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Until the last decade, international comparative studies in mathematics education focused primarily on the knowledge and beliefs of school students. Recently, the focus has shifted towards research on teachers and teacher education. The Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics (TEDS-M) is the first international large-scale study about (initial primary and secondary) mathematics teacher education with 17 countries participating. The importance of large-scale research in mathematics teacher education is mirrored in the decision to organize a Plenary Panel on TEDS-M at the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-12). This paper sketches the background of the study, main program features and major inputs of the Plenary Panel.

Students in East Asia have been performing extremely well in international studies of mathematics achievements such as TIMSS and PISA. On the other hand, education practices in East Asian countries look different from Western practices, and some practices look very backward and contradictory to what are considered as good practices. Given these intriguing phenomena, this plenary panel aims to discuss different aspects of mathematics education in these East Asian countries, and illustrate its salient features with examples. These aspects include classroom teaching in regular schools and tutorial schools, and pre-service and in-service teacher education and development. The reasons behind the distinctive features of mathematics education in East Asia are then explored, and it is argued that the common Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) that these countries share best explain these features. This panel presentation is not meant to promote the superior student achievement or good educational practices in East Asia. Rather, it highlights the cultural differences between CHC and Western cultures, rather than the superiority of one over the other. A cultural explanation also means that simple transplant of educational policies and practices from one culture to another will not work. The panel points to the important role culture plays in accounting for educational practices and student achievement.

Beginning in the early 1970s, systematic documentation in many countries of subtle, yet consistent gender differences in mathematics performance and participation in post compulsory mathematics courses in favor of males served as a catalyst for action. In these settings, new legislation and special interventions were introduced to redress demonstrated achievement disparities in mathematics. An important aim of the panel session was to describe the current situation in countries where gender equity is enshrined in legislation at the political level, and, by drawing on recent research and contemporary data gathering tools, to document whether or not inequities have been removed in practice or continue to exist in countries where concern and action about gender differences in mathematics learning have a long standing history.

The historical analysis of mathematics teaching at secondary level shows the succession in time of different school paradigms. The present paper describes and tries to analyse a new didactic paradigm, still at an early age, the paradigm “of questioning the world”, which relies heavily on four interrelated concepts, that of inquiry and of being “Herbartian”, “procognitive”, and “exoteric”. It is the author’s ambition to show, however succinctly, how the present crisis in mathematics education could hopefully be solved along these lines, which preclude recurring to strategies seeking only to patch up the old, still dominant paradigm “of visiting works”.

National numeracy tests were introduced in Australia in 2008. Their format and scope are described and appraised in this paper. Of the various group performance trends presented in the annual national NAPLAN reports two (gender and Indigeneity) are discussed in some detail. For these, the NAPLAN findings are compared with broader international data. Recent Australian research spawned by, or benefitting from, the NAPLAN tests is also summarised. In some of this work, ways of using national test results productively and constructively are depicted.

In this article I present some findings of an ongoing 5-year longitudinal research program with young students. The chief goal of the research program is a careful and systematic investigation of the genesis of embodied, non-symbolic algebraic thinking and its progressive transition to culturally evolved forms of symbolic thinking. The investigation draws on a cultural-historical theory of teaching and learning—the theory of objectification—that emphasizes the sensible, embodied, social, and material dimension of human thinking and that articulates a cultural view of development as an unfolding dialectic process between culturally and historically constituted forms of mathematical knowing and semiotically mediated classroom activity.

Suppose a person is engaged in a complex activity, such as teaching. What determines what that person does, on a moment-by-moment basis, as he or she engages in that activity? What resources does the person draw upon, and why? What shapes the choices the person makes? I claim that if you know enough about a teacher’s knowledge, goals, and beliefs, you can explain every decision he or she makes, in the midst of teaching. In this paper I give examples showing what shapes teachers’ decision-making, and explain the theory.

The survey team collected information on the development and use of curriculum from 11 diverse countries around the world. The data show that a common set of mathematics learning goals are established in almost all countries. However, only a few countries report a substantial role for research in designing and monitoring the development of their curriculum. The data also suggest great variation among countries at the implementation level.

This report from the ICME12 Survey Team 4 examines issues in the transition from secondary school to university mathematics with a particular focus on mathematical concepts and aspects of mathematical thinking. It comprises a survey of the recent research related to: calculus and analysis; the algebra of generalised arithmetic and abstract algebra; linear algebra; reasoning, argumentation and proof; and modelling, applications and applied mathematics. This revealed a multi-faceted web of cognitive, curricular and pedagogical issues both within and across the mathematical topics above. In addition we conducted an international survey of those engaged in teaching in university mathematics departments.

The survey team worked in two main areas: Literature review of published papers in international publications, and particular approaches to the topic considering what in the literature seems to be neglected. In this paper we offer a synoptic overview of the main points that the team finds relevant to address concerning what is known and what is neglected in research in this topic.