Theories in mathematics education

The purpose of this Forum is to stimulate critical debate in the area of theory use and theory development, and to consider future directions for the advancement of our discipline. The Forum opens with a discussion of why theories are essential to the work of mathematics educators and addresses the possible reasons for why some researchers either ignore or misunderstand/misuse theory in their work. Other issues to be addressed include the social turn in mathematics education, an evolutionary perspective on the nature of human cognition, the use of theory to advance our understanding of student cognitive development, and models and modelling perspectives. The final paper takes a critical survey of European mathematics didactics traditions, particularly those in Germany and compares these to historical trends in other parts of the world