Professional and academic bases of university mathematics teaching for the 21st century

NB: It will also be possible to attend via Zoom. If you want to do that mail to winslow@ind.ku.dk

Speaker: Carl WInsløw, IND

Context: This will be a rehearsal of Carl's keynote address  at the INDRUM conferenceto be held Sept. 12-19 in Tunisia (and cyberspace). The website of the conference is here.

Abstract: 

The Didactics of University Mathematics is at the same time similar to, and different from, the Didactics of School Mathematics. The similarity comes from the kinds of phenomena which are studied, from innovative task design, over the descriptive study of teaching episodes and curricula, to institutional conditions and constraints – all pertaining to the teaching and learning of mathematics. Here, the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD) offers specific tools for a variety of purposes, from the modelling of specific mathematical practices and theories concerned, to the interrelated levels of didactic co-determination ranging from subjects to civilizations. At the same time, Universities offer particular conditions and constraints, such as the co-habitation of scientific research and teaching, and the simultaneous task of teaching mathematics to very diverse populations, including (massively) students for whom mathematics is just a smaller part of their current university curriculum and their future professional aspirations; moreover, the teaching tasks range from filling in gaps in students’ pre-university learning of mathematics to the teaching of highly advanced subjects. University mathematics teaching thus represents a profession that involves and requires rather specific and specialized knowledge on the part of the teacher. How are these needs currently attended to? How can the Didactics of University Mathematics interact with the preparation and practice of teachers, given current and future institutional conditions and constraints? In particular, how can teaching and research in University Mathematics interact? In our talk, we will attend to these questions (naturally, pertaining both to the present and the future of the profession) based on ongoing and recent research done within the framework of ATD.