Claudi Alsina

·Claudi Alsina
· Professor of Mathematics at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC).
· General Director of Universities in Catalonia (2002-2004).
· He has the highest Awards for Quality Teaching at University Level from the   UPC and the Government of Catalonia.
· National delegate in ICMI (1986-1997).
· Member of the IPC for ICME7, ICME8 (chair), ICME9.
· In Mathematics Education he likes Visualization techniques, Space
  Geometry, Modelling and Applications. He has published 20 books and more
  than 150 papers.
· He has given several hundreds of talks on popularization and math
  education in Spain, Portugal (ICTMA), France, Italy, The Netherlands
  (NMDI), Germany (ICMI), Argentina (OMA), Chile, USA (NCTM), Japan
  (ICME9), Singapore (ICMI), Australia (ICTMA),?
· He ends his talks with the statement "We do maths with our brain but
  we must teach it with our heart".

Plenary talk:

"The Mathematical Musses and the Theorem of Love"
by
Claudi Alsina (UPC-Spain)

Abstract.
Who are the mathematical musses? Do they exist? What happens in the
classroom if the musses are not present? What can we do as teachers when
waiting for the musses to come? Which is the theorem of love?... In this
talk we will answer these questions, we will give a proof of the theorem
of love and at the end we will clarify completely who are the musses.
Innovative examples of activities for the classrooms of primary and
secondary levels will be presented.


Mary Barnes

Mary Barnes' major interests are gender and social justice in mathematics education, inovative approaches to teaching calculus, and uses of technology in mathematics teaching. Formerly Director of the Mathematics Learning Centre at the University of Sydney, Mary has recently completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne, in which she looked at collaborative learning in senior secondary mathematics classrooms. The main focus of the study was how students interact with one another during collaborative work and how their interactions are influenced by issues of gender and power. She is the author of Investigating Change: An Introduction to Calculus for Australian Schools.

Douglas Butler



After graduating in Mathematics and Electrical Sciences at Cambridge University, and a spell with EMI Records, Douglas has specialised in secondary Mathematics. He has served as Head of Mathematics at Oundle School (Peterborough UK), and was Chairman of the MEI Schools project, a leading UK curriculum development project, for 6 years.

A keen pianist and dinghy sailor, he is also author of "Using the Internet - Mathematics" (revised July 2003), the principal author of Autograph (version 3 May 2004), and a major contributor to "Teaching Secondary Mathematics with Technology" (Open University, October 2004). He maintains a large web site of educational resources in many subject areas.

In 2000 he founded the innovative iCT Training Centre, based at Oundle School, which is now creating new resources for the educational use of computers in mathematics, and running the TSM (Technology in Secondary and College Mathematics) teacher training events all over the UK and overseas. He has recently launched a new series of conferences on Technology for Teaching Music.
Web: www.tsm-resources.com
Email: debutler@argonet.co.uk

Helen Chick (Sponsored by New Zealand Statistical Association)


Helen began her career as a mathematics teacher in Tasmania before curiosity about doing research in mathematics saw her return to university to complete a PhD in algebra. While there, and teaching both engineering and education students (but not at the same time), she also became interested in researching the learning and teaching of mathematics. She is now a senior lecturer in mathematics education at the University of Melbourne. Her main areas of interest involve teacher knowledge and children's understanding of chance and data. More specifically, she is looking at what kinds of knowledge are necessary for effective mathematics teaching, and how this knowledge influences teachers' choices in planning and presenting lessons. She is also interested in the development of students' understanding of early statistical ideas, from interpreting and representing data, through to looking for associations and relationships among data. As an expatriate Tasmanian livingin flat Melbourne she enjoys visiting New Zealand, where the mountains are more than misnamed hills.

David Clarke

   

Professor David Clarke is Director of the International Centre for Classroom Research at the University of Melbourne, Australia. His major areas of research activity include international comparative studies of classroom teaching and learning, assessment, professional development, and the application of state-of-the-art technology to educational research. Dr Clarke co-ordinates the Learner's Perspective Study - an international collaborative project studying well-taught mathematics classrooms in 14 countries. Professor Clarke's publications include the book: Perspectives on Practice and Meaning in Mathematics and Science Classrooms (Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001), several books on assessment and questioning in mathematics, and invited chapters to key reference texts, such as the chapter on Assessment in the First International Handbook of Mathematics Education (Kluwer, 1996), and the chapter on International Comparative Research in the Second International Handbook of Mathematics Education (Kluwer, 2003). Key articles in international journals report research into mathematical writing (1994), the classroom negotiation of meaning (1996), complementary accounts methodology (1998), the instructional consequences of high stakes assessment (2000), 'an interconnected model of professional development' (2002), and the reformulation of teaching as initiation and elicitation (in press).

Clio Cresswell

Clio Cresswell has established a diverse career as a mathematician, author, writer and presenter. Clio lectures mathematics at The University of New South Wales where she is a Visiting Fellow. Her latest book is titled Mathematics and Sex (published through Allen and Unwin); she writes a Q&A "relationships advice" column for New Woman Magazine; and features regularly on television, radio and press.
Diversity has been a constant theme in Clio's life. Born in England, she spent part of her childhood on a Greek island, and was then schooled in the south of France. Clio was studying Visual Art in Cannes before she simultaneously discovered the joys of Australia and mathematics at the age of 18. She went on to study mathematics at university and following a stint as an actuary, Clio returned to university to win the University Medal (UNSW) and complete a PhD. Today, she is a proud Australia Day Ambassador.
Clio has interviewed personalities on The Panel; delivered serious book reviews for the Science Show on ABC's Radio National; has been a not-so-serious host on breakfast radio on Triple M; has given relationship advice on Beauty and The Beast as well as on Mars/Venus with Rebecca Gibney; has made jokes on The Glasshouse; won the debate for The Greatest Australian on the ABC TV special of the same name (successfully speaking for Lord Howard Florey); and was even voted one of the 25 Most Beautiful People by Who Weekly in 2001.
Her varied experiences and eclectic outlook on life means Clio easily comes up with quirky and fresh approaches to most topics (like 'mathematics' and 'sex'!). Combined with her bubbly personality, she is captivating, intellectually stimulating and thoroughly entertaining.

Anthony Harradine

Anthony is presently Director of the Noel Baker Centre for School Mathematics, Prince Alfred College in Adelaide, Australia. He has taught in schools for the last 20 years.

Since 1990 Anthony has been actively involved in the process of integrating the use of electronic technology into the teaching, learning and doing of mathematics. He has established computer rooms at both Blackfriars Priory School and Prince Alfred College (PAC) that are used exclusively in the teaching, learning and doing of mathematics. More recently he has established programs and learning materials within PAC that ensure the appropriate integration of electronic technology (computers and graphic calculators) into the learning of mathematics.

Anthony has been involved for many years with the delivery of professional development initiatives through the Mathematical Association of South Australia and the Baker Centre. Most recently his work has been through the LUMAT program.

He has a passion for mathematics, the mathematical education of our youth and the professional growth of mathematics teachers.

Gillian Heald

Gillian 'retired' in July 2002 after 13 years as principal of the highly regarded Rangi Ruru Girls' School in Christchurch. Prior to that position, she was Head of Mathematics at the Christchurch College of Education after 12 years teaching Mathematics and Computer Studies at Christchurch Boys' High School.During her career in education she has been on many advisory committees for the Ministry of Education and the Qualifications Authority and has had a leadership role in many developments in Mathematics Education. She was involved in the early days of Cantamath and the NZ Mathematical Olympiad and travelled to Sweden and Russia with the NZ teams to the international Olympiad competitions.After retirement from Rangi Ruru, Gillian spent the rest of 2002 as an Advisor to schools at the Centre for Educational Leadership at the Christchurch College of Education, and was involved in Planning and Reporting advice and Professional Development programmes.In 2003 and 2004 she has been a mentor to 20 principals in the First Time Principals' programme. In addition Gillian is a part-time Co-director of the newly established Unlimited paenga tawhiti which is a state secondary school in the centre of Christchurch city, based on Discovery Learning principles. This she describes as an exciting and challenging new direction, with moments reminiscent of being a first-time principal and/or a year one teacher! She has even had the chance to get back in the classroom again and teach some mathematics. She has been appointed a Guardian of the Secondary Futures project which is looking 20 years out at NZ secondary education and builds on the OECD Futures-Thinking processes and is stimulated by this work in national and international contexts.In her spare time she works on contract positions for the Ministry of Education and is on a number of Boards.
email gill.heald@unlimited.school.nz

Don Fraser


After many years of teaching elementary and high school pre-service mathematicseducation, Don is now a Professor Emeritus at OISE/UT (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/ University of Toronto).

While at the university he stayed up to date by periodically returning to the classroom to teach children for a full year. This paradoxically re-energised him and wore him out!

Although a Canadian,recently Don has been doing elementary math workshops for teachers across the United States through SDE (Staff Development for Educators) and BER (Bureau of Education and research).
In addition he has been in high demand as a keynote speaker at math conferences of elementary and high school teachers across North America - from small towns to New York City.

Don's publications include Newspaper Math, Yesterday's Sports To-Day's Math, and Mathemagic. He has also written math/language activities for newspapers - The Toronto Star and USA To-Day and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.
His latestpublication is the book Taking The Numb Out of Numbers which includes children's creative responses to problems based on
some 'crazy' newspaper clippings.

Those who have heard Don, rave about his positive approach to teaching young children as well as his sense of humour!

John Mason

John Mason has been teaching mathematics ever since he was fifteen. After a BSc and MSc in mathematics at the University of Toronto, and a PhD in combinatorial geometry at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) he joined the Open University and led the implementation of George Polya's ideas through the design of the first Open University summer schools in mathematics (5000 students over 11 weeks in 3 sites).

He was a founder member of the Centre for Mathematics Education (1982) at the Open University, which he led as acting director and director over a period of 15 years. He was the lead author of the classic Thinking Mathematically, of the recent book Fundamental Constructs in Mathematics Education, and of a host of materials for the professional development of teachers of mathematics. With his wife Anne Watson he has recorded and developed a collection of prompts and questions which promote mathematical thinking, and their book Mathematics as a Constructive Enterprise: learner constructed examples which advocates ways to get learners active through constructing their own mathematical objects, is due to be published later this year. His book Mathematics Teaching Practice: a guide for college lecturers is one manifestation of a lifelong collection of tactics and frameworks for informing the teaching of mathematics at all levels. he is currently finishing a book which will be the core of a an open University course called Developing Algebraic thinking, for teachers of children 9-16.

Ian Stewart