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	ADULTS LEARNING MATHS NEWSLETTER
	No. 7 Summer 1999

From the chair
The Company Ltd Debate
Members are aware of the debate in ALM, on going now for at least three years, concerning the pros and cons of making the transition from Association to Company Ltd status. The issue has been addressed by previous Steering Groups and at annual general meetings (AGM,1998 and AGM,1999). Indeed the current Steering Group was charged with bringing appropriate documentation to AGM, 1999 so that the process could be finalised. I am happy to report that the process is now nearing completion and I am availing of this opportunity afforded by the newsletter to bring members up-to-date with recent developments. Members will receive a copy of the relevant documentation in due course as part of their AGM papers.

It seems after consideration and advice that the best prospect for ALM is to become an Incorporated Charity Limited by Guarantee. The process of changing status is detailed and involves a number of steps. ALM must first achieve Company Ltd status by registering as a company with Companies House (the appropriate Government Dept in the UK). For this purpose two documents (1) Memorandum of Association and (2) Articles of Association must be drawn-up and submitted to the Registrar of Companies for approval. These documents, if approved, become the governing document of the new company (ALM) and will replace ALM’s written constitution. To be registered as a charitable company the governing document of the company must be approved by the Charity Commissioners.

Since the new governing document will replace the existing constitution much effort has been devoted to preserving the spirit of the ALM constitution and established ALM custom and practice within the terms of this governing document.

This work has been completed by a subgroup of the Steering Group and reviewed by the Steering Group. During this phase the subgroup has interacted with Companies House and the Charity Commissioners, and obtained advice from another educational organisation that has completed the process in the recent past. It is intended to have the ALM documentation vetted by a solicitor and the appropriate agencies so that feedback will be available at the AGM.

This course of action has far-reaching consequences for ALM as an organisation. On balance it is fair to say that members view this change in a positive light. The general feeling is that anticipated benefits outweigh other considerations. But the new status will also bring new duties and obligations. These will be documented for the AGM and discussed there.

We can assure members that the international character of ALM is preserved under these new arrangements. Members should note that a charity or company must be registered with some national government, in this case the UK government. As a consequence half of the trustees (directors) must be resident in England or Wales. In order to further emphasise the international character of ALM the intention is to become a national and overseas charity.

Some desirable consequences arising from this change in status are listed below:
1. ALM would have a legal existence as an incorporated charity limited by guarantee in the UK
2. ALM would have a UK address and bank account
3. ALM could accept payments by credit cards
4. ALM could pursue NGO status with UNESCO.

The Steering Group would like to encourage all members to give serious consideration to these matters and to study the AGM documentation. If you cannot attend the AGM in Sheffield then feel free to contact me or any member of the Steering Group who will represent your views at the AGM.

Finally, I would like to thank the Steering Group for all their hard work on this issue under pressure of severe time constraints but a special thank you must go to Dhamma Colwell, former Steering Group member, who assumed most of the burden of getting the work done.

Prof. John O’Donoghue, Chair, ALM
Dept of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
Fax: +353 61 334927. email: John.ODonoghue@ul.ie

Student voices – uncovering a history for study strategies

Brian G. Cann, University of Maryland University College (UMUC): Maryland in Europe

Many adults view mathematics as external to their lives: it is seen as other people’s knowledge. Without a sense of the personal relevance of the subject matter, mature study habits are often abandoned in favor of study strategies half remembered from school. The resulting feeling of not being in control is generally expressed as math anxiety.

As part of my work with Maryland in Europe over the past few years, I have been looking at implementing strategies to allow students to feel active participants in their study of mathematics. An important part of this project involves locating the history of student’s approach to learning math. The article is an example of one student’s story.

Sid’s Story

Probably the last phrase many adults would expect to see linked with their experience as math learners is "comfort zone". Nonetheless it has become commonplace to accept that people who struggle with math in an academic setting are often skilled at mastering the mathematical tasks they face on a daily basis. Such learners come to a math class questioning the relevance of the material they are about to be taught. They have become accustomed to viewing school math as dry and impersonal: another set of academic hoops to jump through in order to get on with life.

The task of making mathematics connect for individual students might be described as working with the mathematical knowledge from their personal comfort zone, while aiming to broaden their tolerance of new ideas by gently challenging preconceptions of what mathematics is. But how can we do this unless we acknowledge that students have both a voice and a history?

In the United States, all undergraduate university students are expected to complete a minimum number of math classes in order to graduate. For mature students in particular, adapting their study skills to the specific demands of a math class can be frustrating. Over the past few years, I have been interviewing students, trying to discover the study strategies they are trying to apply in math classes.

Sid had attempted mathematics classes on a number of occasions without success although she was close to completing her degree requirements. Although she had already completed our preparatory mathematics course, we requested that she retake that course so that we could work with her from foundation level up. Sid is African-American and was born in Washington D.C. close to 40 years ago. Articulate and thoughtful, she attends university classes in addition to working full-time in a clerical position.

S: I was raised in a family of eight. Difficult at times – the life. My mother was sick and my oldest sister left home early. That left me kind of in charge of everything, you know, so I had to grow up very quickly. I don’t really remember childhood. I don’t remember ever taking a math course in high school. I don’t remember going to a football game or dances or anything like that. Always had a mission. ... If it isn’t important to somebody or me, I don’t want to do it. You know and I think that came from the rearing - being responsible for the sisters and brothers and ensuring that mother got back and forth to the hospital and just being a grown person in a small body.

When schooling is one of many tasks that need to be achieved, success depends on finding strategies for meeting deadlines. Successful learning is about finding ways to acquire what is necessary in the time that is available.

S: I would have said that it had to have come easily because I didn’t have any time in the afternoons. So it had to be. I was always very conscientious about my studies anyway. Most of the time I would finish up everything that was required at school. It was not a problem, really, to do English and history and those kinds of things during that time.

As Sid relates her experience of schoolwork, the image of a divide between school knowledge and home knowledge becomes apparent.

S: ... I couldn’t go home and say ‘Mama’ or ‘Daddy’ can you help me with this. They were not educated in that, in that, sense, so I always had to try to get my answers before I got home. And I hated, I really hated, this feeling I got from my mother that she would try, she would try to help me. She was just educated well enough to help me with what they called the new language. She was reared in a different age and generation. And my father; oh no, he couldn’t help me at all.

B: Did he simply say he couldn’t help you?

S: Oh, yeah. Exactly. He would simply say that. I think he finished the seventh grade maybe. Maybe. Now my mother finished high school. But she lived in a generation in which her ideas and feelings weren’t to be shared. She was not to exceed the ability of her husband. In other words, she was supposed to step back even if she knew the answer. She was not supposed to share that information with her (pause) – I wouldn’t necessarily say with her children – but, it wasn’t supposed to be common knowledge that her educational level exceeded her husband. I mean I picked up on that right away, because she could tell me some things and I would say "Wow, she knows this. I don’t know. How did she know that?". But she would never just flat out say she knew it. You would always have to feel, you know, feel your way (pause) to dragging the answers out of her. And that’s hard (chuckles), when you don’t know yourself ...

The questioning methods that Sid had to develop to gain information from her mother are part of the rituals associated with the perceived ownership of knowledge. If the knowledge is not yours, you do not feel comfortable passing it on, and while the required information may eventually be communicated, the form of discourse reinforces the dislocation between the knowledge of the home and the imported knowledge of the school. Sid’s method of studying, designed to maximize the knowledge input in the limited time available, links with this concept of foreign knowledge: she studied to acquire information, but not to internalize it. She is not looking for possession of that knowledge – she has no role model to determine what that means.

Learning to remember, rather than learning to embody, provides very few clues as to a hierarchy of information. When she began attending college classes, she adopted a grazing method of course selection. With no memories of mathematics from school, she enrolled in a math class early in college, without knowledge of prerequisites:

S: It never really dawned on me and I went straight into a course (pause). Straight into it. ... I think I knew I was in trouble about the third chapter. ... I gave it two tests, then I dropped it.

End Note

Sid’s story is typical. Academic math has played a minimal role in her life until she enters college as a mature adult. By this point her study strategies have become developed by success in other areas and fine-tuned by the need to produce results in limited time. The model for this is deeply rooted. As a child, Sid had to win knowledge from her mother by clever questioning: the prize of the hard work was the information gained. Through this process, the information becomes the focus, not the meaning of the information: the information isn’t embodied, it isn’t lived – it is hidden and requires excavation. Although this method has served her for many years in other subject areas it stands in opposition to what math teachers would typically see as the strategies of a successful math student. Knowing her history enables us to understand why she is using study strategies that seem to us to be inappropriate. It also provides the opportunity to negotiate modifications with which she can identify. Sid later passed her required math classes, but that is another story.

Number Sense and More: Rethinking Math in Adult Basic Education

Myriam Steinback, TERC, Cambridge, US
Esther Leonelli, Community Learning Center, Cambridge, US
Mary Jane Schmitt, National Centre for the Study of Adult Literacy and Learning (NCSALL) fellow, doctoral student Harvard Graduate School of Ed, US

One out of seven high school diplomas awarded in the United States each year is a GED (GED Testing Service, 1997). That statistic alone is a convincing argument for why national and state education reform must be extended to the population enrolled in pre-GED and GED preparation programs. When the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics began its reform initiative, its banner was "mathematical power for all " (NCTM, 1989). We know NCTM did not mean all but the 14% of those who get a GED. But in effect, that is what has happened. Alternative high school diploma and preparation programs utilize curricular and instructional materials which are woefully outdated and offer few professional development opportunities for teachers in those programs.

The activities in the Number Sense unit are investigations which facilitate learning by providing each learner with the opportunity to develop a sense of how numbers relate to one another and to the real world. These investigations involve students in the exploration of major mathematical ideas for a duration of one or numerous class periods. The sections included in the unit are Developing Mental Computation Skills, Developing a Sense of Multiplication and Division, and Rectangles and Factor Pairs.

The Number Sense unit was field tested by teachers in adult education centers throughout Massachusetts. The feedback we received has been overwhelmingly positive, with requests for more such units. The field tests provided us useful information that we incorporate into the unit in the form of notes to the teachers. These notes are about how the activities play out in the course of a classroom session. They are a valuable professional development tool for the teachers using the units.

Our long-term goal is to develop algebra, 2-D and 3-D geometry and measurement, discrete math, statistics and probability curricular units to match the strands of the Curriculum Frameworks. This outline, together with the Number Sense Unit, will be the basis for the overall plan for a comprehensive pre-GED/GED standards-based mathematics curriculum. We expect the second unit, currently under development, to be ready by the end of the summer of this year, 1999.

As with the standards-based reform curricula that we use as a basis for the units, one of the most significant pieces is the teachers’ changing role from imparter of knowledge to facilitator of learning. For adult mathematics learners this is particularly true, as they largely depend on the teacher as a guide and master. Their self-perception as learners of mathematics is mostly negative. They rely on "the book" and on "the teacher" to help them master the concepts. Too often the teachers as well as the learners are math anxious or phobic and don’t view themselves as mathematical thinkers. Both will have opportunities to rethink and change this perception as they use the units.

References

GED Testing Service. (1997). Who took the GED? GED Statistical Reports 1988-97. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.

Goodridge, B., Leonelli, E., Moses, M., Steinback, M., & Tierney, C. (1998). Number sense: ABE math curriculum frameworks unit. Malden, MA: Massachusetts Department of Education Adult Community and Learning Services.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (1989). Curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: Author.

Russell, S.J., Tierney, C., Mokros, J., Economopoulos, K., et al. (1998). Investigations in Number, Data, and Space White Plains, NY: Cuisenaire/Dale Seymour Publications.

1. GED is the acronym for General Education Development. GED is a school equivalency diploma for adults.

Mathematics and gender: given or made?
A study of women, rationality and mathematical practices

Betty Johnston, A PhD dissertation, 1998, University of Sydney

I cannot write with passion about the need for women to engage in mathematics, that is, mathematics as I have known it most of my life. I can write about mathematics as a pleasure - for me - and about the distress and inadequacy that many women feel when faced with maths. But my conclusion then is to jettison that maths. It has been used violently to shape us, and many women want nothing more to do with it.

Could I begin to tease out the significance of the issues embedded in innumerable stories for understanding how women interact with mathematics? Does being a woman really affect that relationship? And whether or not it does, is mathematics worth all the effort? In spite of all the research that has been done on the ‘problem’ of maths and gender, there is not a lot that explores in depth and in detail women’s encounters with mathematics, and relates these to the broader social frameworks which structure our lives. My research is one exploration of this territory, and in it I use a methodology - memory-work - originated by a group of feminists (Haug et al 1987) who wanted to examine the complex and detailed processes through which we make social structures our own, and who took their own experience as the basis for the knowledge and action such understanding could generate.

I journeyed in the thesis through a series of questions and activities. After examining familiar literature and research to see what the ‘problem’ of maths and gender is, I explored the question of whether gender relations are made or given, emerging with a theory of practice that promised to adapt well for understanding mathematics also. Using this theory, I tried to map out in more detail relations between maths, gender and rationality. Then, to collect evidence about how these ideas worked out in the detailed daily activities of our lives I used memory-work. The two groups of women with whom I worked, wrote and analysed stories of their memories, according to certain guidelines. We wrote about aspects of quantification in the everyday world as well as about school mathematics: the cues for our stories included competence, cleverness, being right, patterns, doing maths, and measuring time. In the conclusion, I attempted to tie together method, findings and theory - memory-work and the theory of practice - to address the question underlying the whole research project: are democracy and delight really beyond the scope of our daily interactions with mathematics?

Reference

Haug F et al. 1987. Female Sexualisation: a Collective Work of Memory. Translated by Erica Carter. London: Verso.

A Response to Adults count too

Tom Macdonald, Technology Coordinator, Massachusetts SABES (System for Adult Basic Education Support); and member of Massachusetts Science and Technology Team

Roseanne Benn (1997), Adults count too, Leicester, UK, National Organization for Adult Learning.

In Adults count too, Benn’s constant reprise of ‘mathematics for all’ resonates with my exploration of my own numeracy, which began when I was teacher of English as a second language. Early on I realized that for my students, learning another language entailed far more than "survival skills" for communication in daily exchanges. My developing appreciation for what "literacy" is was particularly challenged when the students at my center, all from Haiti, voiced their feeling that they wanted and needed to learn math as well as English – because it would seem more like school. Along with the wisdom and outspokenness of their request was coupled the enigma of their acceptance of math worksheets as effective and expected learning tools. Benn provides me some illumination:

The underlying motivation driving adult students to learn mathematics in a formal situation is arguably to gain access to the powerful and prestigious discourse of academic mathematics. This approach helps to explain why they are less interested in building on their own existing everyday mathematical discourses which they feel, probably rightly, are not valued in society. So adults come to formal learning wishing to move themselves away from their ‘folk’ mathematics….(p. 99)

I believe good teaching involves an ongoing level of negotiation with a group of students around content and expectations, and forms a basis for a successful learning community. In the context of Benn’s forceful arguments for ethnomathematics, such negotiation provides fertile ground for investigations of mathematics which engage learners at the level of narrative, and which harness their confidence and curiosity in giving voice to their reflections, puzzlements, experiences and histories.

Successful learning in formal setting requires relaxed, but high, expectations of success, lots of encouragement, believable validation, respect, sufficient challenge linked to sufficient experience of success. Humour helps to encourage the supportive environment in which this can take place. (p. 160)

As I look at my own relatively advanced and priveleged education experience, I am struck by how little knowledge I have of "formal" math and science. As a student I found no resonance in mathematical and scientific knowledge such as it was presented. Those engaged in mathematics and science were a special breed, a group unto themselves. It is through my work in adult education, and particularly with numeracy, that I now can give myself credit for the science and math knowledge that I have. Though science and math seem often to take place in a rarefied atmosphere, the questions of science and math - the desire to understand and to explain - belong innately to any and all of us, teachers and learners alike. I asked a former student of mine to write some of his thoughts about mathematics for this article, and he writes:

Mathematics are important, organic, and scientific method in humanity life. In everything in life, math is found. Sometimes, it represents in numbers, shapes, letters and a lot of smaller, bigger variable things. Most of the time individual are doing mathematics without knowing it, because math is the science of energy. People who know how to use math are always succeed…. (Saurel Marcelin)

Through her presentation of mathematics as a language, I am encouraged to persist in my interest in broadening the classroom discourse by exploring science and technology as integral parts of the narrative which the language of mathematics makes possible. Language learning; math and science learning; and applications of technologies are not separate pursuits, and must be clearly integrated in the context of personal and social narrative.

…What needs to be developed is the communicative learning with its emphasis on critical reflection of assumptions, discourse, validation of the learner’s beliefs and reflective action upon the insights resulting from transformations of meanings.

… The attempt to convey ideas and concepts to the learner must take place using the metaphors and imagery available to the learner ... (p. 177)

In my reading of Adults count too I find affirmation that numeracy in adult education can lead us to include science and technology exploration as integral aspects of education for empowerment and liberation. Our challenge is to construct with our students a broadened narrative of "mathematics, science and technology for all".

Numeracy is to mathematics as literacy is to language … The language of nature, ie mathematics, and the language of people must both be learnt in the context of realistic use in order to sustain motivation and ensure mastery…The definitions of literacy …[now take] into account the demand for cultural literacy, scientific literacy, environmental literacy, etc. The definitions of numeracy have also been expanded to take account of our more complex technological society …. (p. 67)

…the knowledge of numeracy is seen as important, not just for utilitarian or abstract purposes, but as part of students’ attempts to understand their own individual and collective lives and to make their lives meaningful. (p. 80)

News and Events

ICME-9/ Tokyo 2000

The 9th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME9) on behalf of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI), is pleased to announce that ICME9 will be held in Tokyo/Makuhari, Japan, from July 31 to August 6, 2000.

The conference webpage is: http://www.ma.kagu.sut.ac.jp/~icme-9/index.html

ICME-9: Working Group for Action (WGA) 6: Adult and Lifelong Education in Mathematics

Some background information

The 1996 UNESCO report Learning: The Treasure Within (Delors) made the following observations.

"There is a need to rethink and broaden the notion of life-long education. Not only must it adapt to changes in the nature of work, but it must also constitute a continuous process of forming whole human beings - their knowledge and aptitudes, as well as the critical faculty and the ability to act. It should enable people to develop awareness of them-selves and their environment and encourage them to play their social role and work and in the community" (p. 21)

"The concept of learning throughout life thus emerges as one of the keys to the twenty-first century. . . . It meets the challenges posed by a rapidly changing world. . . . The need [for people to return to education in order to deal with new situations in their personal and working lives] is even becoming stronger. The only way of satisfying it is for each individual to learn how to learn" (p. 22)

A forum such as ICME provides an excellent opportunity for international exchange of ideas as well as the solidarity and co-operation sought by bodies such as UNESCO. The concept of equity is crucial and respect must be accorded adult learners in terms of their cultural, linguistic, social, and other backgrounds. It should also be recognised that the concept of work encompasses not only paid work in the official labour market, but also that which takes place in the home and the community (paid and unpaid). Each of these are potential sites for life-long education as well as formal institutions. It follows from the above that social needs are no less important than economic.

What is an ICME WGA?

A working group for action (WGA) is a group of experts and general participants who are concerned with the subject/theme of the WGA, and who think and work together to recognize existing issues, and search for resolutions or approaches to them.

At the ICME Congress there will be at least three 120-minute sessions for each WGA. There will be a variety of means for the presentation and exchange of views.

WGA: Adult and Lifelong Education in Mathematics

Against this background, it becomes important for us to share ideas about the mathematics education needs of adults returning to study. This working group for action (WGA) has been placed on the ICME program following the successful 1996 WG on Adults Returning to Mathematics Education, in recognition of the growing importance of this complex field which spans all educational levels, and is likely to be linked with issues of class, gender and race.

Work is being undertaken in many countries to develop systematic and critical foundations for research into adult learners and lifelong education specifically in relation to mathematics education. This WGA welcomes the contributions of educators with experience of teaching mathematics to adults in any sector of education, whether on a formal or informal basis.

For a working group to function productively, it is important to facilitate genuine and fruitful exchange of opinion and development of ideas. Accordingly, it is intended that much of the business of the working group should be conducted in smaller groups, based around short presentations and discussions, and that the programme will be responsive to the proposals elicited by this call.

Call for proposals

We are calling for proposals for activities such as key-note lectures, panel discussions, or short presentations (approx 20 minutes). It will also be possible for participants to present a paper, but without making an oral presentation.

Proposals are invited by 31 January 2000, and we will respond to them by 31 March. The proposal should be in English and should list: (a) the style of presentation activity; (b) the title of the presentation; (c) the name(s), affiliation(s) and address(es) of the presenter(s); and (d) a 400-word (maximum) summary of the presentation. We are willing to give informal advice to anyone preparing a proposal.

We look forward to hearing from interested mathematics teachers and researchers!

CHIEF ORGANISER:

Gail FitzSimons
34 The Boulevard, Warrandyte
Victoria 3113, AUSTRALIA
Tel: + 613 9844 2902 email: gfitzsimons@swin.edu.au

ASSOCIATE ORGANISERS:

Diana Coben, University of Nottingham, UK
email: diana.coben@nottingham@ac.uk

John O’Donoghue, University of Limerick, IRELAND
email: john.odonoghue@ul.ie

New Adult Numeracy Web Site

Beth Marr, Dave Tout and Betty Johnston have again collaborated on a new national adult numeracy project in Australia. It was called the ANAMOL project - Adult Numeracy And Mathematics On-Line Project. It has attempted to link adult numeracy teachers from across Australia together via the Internet and used a range of vehicles for communicating and working together.

One of the main aims of the project was to develop a Web site with teaching ideas and materials. This site has just been developed and placed on the WWW by Melva Renshaw and Dave Tout of Language Australia in Melbourne. Although still under construction, please feel free to visit the web site to see what is available. The WWW address is:

http://sunsite.anu.edu.au/language-australia/numeracy/anamol

Review

Investigations in Number, Data, and Space

Dave Tout, Numeracy Consultant and Coordinator, Adult Education Resource and Information Service, Language Australia.

Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, Dale Seymour Publications, New Jersey, US, 1996 - 98.

Whenever I see a Dale Seymour publication, I know I am sure to find something worthwhile and interesting. The Investigations in Number, Data, and Space series was no exception to this rule. And it makes me wish I did more classroom teaching. But I use the ideas whenever I get the chance – training teachers for example.

Investigations in Number, Data, and Space is designed as a Prep - 5/6 mathematics curriculum. It has four major goals:

• to offer students meaningful mathematical problems
• to emphasise depth in mathematical thinking rather than superficial exposure to a series of fragmented topics
• to communicate mathematics content and pedagogy to teachers
• to substantially expand the pool of mathematically literate students.

The Investigations curriculum embodies an approach very different from the traditional textbook based curriculum. Units of study are presented through investigations that involve students in the exploration of mathematical ideas. As such they are ideally suited to acting as stimulus materials for teachers of adult numeracy. I have now used a number of ideas and activities from the series, and all have been a success with adults.

The series covers a wide range of mathematical topics and levels, too many to name or list here. But the inventive names tell you what they are about, like ‘Between Never and Always’ about probability and chance. From this unit I have used an excellent activity called ‘Creating a Likelihood Line’ which I’m sure works better with adults than children. I have only read and used a handful of the Teacher Resource Units, but what I have seen has been stimulating and inspiring. Obviously not all the activities can be used directly with adults, but may need adapting to suit adults’ needs and interests.

The approach taken involves students in working together, in both small and large groups, to investigate and solve problems. There is an emphasis on working cooperatively and using concrete materials and tools, and on expressing their ideas both verbally and in writing. An aspect that I particularly like is the emphasis on language, and on students needing to understand the maths they are investigating and being able to discuss and describe what they are doing.

There are excellent notes to the teacher, detailing the background and rationale behind the unit, along with clear lesson plans, reproducible student materials and worksheets, and suggestions re assessment. There are short activities and games that reinforce skills and that can be used in conjunction with the longer, in-depth investigations.

I wholeheartedly recommend that you chase up your favourite maths book supplier and ask them to show you some of the Investigations in Number, Data, and Space series by Dale Seymour publications. For further information about the series contact the international distributor at katherine.rosado@pearsonlearning.com

About ALM

Adults Learning Maths – A Research Forum (ALM) is an international research forum bringing together researchers and practitioners in adult mathematics/numeracy teaching and learning in order to promote the learning of mathematics by adults.

ALM was formally established at the Inaugural Conference, ALM-1 in July 1994 as an international research forum with the aim to promote the learning of mathematics by adults through an international forum which brings together those engaged and interested in research and developments in the field of adult mathematics* teaching and learning.

* Within ALM we understand the term ‘mathematics’ to include ‘numeracy’.

ALM is a forum for experienced and first-time researchers to come together and share their ideas and their reflections on the process as well as the outcomes of research into hitherto neglected area of adults learning mathematics.  ALM puts people in touch with each other, providing a framework for collaboration and helping to stimulate and develop research plans.  We are especially keen to encourage practitioners to undertake research.

Since 1994, ALM has gone from strength to strength and now has 140 members in 19 countries.

What does ALM offer?
ALM membership brings with it opportunities to:
• contribute to an international forum of researchers and practitioners in the field
• share concerns, insights and research at ALM annual conferences, and to attend at a reduced rate
• receive ALM newsletter (free)
• receive ALM conference proceedings (free of charge to conference delegates).  These proceedings constitute the most significant and authoritative collection of papers on adults learning mathematics available today
• network, electronically and otherwise, with practitioners and researchers in the emerging field of adults learning mathematics.

ALM Officers
Chair: Prof. John O’Donoghue, University of Limerick
Secretary: Dr Diana Coben, University of London
Treasurer: Sylvia Johnson
Membership Secretary: Sue Elliott, Sheffield Hallam University

Join ALM today!
ALM is actively seeking to expand its membership worldwide.  Membership is open to all individuals and institutions who subscribe to its aims.  For details contact Sue Elliott, Membership Secretary at the Centre for Mathematics Education, Sheffield Hallam University, 25 Broomsgrove Road, Sheffield S10 2NA, UK email:  S.Elliott@shu.ac.uk or your regional ALM membership agent:

AUSTRALIA Dr Janet Taylor, OPACS, Uni. of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia.  Email: taylor@usq.edu.au

BRAZIL Eliana Maria Guedes, Dept. of Architecture, Mathematics and Computing, UNITAU, University of Taubaté, Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Email:  emg@aquarius.com.br

DENMARK Tine Wedege, IMFUFA, Roskilde Uni., PO Box 260, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.  Email:  tiw@mmf.ruc.dk

NEW ZEALAND Barbara Miller-Reilly, Student Learning Centre, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, N.Z.  Email:  Barbara@math.Auckland.ac.nz

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND Prof. John O’Donoghue, Dept of Maths and Statistics, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.  Email: John.ODonoghue@ul.ie

THE NETHERLANDS Mieke van Groenestijn, Hogeschool van Utrecht, PO Box 14007, 3508 SB, Utrecht, The Netherlands.  Email:  Mieke.v.Groenestijn@feo.hvu.nl

UNITED KINGDOM Sue Elliott, Centre for Mathematics Education, Sheffield Hallam University, 25 Broomsgrove Road, Sheffield S10 2NA, UK email:  S.Elliott@shu.ac.uk

USA Dr Katherine Safford, Saint Peter’s College, Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ 07306, USA.
Email:  SAFFORD_K@spvxa.spc.edu

Membership fees
Individual: pound stg £15
Institution: pound stg £30
Student/unwaged: pound stg £3
Low waged (minimum)

Editorial Committee
Brian Cann
Mieke van Groenestijn, W. Hogeschool van Utrecht
Tom McDonald
Dave Tout, Language Australia

The views expressed in individual articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of ALM or of the editorial committee.

Many thanks to our contributors.

We would like to encourage members to submit items to the newsletter.  These should be sent to:
Mieke van Groenestijn, Faculty of Ed., Hogeschool van Utrecht, PO Box 14007, 3508 SB, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Email:  Mieke.v.Groenestijn@feo.hvu.nl

© ALM 1999

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