Equations in a consumer culture: mathematical images in advertising

Affect energises the learning and use of mathematics; a key influence comes from the images of mathematics available in society. We sought advertisements containing such ‘images’ (e.g. mathematical expressions, equations or graphs) in 1600 editions of UK newspapers, over two recent three-month periods. We found that 4.7% of editions included a ‘mathematical’ advert, compared with 1.7% found in the pilot for 1994-2003. This supports the idea that mathematical images are being used more in advertising, paralleling the increase observed anecdotally in films. The incidence varied from 8.2% among the ‘quality’ papers, to 2.3% in mid-market, to 0.6% among the ‘populars’, suggesting a correlation with the social class of the readershi

Mathematics in different settings: plenary panel.

When we think about the title “Mathematics in different settings”, a number of questions arise. For example: • How many mathematics are there – one or many? Is there a mathematics that is “prior to”, or independent of, any setting? • What (who) is it that makes settings “different”? And how does this relate to social differences among people? • What is an appropriate typology of different settings – for research or for curriculum design purposes? Relatedly, we might ask: who decides what is “important”? • What is the nature of relations among policy arrangements, research and educational institutional settings? • How are different settings represented in mathematics teaching and assessment? • What is the relationship of mathematics education researchers to any setting

Turning the plates: size perception of rational numbers among 9- and 10-year old children

Behr MJ, Wachsmuth I. Turning the plates: size perception of rational numbers among 9- and 10-year old children. In: Vermandel A, International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, eds. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference for the Psychology of Mathematical Education. Antwerpen: Univ. Instelling; 1982: 181-186

Children's perception of ratios and fractions in Grade 5

Wachsmuth I, Behr MJ, Post TR. Children's perception of ratios and fractions in Grade 5. In: Hershkowitz R, International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, eds. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Rehovot: Dept. of Science Teaching, Weizmann Inst. of Science; 1983: 164-169