Guest Speakers

Prof. Rolf Biehler, University of Paderborn and DZLM, Germany

Rolf Biehler is Professor for Didactics of Mathematics at the University of Paderborn. He is department chair and member of the board of directors of the German Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM, www.dzlm.de) and co-director of the German competence centre for mathematics education at university level (www.khdm.de). He directs a working group of more than 15 young researchers in mathematics education in Paderborn.. After having studied mathematics he received his Ph.D. and his Habilitation both in didactics of mathematics at the University of Bielefeld. His research interests include teaching and learning probability and statistics with digital media, teachers’ professional development, teaching and learning mathematics at university level, particularly in relation to the secondary-tertiary transition. He (co-) authored about 200 papers and book chapters on mathematics education. Since 2013 he developed well-received professional development courses for teachers at upper secondary level as part of DZLM activities, focussing on statistical inference, simulation and modelling. Rolf Biehler has been the editor-in-chief of the Journal für Mathematik-Didaktik, the research journal of the German Association for Didactics of Mathematics from 2007 to 2014. He is currently a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education.

Prof. Hilda Borko, Stanford University, California, USA

Hilda Borko is a professor of education at Stanford University. Her research explores the process of learning to teach and the impact of teacher professional development programs on teachers and students.  Her recent project with colleagues Jennifer Jacobs (University of Colorado) and Karen Koellner (Hunter College) developed the Problem-Solving Cycle model of professional development and Mathematics Leadership Preparation model for preparing PD leaders. One of her current projects, with Janet Carlson (Stanford), is a partnership with a local urban school district to adapt and implement the two models. She is also collaborating with colleagues Matt Kloser (Notre Dame) and Jonathan Osborne (Stanford) on projects studying PD in science classrooms. She is the 2014 recipient of the Excellence in Scholarship in Mathematics Teacher Education Award, AMTE.

Prof. Borko is a member of numerous professional organizations in education and psychology. She served as President of the American Educational Research Association (2003-2004); member and chair of various committees for the American Educational Research Association, Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, and American Psychological Association; and editor of American Educational Research Journal and Journal of Teacher Education (with Jennie Whitcomb and Dan Liston).  She is a member of the National Academy of Education and was chair of the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Selection Committee.

Dr. Alf Coles, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

Alf Coles co-ordinates the Mathematics Education Research Network at the University of Bristol, where he has worked since 2010. His background is in secondary mathematics teaching and he taught for 15 years, including working as a Head of Mathematics and Assistant Headteacher. During this time he was engaged as a teacher-researcher and, for example, has been presenting work at the annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Education (PME) since 1996. He gained a UK government research council scholarship for his PhD study that was adapted as a book: Being Alongside: For the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, published by Sense. His research covers early number development, creativity in learning mathematics, working on video with teachers and links between mathematics education and sustainability education. He currently holds a government research grant that has involved establishing a website to document the particular approach he has developed to using video for professional development (http://mathsvideoclubs.ac.uk/). His latest book: Engaging in School Mathematics, was published by Routledge in 2015. Alf is currently on the executive board of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics and co-convenes the Mathematics Education Special Interest Group of the British Educational Research Association.

Prof. Ruhama Even, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Ruhama Even is Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and holds the Rudy Bruner Professorial Chair of Science Teaching. Her main research and development work is structured around three interrelated foci: (a) the professional education and development of mathematics teachers, (b) mathematics curriculum development and analysis, and (c) the interplay of factors involved in shaping students’ opportunities to learn mathematics. She is the head of the Integrated Mathematics (Matematica Meshulevet) curriculum development program, the MesiMatica formative assessment project, and the M-TET (Mathematics Teachers Edit Textbooks) project, and is a member of the Professional National Committee of School Mathematics. Ruhama Even has been co-chair of ICMI Study 15 on the professional education and development of teachers of mathematics, and she serves as an Associate Editor for the Fields Mathematics Education Journal (FMEJ), and as an editorial board member of the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education (JMTE), Mathematics Education Research Journal (MERJ), and the Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education of which she is also a section editor.