Welcome to ICMI STUDY-23

 

The Faculty of Education of the University of Macau and the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau, Macau SAR (DSEJ; 澳門特別行政區教育暨青年局) are very pleased to co-host ICMI STUDY 23 conference in 2015 in Macau SAR, China. Under the auspices of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI), this conference will be held in the University of Macau, Macau SAR, China, from June 3 to 7, 2015.

 

With a fascinating history of 400 years of cultural exchanges between the East and the West, Macau is unique in its cultures and society. It boasts many cultural treasures of all types, including picturesque dwellings in traditional styles, ancient temples built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, buildings with Southern European architectural features, baroque style churches and impressive contemporary structures. In July 2005, the historic district  collectively known as the “Historic Centre of Macau” was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today Macau is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China, benefiting from the "one country, two systems". Macau SAR is growing in the number and diversity of its attractions. The greatest of these continues to be Macau's unique society, with communities from the East and the West, complementing each other. It offers a perfect environment for an international conference.

 

With a long history of mathematics theory and practice, Chinese community has a unique appeal to mathematics educators at the primary education level. Ancient Chinese invented computation tool (counting rod, abacus), computation procedures in SunZi Suanjing (孫子算經) A.D. 5 century (Lam & Ag, 1992), which are still used in current textbooks or classrooms in the world. In recent years, the outstanding performance of Chinese students in Shanghai in the OECD’s PISA mathematics assessment has resulted in much discussion among educators in the world. Macau SAR itself has also risen from the 15th in 2009 to 6th in 2013 in OECD’s PISA math assessment, an achievement that attests to the commitment of the Macau government and the society to providing the best education for its citizens. We believe that Chinese education practices under the influence of the Confucian educational heritage can provide a resource for new thinking in global mathematics education development relating to the whole number.

 

We are especially interested in the "Dialogue among Civilizations" relating to the whole number as the important component in mathematics education in the world. It is our great pleasure to have mathematics educators from all over the world to come and enjoy Macau, and to make ICMI STUDY 23 a rich and professionally rewarding conference for all. The conference attendees will have the opportunity in experiencing the unique characteristics of the Chinese mathematics education practice, which is closely connected to the Eastern traditions of didactics of mathematics and has seen important recent developments on whole number. We are excited to host ICMI STUDY 23, and we warmly welcome all of you to come to Macau for ICMI STUDY 23, and much more!


 

(Xitao Fan), Dean of Faculty of Education, University of Macau

 

(Lai Leong), Director of the Education and Youth Affairs Bureau (DSEJ)

 

Macau SAR, China

 

 

Timeline

Submission deadline

15 October 2014

Informing accepted submitters

February 2015

Conference

3 - 7, June 2015