History of Mathematics in Education: An Anglo-Danish collaboration

The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) and the Danish Association for Mathematics Teachers (LMFK) are organising a conference on the use of history of mathematics in teaching. The main organisers are Sue Pope (s.pope@mmu.ac.uk) and Henrik Kragh Sørensen (hks@css.au.dk).

You can now book for this conference on the conference website:

http://www.atm.org.uk/2016-History-of-Mathematics-Conference

This conference will provide an opportunity for secondary school teachers and mathematics educators in Denmark and the United Kingdom to develop ideas about cases and share best practice in using the history of mathematics. The ambition is to build collaborations and forums for exchange of experiences and materials for mutual benefit. The conference will last three days.

In England, the history of mathematics was part of the statutory curriculum for 11-16 year olds  from 2008 until 2014. The most recent National Curriculum removed reference to history of mathematics. However, there are teachers and mathematics educators who are enthusiastic about the potential of history of mathematics to enrich and humanise the curriculum. There is a working group of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) and the subject associations (the Association of Teachers of Mathematics, ATM, and the Mathematical Association, MA) regularly have sessions at their conferences and articles in their journals.

In Denmark, history of mathematics is a mandatory part of the upper-secondary mathematics curriculum, and future teachers follow courses in the history of mathematics as part of their university education. Nevertheless, practices are varied and good materials sparse, so various efforts are underway to facilitate teachers to better integrate history of mathematics into their teaching. In preparation for the 2016 conference, a series of workshops are planned to aid/assist Danish teachers in preparing and developing cases to present in Bath. 

The programme will include talks, workshops, poster sessions and discussion/working groups. The principal purpose will be the exchange of ideas and experiences and stimulating opportunities for further development from the research community and from teachers. If you are interested in contributing to or attending the conference please register your interest with Sue Pope (s.pope@mmu.ac.uk).

The conference will start after lunch on Monday and finish before lunch on Wednesday.