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The ALM bulletin is a bimonthly newsletter from Adults Learning Mathematics (ALM).
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 Bulletin: November 2022

One of our aims for ALM this year is to share our research and thinking on adults learning mathematics with other networks involved in this work around the world. To this end, we are holding our first Virtual Seminar with the Adult Numeracy Network (ANN), a large US based network of practitioners and policy influencers. ALM and ANN members are also joining with representatives from other countries to plan another Virtual Seminar on Maths in Prisons early next year. This bulletin includes more information on our next ALM face-to face conference in Ireland next year, to which you are all very welcome. There is also some important information on ALM membership as well as a link to a UK conference keynote address by one of our trustees, Kees Hoogland, around adults and numeracy, including information on some large-scale European projects and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIACC).

After a very busy year for everyone, the Trustees would like to take this opportunity to wish all our members and friends a restful Christmas break with family and friends, and a peaceful New Year.

Beth Kelly
Chair of ALM trustees

ALM/ANN Virtual Seminar: Exploring Challenges Using Adult Numeracy Curriculum

Adults Learning Mathematics (ALM) and the Adult Numeracy Network (ANN) are excited to announce our first joint online seminar, Exploring Challenges Using Adult Numeracy Curriculum, which will be held on December 15, 2022 (2pm New York, 5pm London). In this session, Heidi Schuler-Jones, ANN president, will share her perspective as a curriculum writer and trainer presented with the challenges teachers have identified with using a structured math curriculum in education systems that have many different demands on teachers and learners. We will then consider questions of curriculum adoption, the realities of the field, and possible solutions.

The seminar will include a variety of ways to contribute, including small group discussions, a Padlet for written ideas, and an opportunity to share with the whole group. The session offers a chance for attendees, including practitioners and researchers from several countries, to exchange ideas.

We hope you will be able to join us. If so, please register for the session in advance at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwvdeqppjguHNYvZFqdFa5uOI3blYWVuuAG

ALM30 Limerick

Plans are moving on quickly for our next ALM conference to be held in Limerick, Ireland, July 3rd-5th 2023. Please remember to hold these dates in your diary! The theme of the conference, Numeracy Theory and Practice in a Changing World, promises to stimulate challenging discussion as we consider the impact of recent developments in many different aspects of our lives, such as evolving school curricula, the onset of an unprecedented pandemic, the move towards a technology-drenched society and civil unrest.

The content will include keynote sessions, paper presentations, practical workshops and round table discussions. The website is now open for the submission of abstracts for practical workshops and paper presentations relevant to any of the following (please note this is a targeted but not an exhaustive list of topics):
  • Numeracy in a Digital Era
  • Numeracy in a Sustainable, Healthy and Peaceful Global Environment
  • Numeracy Teaching and Learning across all Educational Sectors
  • Changing Numeracy Policies
  • Issues in Numeracy Education for Adult Learners in the 21st Century and Beyond
Please be thinking about what you might be able to contribute to the conference and make sure you submit your abstract by February 17th 2023. You can find further details about the conference at https://alm-online.net/alm30_conference/ including how to submit your abstract.

ALM Membership - change of payment schedule

Your membership is important and helps to maintain the work of the organisation in bringing together a community of teachers, educators, researchers, and policy makers for the ultimate benefit of adults learning mathematics. We try to empower this community, amongst other activities, by organising the annual ALM conference in July, providing virtual seminars and publishing an open access journal. All this is possible because of your membership!

Our membership is growing and we welcome all new members that joined us in 2022 and are very grateful to those who have renewed their membership and stayed with us! However, our current system of tracking and organising membership payments needs some updating to make it efficient and we are therefore making some changes in the payment schedule starting from January 2023.

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.

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 for 2023. 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.

The ALM Membership Secretary will be contacting current members with further information and sending an invoice early in January as a reminder.

Lisanne Heilmann (ALM Membership Secretary)

Conference Keynote address - including the Common European Numeracy Framework.

Kees Hoogland, one of our ALM trustees, recently gave a very visual and interesting keynote speech on the Common European Numeracy Framework on 8 November 2022 at the Annual English, Maths and ESOL Conference 2022 for the Learning and Work Institute in the UK. Kees discusses recent developments in some of the projects he is involved in. He starts by discussing the challenges that citizens have with numeracy, for empowerment but also for societal and economic development, and then talks briefly about the second round of PIACC and a Maths in Prisons group. His contribution is about 30 minutes into the conference, which you can access at
https://learningandwork.org.uk/events-2/english-maths-and-esol-conference-2022/ or https://youtu.be/m3YzStX4hn4

Further information on the background research for the CENF can be found at (open access): https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/projects/search/details/2018-1-NL01-KA204-038913.

Future bulletins

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 January 1st 2023.

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