Month: March 2017

The 10th Congress of European Research in Mathematics Education (CERME10) was held in Croke Park, Dublin from February 1st – February 5th. In total 468 papers were presented across the 5 days with delegates from 52 countries in attendance. EPI●STEM was represented at CERME 10 as both Dr Ciara Lane and Dr Niamh O’Meara presented their current work at the conference. Dr Ciara Lane worked in Topic Working Group 8: Affect and Mathematical Thinking and in this group she presented a paper entitled Students’ Image of Mathematics: The Role of Parents’ Occupation. Dr Niamh O’Meara worked in Topic Working Group 20: Mathematics Teacher Knowledge, Beliefs and Identity and in this group she presented a paper entitled Is Teacher Knowledge Affecting Students’ Transition from Primary to Second Level Mathematics Education? Dr Patrick Johnson, a lecturer in the School of Education at UL also attended and presented at CERME10. He worked in Topic Working Group 6: Applications and Modelling and presented a paper entitled Examining the Role of Group Work as an Effective Instructional Strategy when Teaching Problem Solving. All three papers were very well received by conference delegates and the feedback from other members of the TWGs was extremely positive. The authors are currently reviewing this feedback and changes are being made to the aforementioned papers before they are submitted for publication in the official conference proceedings.

The University of Limerick conferred a third cohort of graduands of the Professional Diploma in Mathematics for Teaching (PDMT) on Saturday 21st January 2017. This year 187 teachers graduated from the two-year part-time programme, which was initiated in 2012 by government contract. As registered post-primary teachers and graduates of the programme, they are deemed by the Teaching Council to have met the Council’s requirements for Mathematics.

The Minister for Education and Skills who was unable to attend this year’s ceremony extended his congratulations to graduates of the Professional Diploma in Mathematics for Teaching stating that he recognises the dedication and hard work of each person who has completed this challenging programme. The Minister also acknowledged the commitment to the programme of the National Centre for STEM Education at the University of Limerick and the alliance partners in the project. He thanked sincerely all those involved in its success stating that the programme and its graduates make a vital contribution towards our ambition for Ireland to be a world leader in providing STEM education.

The PDMT is fully funded by the Department of Education and Skills as part of the national strategy to support the implementation of Project Maths and improve standards in mathematics education in post-primary schools by upskilling out-of-field teachers of mathematics, Project Maths and the requirements of the Teaching Council.