with regard to choices about the knowledge to be taught and the ways of organizing the students’ learning, while giveing rise to the study of interrelations between three main elements of the teaching process the: mathematical content to be taught and learned, management of the various time dimensions, and activity of the teacher who prepares and manages the class, to the benefit of the students' knowledge and the teachers' own experience.This volume, reprinted from Educational Studies in Mathematics, Volume 59, focuses on classroom situations as a unit of analysis, the work of the teacher, and is strongly anchored in original theoretical frameworks. The contributions are formulated from the perspective of one or more theoretical frameworks but they are tackled by means of empirical investigations.

This survey addresses the use of technology in upper secondary mathematics education from four points of view: theoretical analysis of epistemological and cognitive aspects of activity in new technology mediated learning environments, the changes brought by technology in the interactions between environment, students and teachers, the interrelations between mathematical activities and technology, skills and competencies that must be developed in teacher education. Research shows that the use of some technologies may deeply change the solving processes and contribute to impact the learning processes. The questions are which technologies to choose for which purposes, and how to integrate them, so as to maximize all students’ agency.  In particular the role of the teacher in classrooms and the content of teacher education programs are critical for taking full advantage of technology in teaching practice.