Title Participants Abstract "Local Mathematics Education: The implementation of local mathematical practices into the mathematics curriculum" "J.R.S. Mafra, Maria Cecilia Fantinato, Eric Vandendriessche" "In this article we explore the possibility of implementing local mathematical practices in the mathematics curriculum. This research relies on two theoretical frameworks that focus on the value of culture in relation to the study of science and scientific practices in relation to the learning process. The analysis is based on two empirical long-term ethnographical investigations in different places and with different peoples. The field research was carried out in the Northern Ambrymese society (Ambrym Island, Vanuatu, South Pacific) and in the region of Aritapera, a rural area near the city of Santarém, state of Pará, North of Brazil. The local activities investigated in this empirical research can be described as, respectively, string figure-making and handcrafted cuias. The peoples involved are the Ambrymese society (South Pacific) and the craftswomen from the city of Santarém, organized since 2003 in the Santarém Riverside Craftswomen Association (ASARISAN). Based on the comparative analysis and exploration which will improve our understanding of the implementation of local mathematical practices in the mathematics curriculum, we will also show the added value of these implementations and we will provide some guidelines for best practices" "The Belgian journal Mathematica & Paedagogia (1953-1974): A forum for the national and international scene in mathematics education" "Dirk De Bock, Geert Vanpaemel" "In 1953 the Belgian Society of Mathematics Teachers was founded. The Society brought together a few hundred mathematics teachers from both linguistic communities (French and Dutch). It started its own professional journal Mathematica & Paedagogia (M&P). Willy Servais, the Society’s first president, became the journal’s figurehead. Servais was an open-minded, inspiring personality and an unconditional proponent of international exchange in mathematics education. In the 1950s M&P became an international forum of ideas, in particular for members of CIEAEM. In this paper we present some of the main themes discussed in M&P, with particular focus on the contributions by international scholars. Although the influence of the French structuralist mathematicians was clearly discernible, the pages of M&P were also open to other scholars." "The Impact of the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice on the Philosophy of Mathematics" "There are always several ways to read a paper on any topic. This paper, for instance, can be read as a two-part text, the first major part dealing with the history of the study of mathematical practice, and the second, somewhat shorter part with a proposal as to how the ""traditional"" philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of mathematical practice can fruitfully interact." "Using crowdsourced mathematics to understand mathematical practice" "Alison Pease, Ursula Martin, Fenner Tanswell, Andrew Aberdein" "Records of online collaborative mathematical activity provide us with a novel, rich, searchable, accessible and sizeable source of data for empirical investigations into mathematical practice. In this paper we discuss how the resources of crowdsourced mathematics can be used to help formulate and answer questions about mathematical practice, and what their limitations might be. We describe quantitative approaches to studying crowdsourced mathematics, reviewing work from cognitive history (comparing individual and collaborative proofs); social psychology (on the prospects for a measure of collective intelligence); human–computer interaction (on the factors that led to the success of one such project); network analysis (on the differences between collaborations on open research problems and known-but-hard problems); and argumentation theory (on modelling the argument structures of online collaborations). We also give an overview of qualitative approaches, reviewing work from empirical philosophy (on explanation in crowdsourced mathematics); sociology of scientific knowledge (on conventions and conversations in online mathematics); and ethnography (on contrasting conceptions of collaboration). We suggest how these diverse methods can be applied to crowdsourced mathematics and when each might be appropriate." "Discussion: Mathematical modelling as emblematic for research in the psychology of mathematics education" "Wim Van Dooren" "The invisible power of mathematics. The pervasive impact of mathematical engineering in every day life" "Giovanni Samaey, Joos Vandewalle" "The Mathematical, Motivational, and Cognitive Characteristics of High Mathematics Achievers in Primary School" "Merel Bakker, Joke Torbeyns, Lieven Verschaffel, Bert De Smedt" "Philosophy of mathematical practice: a primer for mathematics educators" "Yacin Hamami" "In recent years, philosophical work directly concerned with the practice of mathematics has intensified, giving rise to a movement known as the philosophy of mathematical practice. In this paper we offer a survey of this movement aimed at mathematics educators. We first describe the core questions philosophers of mathematical practice investigate as well as the philosophical methods they use to tackle them. We then provide a selective overview of work in the philosophy of mathematical practice covering topics including the distinction between formal and informal proofs, visualization and artefacts, mathematical explanation and understanding, value judgments, and mathematical design. We conclude with some remarks on the potential connections between the philosophy of mathematical practice and mathematics education." "Mathematical word problem solving: Psychological and educational perspective. (Special issue of ZDM, the International Journal on Mathematics Education)" "Neuroscientific studies of mathematical thinking and learning: A critical look from a mathematics education viewpoint" "Lieven Verschaffel, Wim Van Dooren" "In this commentary we take a critical look at the various studies being reported in this issue about the relationship between cognitive neuroscience and mathematics, from a mathematics education viewpoint. After a discussion of the individual contributions, which we have grouped into three categories—namely neuroscientific studies of (a) children’s numerical magnitude representation, (b) arithmetical thinking, and (c) more advanced mathematical thinking— and which nicely document the scientific progression being made within the domain of educational neuroscience applied to the domain of mathematics education during the last 5 years, we point to some general caveats that should be considered in future research."