PME Stochastics Teaching and Learning Working Group

Letter No 3 - December 1996

Dear Friends

At this stage we have only had a small number of

responses to our last Newsletter. This is not

surprising: we all work very hard, especially in term

time. We shall discuss progress on the the Agenda

items one by one.

1. Improved Data Base

At the moment there are several substantial data

bases, but they are not equally accessible. And we

have been told that Fran Curcio (North Carolina) is

preparing a review of the literature on graphing and

the moment.

What is the best place to locate a data base?

Carmen Batanero (Granada) thinks Zentralblatt

fur Didaktik der Mathematik, but realises that

it will miss out on some psychological work.

The funds are available, and the search options

are efficient. But John Truran's university

(Adelaide) has just run out of money to

subscribe to Zentralblatt!

Perhaps it could be a WWW site, but we need

someone with expertise to run it. And setting it

up would really require money, which we

don=B4t have.

Andy Begg's (Waikato, NZ) disk is very simple,

but it can be searched, and it could be updated

once a year.

If you have any special views, please let us know.

2. Relating Research with Curriculum and Practice

Juan Godino (Granada) has offered to make some

suggestions about the role of didactic analysis in

the education of teachers.

John Truran (Adelaide) is currently looking partly

at why the ideas of curriculum designers have not

been implemented by classroom teachers in South

Australia, and with luck his thesis will be finished

by next July.

3. Statistical Concepts

Susan Friel and George Bright (North Carolina) are

working on understanding of graphs, and linking

this with the idea of functions.

4. Probability Concepts

Anne Hawkins (Nottingham) will have something to

say from her research with children in this area.

Important datelines

Please remember the following deadlines to send proposals of research

reports, short oral communications and poster to PME conference secretary:

Research reports: January 15th, 1997

Short oral communication and posters: March 1st, 1997

More information can be obtained from the Conference Secretary:

Marja-Liisa Neuvonen (marja-liisa.neuvonen@helsinki.fi)

or from internet: http://frodo.helsinki.fi/congress/

Other Matters

MERGA (Mathematics Education Research Group of

Australia) group meets in Rotorua, NZ from 7 - 11

July 97 (just before PME). Michael Shaughnessy is

one of the keynote speakers, so we may expect

stochastics to be a major part of the discussions.

=46urther details from <a.begg@waikato.ac.nz>

We hope to send the next newsletter out in early February. If

you have any special issues to raise, please contact one of

us by 25 Jan97

Carmen Batanero <batanero@goliat.ugr.es)

Kath Truran <Kath.Truran@unisa.edu.au)

John Truran <jtruran@arts.adelaide.edu.au)