updated  July 7, 2000
 
 
Come to ICME 9
.
(31 July - 6 August 2000 in Tokyo) 
.
2nd announcement see internet via  http://www.ma.kagu.sut.ac.jp/~icme9/
 
                 .
 
  and join our Topic Study Group  No. 16: 
Creativity in Mathematics Education   
                    and the Education of Gifted Students
 
Summary
               Call for proposals
                                            Session 1
Chief Organizers of TSG16:                                    Session 2
Hartwig Meissner (email:  meissne@uni-muenster.de)                             Dead lines
Kathleen Heid     (email:  IK8@email.psu.edu)
 
 
 
.
   CALL  FOR  ACTIVE  CONTRIBUTIONS
As Chief Organizers of TSG16 we  would like to encourage you to participate actively in the work of  ICME 9 and especially in the work of TSG16. You may choose one or more of the following possibilities to present your ideas:
 
(a) You propose a "Short Presentation" of your individual design to the ICME Registration Office: Challenges, ideas, experiences, results, conclusions, and so on. (The deadline for submission of these proposals is March 15, 2000). The short presentations will be on display twice on Friday (August 4), at 10:45 - 11:45 and at 14:00 - 15:00, and they will be classified on display according to the themes of  the Working Groups and the Topic Study Groups.  If you apply to participate through a "Short Presentation" on a topic related to „Creativity in Mathematics Education and the Education of Gifted Students“ we would sincerely appreciate receiving from you a copy of your completed "application form for a short presentation" (copy of both sides of the form). This would allow us to be informed about your presentation and to inform participants in our TSG16 sessions about your "Short Presentation". 
.
(b) You participate in the work of TSG16. If you are interested in participating actively in the two sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday (August 1 / 2), please let us know right away and please submit to one of the Chief Organizers of TSG16 also by March 15, 2000 a four-page paper summarizing your ideas and results related to one or more of the TSG16 topics. (The intended work of TSG16 will be described below.) These four-page papers will be reviewed by the organizers and, if appropriate, the ideas and results will be incorporated into the survey summaries for one or more of our topics. If the organizers consider a paper submitted acceptable for "presentation by distribution",  the authors of the paper will be invited then to prepare the final version of the paper in a format that can be distributed to the TSG16 participants during the session as a "one-sheet summary". This one-sheet summary will be one piece of paper as a reduced photocopy of your revised four-page paper with a format of about 21cm x 30 cm, printed on front and back. It will consist of the first two pages of your paper printed in reduced format on the front of the paper and the third and fourth pages of your paper printed in reduced format on the back of the paper. The authors themselves must produce the copies of their "one-sheet summary" themselves and bring them to the conference (the Congress cannot take care of copying). 
 
NEW    NEW    NEW    NEW   
(c)  "Presentation by Distribution":  
In March 2000 a new suggestion of participation at ICME 9 was announced: Those (potential) regular participants of ICME 9 who are not invited to make an oral presentation at any WGA nor at any TSG can apply for PbyD (Presentation by Distribution) at one WGA and/or one TSG of own choice. The paper to be presented by PbyD must be an original work and must be different from the work to be presented as a short communication by the same author, if the latter is also proposed. 		 The Chief Organizers invite the TSG16 participants to apply for PbyD. Please send your application to one of the Chief Organizers (Hartwig Meissner for session 1 ["creativity"] or Kathleen Heid for session 2 ["gifted students"], more details see http://www.ma.kagu.sut.ac.jp/~icme9/PbyD.html). The new idea of PbyD is similar to the suggestion of participation described in (b). Thus your application will run through the same procedure, but the dead line will be postponed till June 30, 2000.
 
 back to the top
Chief Organizers of TSG16:
Hartwig Meissner (email:  meissne@uni-muenster.de)
Kathleen Heid     (email:  IK8@email.psu.edu)
 
 
.
   DEADLINES   
 
Short Presentation at ICME:
March 15, 2000 
Details see  2nd announcement of ICME 9 
http://www.ma.kagu.sut.ac.jp/~icme9/ 
 
 
Participation in TSG16:
March 15, 2000 
Details see in Call for Active Contributions 
in this document 
 
 
NEW  "Presentation by Distribution":   June 30, 2000.
Details see:    http://www.ma.kagu.sut.ac.jp/~icme9/PbyD.html   and    Call for Active Contributions
 
 
 back to the top
 
  INTENDED   WORK   OF   TSG 16   
 
Session 1 will concentrate on "Creativity". The main responsibility for this session will be with Hartwig Meissner (email: meissne@uni-muenster.de), William Higginson (Associate Organizer) and an international team of specialists. The session will have state-of-the-art reviews on "Creative Environments" (including theoretical, psychological, social, affective components) , "The Needs of the Learners", "The Role of the Teacher", and "Creative Mathematics" (projects, examples, problems). The reports will be followed by questions from the audience and discussion by experts in the field.  If wanted click for more details of Session 1.  Session 2 will include invited reviews of research on the characteristics and needs of the mathematically gifted as well "promising practices" highlights of programs for the mathematically gifted. These reviews will also address the impact of current knowledge about creativity in mathematics on the education of the mathematically gifted. The keynote reports will include summaries from research as well as the contributions from ICME participants who should send their suggestions in advance to the Organizers. The reports will be followed by questions from the audience and discussion by experts in the field. The main responsibility for this session will be with Kathleen Heid (IK8@email.psu.edu) and Mark Saul (Associate Organizer).  If wanted click  for more details of Session 2. 
 

Accepted One-Sheet Summaries (= four-page papers):

Agnis Andzans (The Univ. of Latvia, Riga, Latvia)
e-mail: agnis@lanet.lv
Environment is a Global Concept: Latvian Experience (Feb 17, 2000)

Okamori Hirokazu (Shitenouji International Buddhism Univ., Japan)
e-mail: ytomoko@cc.osaka-kyoiku.ac.jp
Some Suggestions for Evolving Mathematics Education - Based on Wisdoms in Other Fields of Sciences (Feb 17, 2000)

István Lénárt (Department of Methodology and Mathematics Instruction, Budapest, Hungary)
e-mail: len12572@helka.iif.hu
The Sphere as Source of Comparative Models: Direct Manipulation Complementary to Software Programs (Feb 17, 2000)

Mariko Giga (Department of Mathematics Nippon Medical School, Japan)
e-mail: giga_mariko/math@nms.ac.jp
Fractal, the Variety (Feb 18, 2000)

Keiichi Onishi (Osaka Women's Junior College, Japan)
Mikiharu Terada (Seifu Senior High School, Japan)
Hiroshi Kanaya (Seifu Senior High School, Japan)
Naoyuki Masuda (Kansaisouka Jr High School, Japan)
e-mail: GGC00243@nifty.ne.jp
Some Suggestions for Improving Mathematics Education - A Trial of Teaching Mathematics to Gifted Students - (Feb 18, 2000)

Innokenti Semoushin (Ulyanovsk Ste Univ., Russia)
e-mail: isem@apt.ulsu.ru
The Frontal Competitive Approach to Teaching Computational Mathematics (Feb 18, 2000)

Ji Sung Lee (Pusan Electronic Technical High School, Korea)
Boo Yoon Kim (College of Education Pusan National University, Korea)
e-mail: donggryms@netsgo.com
A Study on the Development of Creativity in the Secondary Mathematics in Korea (March 14, 2000)

Can Akkoc (Alabama School of Mathematics and Science, USA)
e-mail: akkoc@asms.net
Consolidating Mathematical Concepts through Computer Graphics

David Ginat (   , Israel)
e-mail:
 

Shashi Prabha (  , India)
e-mail: arsims@del2.vsnl.net.in
The Indian Scene

Assadollah Razavi (   , Iran)
e-mail: arazavi@math.sharif.ac.ir
Creative Environment

Linda J. Sheffield (Northern Kentucky Univ. USA)
e-mail: shefield@NKU.EDU
Developping Mathematically Promising Students in the United States

 

Accepted Poster Presentation:

Peter Mitchell (RGS, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK)
e-mail: PJMitchell@meikleriggs.totalserve.co.uk
Supermaths
 
 

 back to the top
.
 
  Session  1:   Creativity   
 
Session 1 will concentrate   
on "Creativity".  		 The reviews of Session 1   
will be prepared by the following experts:  
The main responsibility for this session will be with Hartwig Meissner (email: meissne@uni-muenster.de) and William Higginson (Associate Organizer). The session will have state-of-the-art reviews, details see below. The reports will be followed by questions from the audience and discussion by experts in the field.   Regina Bruder  (Techn. Univ. Darmstadt, Germany)  
Valerie DeBellis (East Carolina State Univ. Greenville, North Carolina USA) 
Noel Geoghegan (Univ. of Southern Queensland, Australia) 
Gerald Goldin (Rutgers Univ. New Brunswick, New Jersey USA) 
William Higginson (Queen’s Univ. Kingston, Ontario Canada)  
Friedhelm Kaepnick (Techn. Univ. Braunschweig, Germany)  
Hartwig Meissner (Westf. Wilhelms-Univ. Muenster, Germany)  
Marianne Nolte (Univ. Hamburg, Germany) 
Norma C. Presmeg (Illinois State Univ., Bloomington/Normal, Illinois USA)
This document will be updated every four to six weeks. The current state of preparations for  the Session "Creativity" is as follows, see also the two WORD documents from Noel Geoghegan and Hartwig Meissner.
 
Creative Environments  
Session 1 will start with a survey including theoretical, psychological, social, and affective components. The emphasis on creative environments will include some 		 theoretical perspectives on representation, affect, and 
creativity. Gerald Goldin, Valerie DeBellis and Norma Presmeg will work together on the content of the review.  Details to frame the discussion see the enclosed WORD document. 
 
.
Creative Activities  
After the presentation by Gerald Goldin, Valerie DeBellis, and Norma Presmeg there will be activities given to all. The participants will receive a collection of "creativity problems", and may select one or two to work on.  		 We are less interested in correct solutions than in the creative processes that may emerge while addressing these problems.  
We encourage everybody to send us suggestions of appropriate "creativity problems". 
.
The Needs of the Learners  
Regina Bruder, Friedhelm Kaepnick, and Marianne Nolte will concentrate on necessary conditions that pupils  
  • can be creative, 
  • want to to be creative, and 
  • are allowed to be creative. 
Their report also will reflect and include the experiences of the ICME-TSG16 participants who solved the "creativity problems" given before. They will discuss individual and social components to keywords like motivation, curiosity, selfconfidence, flexibility, engagement, humour, visualization, responsibility,... or phantasy, happiness, acceptance of self and others, satisfaction, success, ... They have observed children who can invent and modify problems, who can listen and argue,		  who can define goals, who can cooperate in teams, ... children who are active, who discover and experience, who enjoy and have fun, who guess and test, who can laugh on own mistakes, ... They have analyzed problem solving processes with characteristical problems: Often open ended, fascinating, interesting, exciting, thrilling, important, provoking, challenging, problems with surprising contexts and results, ...  More Details to frame the discussion see the WORD documents (in German) from Regina Bruder, Friedhelm Kaepnick, and Marianne Nolte, and the  English summary from Regina Bruder.

Do you think these keywords are related to "creativity"? Can you add keywords or describe examples? Please help us and send us your suggestions and ideas. We wait for your report on own experiences. Your contributions will be integrated into our summary.
.
The Role of the Teacher  
William Higginson will prepare this part of the session. To summarize, there are different conceptions:  
  • creativity as ‘novelty’ – the teacher attempts to introduce concepts in ways which are ‘different’, ‘unusual’ or ‘innovative’.
  • a "creative mathematics teacher” works hard at a ‘hands-on’ approach to learning and makes extensive use of physical materials and models. 
  • creativity fits well with a ‘problem-solving’ emphasis, the use of computer software packages,  modelling  and Hofstadter’s idea of “Variations on a Theme".
  • the teacher attempts to structure the learning environment so that students have maximal opportunity to follow their own interpretations. 
 More Details see the enclosed WORD document from William Higginson
  • .
    		•
    Creative Mathematics  
    In the last part of Session 1 we will present a summary of projects, examples, and problems of "Creative Mathematics". We also will report from the results of Creativity Conferences in Germany in 1999 in Muenster    		 and in Jena (click "symposium"). The participants will receive an overview of existing projects and experiences. They also shall get the chance to exchange ideas, experiences, and addresses. 
    We call for active contributions and encourage everybody already now to send us information, suggestions, reports on experiences, etc. which we can include into our summary.
    back to the top
    .
     
    Session  2:   Education of  Gifted Students   
    This session will concentrate on "Education of  Gifted Students". Following are the topics on which talks and papers will be based. We are particularly interested in papers which describe "promising  programs and practices" in these topic areas.
     
    Creative Environments 
    Curricula for the mathematically gifted: what are they and how can they provide opportunities to foster creative mathematical thinking?     		 Structures (classroom structures and school organizations): what is their general role in the education of the mathematically gifted and what is their particular role in fostering mathematical creativity? 
    .
    Creativity and Mathematics 
    What balance must we strike, in working with     		 mathematically gifted students, between unleashing their creativity and cultivating techniques of the discipline? 
    .
    The Role of the Teacher  
    What are some promising teaching methodologies for the working with the gifted and what is their impact on the development of creative mathematical     		 thinking? What can we learn from the education of mathematically gifted students that might help us in engendering mathematical creativity in more general students? 
    .
    The Needs of the Learners 
    What is the nature of mathematical talent? How are mathematically gifted students different from other students? How are they the same? 
    What is the role of creativity in the mathematically talented?     		 How do we identify students with high mathematical ability and high creativity? 
    What can we learn from the education of mathematically gifted students that might help us in engendering mathematical creativity in more general students? 
     
    back to the top