ALM Bulletin: September 2022
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This year we were delighted to hold the ALM 29 conference in the University of Barcelona, which was memorable for many reasons. It was our first in-person conference for two years, shared with practitioners, researchers and policy influencers involved in mathematics education working with adults, from across Europe, Canada, South Africa and North and South America. Gathering together, we shared ideas and experiences about the social impact of developing numeracy skills and knowledge on the lives of adults in many different contexts. As the conference took place in Barcelona, we also had the chance to share those ideas and listen to keynote speakers in different languages including Catalan, Spanish and English - this was a new and interesting dimension to an ALM conference. The proceedings from the conference are currently being worked on and you will soon be able to find out more about the keynotes, read articles from the conference and listen to some of the contributions on the ALM website. On behalf of ALM, I would like to thank the University of Barcelona for hosting the conference and Professor Javi Diez-Palomar and his dedicated team of students for their commitment to the conference and their untiring organisation, in what were extremely high temperatures.
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ALM as an organisation continues to grow. During the pandemic we had chance to develop an online community and start to share our work through virtual seminars, developing links across the globe with individuals and sister organisations. Building on this, our International Journal is also now linked to EBSCO and SCOPUS, helping to spread the word even further. It is thanks to the time, energies, and support of all the Trustees that this work continues. As you can see from the list of trustees below and the range of work undertaken, this means trustees give an enormous amount of time to support ALM. This commitment and the range of organisational tasks, as well as environmental considerations, is one reason why I am asking for opinions about the possibility of doing a two-year cycle of physical conferences, alternating with more virtual experiences. This is not to exclude either but to enable ALM’s broad virtual reach to be maintained, while still enjoying each other’s company. If you have any opinions on this matter, please write to me at chair@alm-online.net
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In this bulletin, you can read about plans for the next conference, ALM 30, and more about our trustees, as well as developments of a sister organisation in Denmark and our new ALM membership proposals.
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ALM 30 Limerick
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After our successful ALM 29 conference in Barcelona, which was so expertly organised by Javi Diez-Palomar, we are delighted to announce that ALM 30 will be held at the University of Limerick, in the Republic of Ireland, July 3rd -5th, 2023. Further details will appear on the ALM website soon but it’s not too early to reserve the dates in your diary.
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ALM trustees
At the ALM Annual General Meeting held in July (in Barcelona) all the ALM trustees were elected to continue for 2022/23. In addition, we welcomed Niamh O’Meara as a new trustee. Niamh will be taking on the task of organising ALM 30. Here is a short introduction from Niamh about her work and interests.
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I am a lecturer in mathematics education based in EPI∙STEM in the Univeristy of Limerick. I am also the deputy director of EPI∙STEM, Ireland’s only centre for STEM Education. I completed my PhD in 2011, under the supervision of Prof. John O’Donoghue and Dr Olivia Fitzmaurice, by investigating the knowledge required to teach mathematics at second level. My research interests include teacher knowledge, curricular issues in mathematics education, improving attitudes and performance in mathematics and numeracy education for adult learners. In recent years I have worked with colleagues across Europe to develop the Common European Numeracy Framework, a framework designed to identify key factors in improving the quality of numerate behaviour of adults (see www.cenf.eu). I have also worked closely with Ireland’s National Adult Literacy Agency [NALA] and produced a series of guidelines for good practice in integrated and standalone numeracy provision (see: https://www.nala.ie/good-practice-in-integrated-and-standalone-numeracy-provision-report-published/ )
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Charlotte Arkenback (Sweden) – Virtual Seminar Group
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Catherine Byrne – Secretary
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Diane Dalby (UK) – Treasurer
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Javier Diez-Palomar (Spain) – International Journal and Host of ALM 29
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Lynda Ginsburg (USA) – International Journal and ANN contact
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Lisanne Heilman (Germany) – Membership Secretary
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Kees Hoogland (The Netherlands) – Website and Youtube development
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Linda Jarlskog (Sweden) – Website support
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David Kaye (UK) – ALM 30 Liaison
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Lena Lindenskov (Denmark) – Virtual Seminar group
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Niamh O´Meara (Ireland) – Host for ALM 30
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We are all pleased that Lisanne Heilman has volunteered to take on the role of Membership Secretary. This role was vacant during 2021/22. We are grateful to Kees Hoogland, who has temporarily filled the gap for the last 12 months. supported by Diane Dalby.
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News from Denmark on ALM contribution to the Danish National Centre for Developing Mathematics Teaching, NCUM
In 2020 a new National Centre for Developing Mathematics Teaching in Denmark was established. One focus is on vocational mathematics. Kees Hoogland and Lena Lindenskov, both ALM trustees, have been appointed as experts. In 2021 a network of vocational mathematics teachers was born at a conference, where Kees Hoogland was invited as speaker.
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The second conference was held recently on September 12, 2022. 70 people participated, leaders, consultants, teachers. Out of the 70 people 53 were teachers. Besides four workshops (one on vocational fractions led by Lena) two plenary speakers from abroad were invited. Peter Liljedahl from Canada on Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, and from ALM Diane Dalby from England on Opening up the black box: the challenges of teaching mathematics within vocational education. Diane’s talk was much appreciated. One research result that Diane exemplified, I found both highly astonishing and highly relevant. This was that our first comprehension of problematic issues in managing, teaching and learning mathematics is insufficient, and may even be wrong. Looking deeply - and from different perspectives - into what the real problems are is necessary and worthwhile.
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The Danish National Center for Developing Mathematics Teaching, NCUM, is financed by the Danish Ministry of Education until the end of 2023. See Om NCUM | Nationalt Center for Udvikling af Matematikundervisning (matematikdidaktik.dk). The Consortium behind the center consists of two university colleges and three universities. In addition, three more university colleges and two more universities are involved. One of the core ideas is to create Knowledge Packages on research and experience knowledge to inspire teachers to reflect upon and develop their teaching.
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The knowledge packages are developed in five strands (see Temaer (matematikdidaktik.dk )
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• Day and leisure time offers
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• Elementary school – primary and lower secondary
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• Academic upper secondary education
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ALM Membership
The work of ALM relies heavily on the commitment and energy of our members. We are very grateful to those who have renewed their membership for 2022 and to the new members who have joined us this year. The current system is however proving difficult to track and we are proposing to move to a new approach from January 2023.
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From January 2023, we are requesting that all members pay their annual membership fee in January each year. For those who have been paying regularly but later in the year, this will mean adjusting the date of payment for any recurring PayPal or bank transfers. Regular payments normally made in December 2022 will be considered as early payments for 2023 and these members will not need to pay again in January 2023.
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We realise that a few members will be making their 2022 and 2023 membership payments quite close together in the first year of this new system and therefore we are not planning to increase the membership fee at this time. However, if this is difficult for personal reasons or you have any questions, you are welcome to contact the Membership Secretary at membership@alm-online.net
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The ALM Membership Secretary will be contacting current members with further information and sending an invoice early in January as a reminder.
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ALM virtual seminar series 2022/23
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You will be pleased to know that we are planning a short seminar series this year. Please watch your emails for seminar announcements. Once dates are confirmed you will be able to find full information, including how to book a place, on the ALM website https://alm-online.net/alm-2020-virtual-seminar-series/. We are especially looking forward to a joint seminar soon with ANN, as part of our ongoing collaboration with organisations in different countries that have similar aims.
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Future bulletins
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We hope that you are enjoying the regular ALM bulletin. If you have news from your part of the world that may be of interest to our international community then please do get in touch with Diane Dalby diane.dalby@nottingham.ac.uk or send her a short draft item for the next bulletin by November1st 2022.
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Privacy Policy
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We do not send advertisements. We do not send data to third parties. Your membership data are stored offline. You can always ask to have your data removed permanently by sending a request to the membership secretary.
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