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In times of rapid technological innovation and global challenges, the development of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) competencies becomes important. They improve the personal scientific literacy of citizens, enhance international economic competitiveness and are an essential foundation for responsible citizenship, including the ethical custodianship of our planet. The latest programme for international student assessment results, however, indicate that even in economically mature countries such as those in Europe, and the USA and Australia, approximately 20% of students lack sufficient skills in mathematics or science. This trend serves to highlight the urgent need for action in relation to STEM education. While it is widely acknowledged that mathematics underpins all other STEM disciplines, there is clear evidence it plays an understated role in integrated STEM education. In this article, we address an element of this concern by examining the role of mathematics within STEM education and how it might be advanced through three interdisciplinary approaches: (1) twenty-first century skills; (2) mathematical modelling; and (3) education for responsible citizenship. At the end of the paper we discuss the potential for research in relation to these three aspects and point to what work needs to be done in the future. [Author abstract]

Sociocultural theories view teacher learning as changing participation in social practices that develop their professional identities rather than as acquisition of new knowledge or beliefs that are internal to the individual. Although sociocultural research on mathematics teacher education has tended to focus on understanding teachers' learning, this article argues that sociocultural perspectives can also guide more interventionist research involving changing classroom practice. The approach illustrated here uses an adaptation of Valsiner's zone theory to analyse teacher learning and development in two separate research studies. In one study the aim was to understand how teachers incorporated digital technologies into their practice, while the other study helped teachers implement an investigative approach to working mathematically consistent with a new syllabus. In both studies, productive tensions between teachers' beliefs, contexts, and goals were a trigger for learning and development. [Author abstract]

In this paper, we offer a comparative review of research on understanding and promoting students' mathematical thinking. The sources for the review are papers that were published in Educational Studies in Mathematics (ESM) during two windows of time: 1994-1998 and 2014-2018. Selection of these two time periods enables us to comment on the \"state of the art\" in research as well as identify changes over the past 25 years. The review is guided by an analysis of conceptualizations of \"mathematical thinking\" proposed in the research literature, selected curriculum documents, and international assessment programs such as the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The review not only documents salient features of research studies, such as the country of origin of the authors, educational level of the participants, research aims, theoretical perspectives, and methodological approaches, but also identifies the contribution to knowledge made by this body of work as well as future research directions and opportunities.

The knowledge that mathematics teacher educators need has attracted limited but increasing attention in recent years. The papers in this special issue build on emerging themes from that work and raise additional questions that contribute towards a future research agenda in the field. Several of the articles develop conceptualisations of teacher knowledge to apply to mathematics teacher educators, introducing new aspects and drawing attention to unique characteristics of mathematics teacher educators in the process. To some extent the questions these papers raise reflect similar questions in mathematics education more generally but for which the implications for mathematics teacher educators warrant attention. In this paper we review the articles in this special issue and use them as a springboard to examine contemporary developments in the field and posit ways forward for research on mathematics teacher educators' knowledge. [Author abstract]

In many countries, pre-service teacher education programs are structured so that mathematics content is taught in the university’s mathematics department and mathematics pedagogy in the education department. Such program structures make it difficult to authentically interweave content with pedagogy in ways that acknowledge the roles of both mathematicians and mathematics educators in preparing future teachers. This article reports on a project that deliberately fostered collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics educators in six Australian universities in order to investigate the potential for learning at the boundaries between the two disciplinary communities. Data sources included two rounds of interviews with mathematicians and mathematics educators and annual reports prepared by each participating university over the three years of the project. The study identified interdisciplinary boundary practices that led to integration of content and pedagogy through new courses co-developed and co-taught by mathematicians and mathematics educators, and new approaches to building communities of pre-service teachers. It also developed an evidence-based classification of conditions that enable or hinder sustained collaboration across disciplinary boundaries, together with an empirical grounding for Akkerman and Bakker’s conceptualisation of transformation as a mechanism for learning at the boundary between communities. The study additionally highlighted the ambiguous nature of boundaries and implications for brokers who work there to connect disciplinary paradigms.

This article offers theoretical and analytical approaches to investigating how researchers and teachers can work together to create knowledge in mathematics education. It argues that researchers and teachers are members of separate, but related, communities of practice, which create and value different types of knowledge. However, connections between communities can be established through discrete boundary encounters, longer term boundary practices, or peripheral participation by members of one community in the practices of another community. A framework for analysing researcher-teacher relationships is presented and then used to compare ways in which the author, as a university-based researcher, worked with teachers in three different types of research projects. The analysis indicates that successful research collaborations are characterised by mutuality of researcher and teacher motivations, roles, and purposes, and complementarity of their expertise and knowledge. Such collaborations build two-way connections between communities through practices that support mutual engagement across the boundaries that define them. [Author abstract, ed]

This article examines possibilities for using Valsiner's zone theory to understand identity formation of mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher educators. We situate our analysis within a sociological frame for identity research, in which identity is interpreted as an action rather than an acquisition. Valsiner's theoretical approach is based on Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development, but adds two other zone concepts to account for environmental constraints experienced by an individual (zone of free movement) and the means by which other people in the environment promote the individual's actions (zone of promoted action). We briefly summarise our previous research that has used zone theory to interpret teacher learning as identity formation in two contexts, involving secondary school mathematics teachers and teachers of subjects other than mathematics who are embedding numeracy into the school curriculum. We then extend our theoretical investigation of identity to a new context in order to analyse identity formation of mathematics teacher educators, that is, mathematics educators and mathematicians who contribute to the preparation of future teachers of mathematics. Our analysis incorporates the idea of productive tensions into zone theory, thus creating a theory of goal-directed change that can be used to understand identity development and the role of individual agency within sociocultural contexts. [Author abstract]

The notion of 'opportunities to learn in mathematics education' is open to interpretation from multiple theoretical perspectives, where the focus may be on cognitive, social or affective dimensions of learning, curriculum and assessment design, issues of equity and access, or the broad policy and political contexts of learning and teaching. In this paper, the author conceptualises opportunities to learn from a sociocultural perspective. Beginning with her own research on the learning of students and teachers of mathematics, the author sketches out two theoretical frameworks for understanding this learning. One framework extends Valsiner's zone theory of child development, and the other draws on Wenger's ideas about communities of practice. The aim is then to suggest how these two frameworks might help us understand the learning of others who have an interest in mathematics education, such as mathematics teacher educator-researchers and mathematicians. In doing so, the author attempts to move towards a synthesis of ideas to inform mathematics education research and development. [Author abstract, ed]

This article presents preliminary results from a survey commissioned for ICME 13 (2016) focusing on 'Teachers Working and Learning Through Collaboration'. It takes as a starting point a previous survey, commissioned for ICME 10 in 2004 that focused on Mathematics Teacher Education. The current survey focuses centrally on teachers involved in collaborations, sometimes in formal settings of professional development, but also in a more diverse range of collaborative settings including research initiatives. The roles of teachers involved in the collaboration, survey methods, decisions and limitations are described. While some of the findings to date resonate with those of the earlier survey, other findings highlight characteristics and issues relating to the differing ways in which teachers collaborate, either with other teachers or the various 'others', most notably mathematics teacher educator researchers. The roles and relationships that contribute to learning in such collaborations, as well as theories and methodologies found in survey sources, are a focus of the findings presented here. Studies rarely theorised collaboration, and few of those that did so reported explicitly on how their theoretical frame shaped the design of research methodologies/approaches guiding activities with teachers. One significant outcome has been the difficulty of relating teachers' learning to collaboration within a project, although many initiatives report developments in teaching, teacher learning and students' learning. [Author abstract]

This article is a state-of-the-art synthesis of literature concerned with the concept of Numeracy (also known internationally by other terms such as mathematical literacy), and the teaching, learning and assessment practices associated with this construct. Numeracy is a concept used to identify the knowledge and capabilities required to accommodate the mathematical demands of private and public life, and to participate in society as informed, reflective, and contributing citizens. While there is an increasing focus on numeracy internationally, there is not yet a widely accepted definition for this construct or of how to best promote the development of numeracy capabilities. In this article, we first outline the development of the concept of numeracy internationally. Second, research on numeracy practice is presented through a number of distinct facets: a critical view; the workplace; the role of technology; and statistical and financial literacy. Third, studies that explore the teaching and learning of numeracy are examined. Fourth, we scrutinise the role played by national and international assessment regimes in providing information about the numeracy capabilities of a nation's citizenry and the consequences of making such data public. Finally, we reflect on the future directions of numeracy research across the spectrum of contexts to which it is relevant. [Author abstract]