During the past weekend (November 10-11,
2012), the 45th Annual Conference of the Japan Society of Mathematical
Education took place at Nara University of Education. This conference is the
biggest research-oriented academic meeting of mathematics education in Japan,
and it was a great opportunity for all the participants to attend lectures
focusing on up-to-date teaching and learning issues on mathematics education,
to meet and discuss with top-of-the-line Japanese researchers and mathematics
educators, to meet with old friends and colleagues, and to visit historic and
majestic places at Nara, a city full of history, beauty, and deer. Personally,
I just had time to visit two places: the Gojū-no-tō (五重塔) five-story pagoda at Kōfuku-ji Temple (興福寺) on the night of November 9 (thanks to the recommendation of a
group of old people staying at the same hotel I was, who told me to visit the
pagoda at night, because of the illumination); and the Tōdai-ji Temple (東大寺) with its wonderful Great Buddha Hall (大仏殿), its 14.98-meter tall bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana (the
world's largest), and deer (regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto
religion) roaming freely in the area, on the late afternoon of November 11
(thanks to the invitation made to me by Nonakaさん, Haradaさん and Nakawaさん). By the way, both places are two of the eight "Historic
Monuments of Ancient Nara" listed by UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Our academic supervisor, Professor Takuya
Baba, and five of our current lab members, made presentation this time:
Professor Baba did a presentation entitled “Research issues from the viewpoint of values in mathematics
education (数学教育における価値の視座から見た研究課題)”; Mitsue Arai made a presentation entitled “Relation between definitions and computational activities in geometry
education through textbook analysis (図形教育における定義と計算的活動の関係—教科書分析を通して—)”; Isao Shimada made a presentation
entitled “Research on the formation of social
values in Arithmetic Education (1): Focusing on selected social open-ended
questions (算数教育における社会的価値観の育成に関する研究(1)—社会的オーペンエンドな問題の中の選択問題に焦点を当てて—)”; Hiroshi Ishii made a presentation
entitled “A study on mathematics teachers’ motivation in Zambian lesson study (ザンビア授業研究における数学教師の動機づけに関する一考察)”; Masato Kosaka made a presentation
entitled “On mathematical connections: Focusing on “connections among subject areas” and “connections with the society” (数学的なつながりについて—「教科間のつながり」と「社会とのつながり」に着目して—)”; and Orlando González made a presentation entitled “Survey on Japanese secondary school mathematics teachers'
statistical knowledge for teaching: Focusing on teaching of variability-related
concepts (中等数学科教員が有する「教えるための統計的知識」に関する調査研究―「ばらつき」に関連した概念の指導に注目して―)”. Our lab delegation in the 45th Annual
Conference of the Japan Society of Mathematical Education was completed by
Tomoe Harada and Toshikazu Nonaka.
In addition, we also had the chance to meet
during the weekend with former members of our lab, such as Chikara Kinone (now
a professor at Miyazaki University) and Nagisa Nakawa (née Shibuya, now a
professor at Tokyo Future University, who also made a presentation entitled “Basic research for mathematics education development in the Republic
of Zambia (2): Focusing on the degree of learning and issues in
1-digit-by-1-digit multiplication problems of children in basic school at Kabwe,
Central Province (ザンビア共和国の数学教育開発のための基礎的調査(2)—中央州バブヴェのある基礎学校における子どもたちの1桁の乗法の習熱度と課題—)”).
This annual meeting offered to all of us a
unique learning opportunity, as well as a chance to improve our current
researches by receiving constructive comments and feedback from Japanese
specialists. I hope that the next year, during the 46th Annual Conference of
the Japan Society of Mathematical Education that will take place at Utsunomiya
University, the Baba-lab delegation will be bigger than the one at this annual
meeting, with more members making presentations and exposing the good work we
do here at Hiroshima University for the sake of mathematics education.
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