Introduction to the papers of TWG15: Teaching mathematics with resources and technology

International audienceThe technology working group continues to increase in size since its inclusion at the first CERME congress in 1999. During CERME 9, for the first time the group was divided from the beginning, giving birth to two separate groups: TWG15 focusing on issues related to the teaching mathematics and teacher education and professional development, and TWG16 focusing on students’ learning with technologies and software and task design issues (see Weigand, Lokar, Robutti, & Sinclair, 2015). TWG15 builds on the legacy of the group work at previous conferences. A number of important issues related to technologies and resources and their use by teachers and teacher educators emerged from the group discussions, such as the need to elaborate specific methodologies for analysing and evaluating the efficiency of teacher education programs, or the construction of models that facilitate analyses of the evolution of teachers’ practices related to their ICT use. The research presented in the group contributions tended to be: local, focusing on a particular aspect of teaching mathematics; short-term; and often conducted in controlled laboratory conditions, which prevented general conclusions being drawn about the benefits of ICT in mathematics education. The group concluded that it was necessary not only to learn more about “real” uses of ICT in classrooms and beyond, but also to understand why ICT is not used and to conduct long-term studies with “ordinary” teachers in “ordinary” classes in order to explore the impact of the ICT on students’ learning and on teachers’ practices (Trgalová, Maracci, Psycharis, & Weigand, 2013)