CME 2021 – Critical thinking in mathematics: Perspectives and challenges

CME’21 was held virtually on June 28 – 29, 2021.

CME 2021 programme contained:

  • Plenary lectures
  • Working seminars (on three educational levels)
  • Research reports
  • Panel discussion

CME 2021 plenary speakers were:

  • João Pedro da Ponte – Portugal
  • Ivona Grzegorczyk – USA

Titles and abstracts of the plenary lectures

Professor João Pedro da Ponte – Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Learning to reason mathematically with meaning

The aim of mathematics teaching is to get students not only to learn mathematical concepts and procedures but also to develop the ability to think mathematically. Thinking mathematically involves being able to perform mathematical reasoning, that is, to make inferences in which, from a certain information given, new conclusions are reached. In mathematics, deductive reasoning assumes a fundamental role, allowing the validation of knowledge, but an equally important role assumes inductive and abductive reasoning, essential for the creation of new knowledge. Mathematical reasoning assumes particular characteristics given the nature of the objects of this science, as abstract entities constructed from real-world experiences or from experiences with previously known mathematical entities. It is the links among mathematical objects and among them and real-world objects that allow the attribution of meaning to concepts and reasoning. In this lecture, I present results of recent research work in mathematics education, seeking to highlight key reasoning processes used in mathematics as conjecturing, generalizing, justifying and formulating problem solving strategies, and show how these processes can develop within the framework of an exploratory approach to mathematics teaching.

Professor Ivona Grzegorczyk – California State University Channel Islands, USA

Using Modern Mathematics to Change Learning into Magic

We will show modern mathematics supporting magical tricks promoting interactive learning, experimentation and algebraic modeling. Even though the activities are designed for introductory algebra courses to generate engagement, complexity and advanced mathematical thinking, everyone will be involved and surprised by some of the tricks. 

Panel discussion

Responses to the pandemic: Teaching, learning, and researching mathematics in 2020-2021

CME 2021 panelists were:

  • Jenni Back – UK
  • Eszter Kónya – Hungary
  • Konstantinos Tatsis – Greece
    The panel discussion will be moderated by Miroslawa Sajka – Poland

Jenni Back
Research associate
University of Leicester
Leicester, UK

Eszter Kónya
Associate professor
Institute of Mathematics
University of Debrecen
Debrecen, Hungary

Konstantinos Tatsis
Associate professor
Department of Primary Education
University of Ioannina
Ioannina, Greece

Working seminars

The leaders of CME 2021 working seminars were:

  • kindergarten and primary school (3–9-year-olds): Marianna Tzekaki, Greece
  • primary school (10–13-year-olds): Antonín Jančařík, Czech Republic
  • secondary and upper-secondary school (14–18-year-olds): Lambrecht Spijkerboer, The Netherlands, Edyta Juskowiak, Poland