Barbro Grevholm

Universitetet i Agder, Kristiansand · Mathematics and didactics

The chapter is about Sweden and part of the book Who counts? Assessing mathematics in Europe edited by Leone Burton. The chapter is written by Barbro Grevholm and Margita Nilsson.

Examination of mathematics textbooks for secondary school.

A characterization of recent Nordic research in didactics of mathematics is presented based on the 32 research reports from the Nordic and Baltic countries in the proceedings from NORMA17 (The eighth Nordic conference on didactics of mathematics). Recent Nordic research in didactics of mathematics is observed from several aspects such as choice of...

Ideals play a key role in a student teachers’ identity work. They form targets to strive for and a mirror for reflection. In this paper, we examine Finnish mathematics student teachers’ metaphors for the teacher’s role (N= 188). We classified the metaphors according to a model that identified teachers as subject matter experts, didactical experts,...

Denna lilla bok, som är skriven på danska, omfattar 124 sidor och innehåller en inledning av de båda redaktörerna, följd av sex kapitel som är skrivna av danska matematiklärare i gymnasiet. Boken är mycket viktig eftersom den visar på en möjlighet att överbrygga klyftan mellan matematiklärare och forskare i matematikdidaktik samt att föra ut forskn...

Mathematics teachers' self-reported practices of textbook use were investigated by a survey of more than 400 teachers in Estonia, Finland and Norway. Do they have different approaches in their use of textbooks and to what extent do they rely on textbooks in planning and preparing their lessons? What kinds of patterns characterize teachers' practice...

In this chapter, Toward a more sustainable pre- service teacher education: a study in progress, Claire Vaugelade Berg, Barbro Grevholm, Åse Haraldstad, Bente Velle Hellang, Annbjørg Håøy, Aslaug Kristiansen and Gro-Renèe Rambø argue that: “A sustainable teacher education includes developing pre-service teachers’ awareness of the advantages and cons...

The purpose of the chapter is to use narratives in order to illustrate the characteristics of the human perception of mathematics. The transformation over time of views of mathematics will be enlightened by the changing perceptions of the individual. The many varied faces of mathematics will offer images of the multiple ways and situations in which...

In 2011, a new curriculum and set of school organisational structures were introduced in Sweden. One consequence is a much stronger separation of the theoretical and vocational programmes in the upper secondary school. The paper explores the nature of the changes that have occurred particularly in relation to mathematics studies, the background and...

In this paper we present results of an analysis of what the textbook used by the first year engineering students offers the students, when they take a basic calculus course. The aim of this analysis is to examine as an entirety what students are offered by the book to learn about the concept of derivative. The results show that the presentation of...

The results from tests set as part of a large mathematics teaching development project are explored using both quantitative and qualitative methods to seek differences in performance between boys and girls. The outcome appears to confirm the theory developed from earlier research into gender differences that there might be a tendency for girls to a...

Teacher education programmes at tertiary educational institutions traditionally comprise three key strands–disciplinary studies, educational studies, and teaching practice (Comiti & Ball, 1996). The aim of these strands is to develop an integrated competence in student teachers and is often referred to as teacher knowledge. Winsløw and Durrand-Guer...

It is often said that student teachers’ underlying beliefs of what mathematics consists of and how it should be taught are restricted in two ways. On the one hand, future elementary teachers in general use only weak mathematical conceptions, which often do not help them to realise their educational ambitions. On a general educational level, many of...

Initial mathematics teacher education is primarily concerned with knowledge–the acquisition of knowledge required for the teaching of mathematics. Opinions as to what exactly comprises this knowledge and how it is best delivered and best learned varies widely across different contexts. In what follows, we will look more closely at this concept of t...

Among international organizations devoted to mathematics education, International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) is one of the oldest and most prominent. ICMI unites more than 80 countries and provides a f orum for all stakeholders in mathematics education (teachers, researchers, mathematicians , etc.) promoting collaboration, exchan...

The choice of tasks and the associated pedagogies is a key aspect of teaching and learning mathematics (see, e.g., Brousseau, 1997; Christiansen & Walther, 1986). We argue that what students learn is largely defined by the tasks they are given. For example, we assume that tasks designed to prompt higher order thinking are more likely to produce suc...

A recurring and crucial theme in research on teacher education is the relation between pre-service teacher education and the day-to-day practices of mathematics teachers in schools. As we have seen in previous chapters, this relation appears already when pre-service teachers are engaged in practice periods, which in many cases form part of their te...

Watson and Sullivan (2008) suggest that tasks for teachers have multiple purposes in teacher education and that teachers' engagement in such tasks can This reminds us of some of the multiple agendas for teacher educators involved in mathematics teacher preparation and development. In the introductory chapter a model was presented illustrating this...

In this section I offer a short description of some characteristic features of the doctoral programme in didactics of mathematics in Norway. Although Norway is not part of the European Union the country has adopted the so called Bologna system for structuring the academic education. This means that the bachelor degree should take 3 years, the maste...

Starting with a general discussion of the issue of understanding in mathematics , this study sets focus to generalization as a key process to be promoted in advanced mathematical thinking. Interview data from students working on Langford's problem showed a great variety in how to treat the problem, where expansive, recon-structive as well as disjun...

I början av 2000-talet uppgick antalet doktorander i Sverige till ungefär samma som antalet nybörjarstudenter vid universiteten år 1960, det år då jag påbörjade mina studier i matematik vid Lunds universitet (VR, 2001). Under de fyrtiosex år som passerat sedan dess kan ett tema för förändring sägas ha varit en demokratisering av högre utbildning ti...

In the department of mathematics of the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, a dynamic model for the education of doctoral students and guidance of supervisors in research groups has been developed and applied for several years now. Presently groups in mathematics as well as a group in mathematics education are working according to this model...

In a longitudinal study I follow the first group of students aiming to become teachers in mathematics and science for compulsory school, grades 4–9. The research focus is the students’ development of concepts in mathematics and mathematics education.

The two concepts limit and infinity are crucial for mathematical analysis. Both concepts are complex but necessary for mathematics studies. The aim of this presentation is to discuss the students' explanations of their written solutions to limit tasks with special focus on infinity. The results presented are part of a larger study where the researc...

On a background of tradition versus renewal, a discussion on recent teacher educa-tion reforms in Sweden is given. A balance of different aspects of content and a need for research are seen as critical for the formation of mathematics teacher education. A conception of a 'didactic divide' between disciplinary and pedagogical knowledge is used as an...

The statistical data shown here confirm again a well-known picture of women’s unequal participation in mathematics and related fields. They also show that there has been almost no change over time in the situation in mathematics. It is very serious that in women’s participation in mathematics education there is no positive development worth mention...

This chapter is the collection of the papers selected for the presentation in the Working Group 3 “Theory and practice of teaching for pre-service to in-service teacher education” of the conference of European Research in Mathematics Education II – CERME 2 - Mariánské Lázně, Czech Republic, February 24 - 27, 2001

Whole issue. Incl. abstracts

Students' beliefs and attitudes towards mathematics teaching and learning is the focus of the study described in this paper. Some preliminary results from research carried out in Norway in 2005 are given, which focus on first year students in upper secondary school. The answers from the ninth grade students in 2005 are briefly compared with student...

Using concept maps as research tools in different ways has been found productive in a longitudinal study on student teachers' development of mathematical concepts. Maps were used both in a priori analyses of groups of concepts, that are part of content in courses, and as a tool for students to express their conceptions of functions, equations and s...

In this paper we study five Finnish dissertations on mathematical thinking from the last 10 years. We intend to answer the question 'what have Finnish researchers said about mathematical thinking, with special emphasis on affective factors.' In the studies presented, mathematical thinking is seen as a cognitive function and only two of the five dis...

Nämnaren nr 3, 1998, inleddes rapporteringen från ett projekt, som Klippans kommun bedriver i samverkan med Högskolan Kristianstad. Deltagare i projektet är lärare från alla skolans stadier och syftet är bl a att öka kunskapen i matematikens didaktik och att stimulera lärarnas lokala utvecklingsarbeten. I Klippans kommun pågår, i samarbete med Högs...

Barbro Grevholm är universitetslektor vid Högskolan i Kristianstad. Lars Mou-witz är gymnasielärare och arbetar på NCM med bl a Nämnaren. En omättlig elev För en tid sedan fanns en helsidesartikel i en av våra större lärarfackliga tidningar om den nioårige Johan och hans stora mate-matikintresse. Av artikeln framgår att Johan med lätt-het avverkat...