Deltagande forskare:
Håkan Lennerstad, Blekinge Tekniska Högskola

Håkan Lennerstad är docent i tillämpad matematik vid Blekinge Tekniska Högskola. Han har vid sidan om sin forskning skrivit läroböcker i matematik och artiklar om matematiken språk, matematisk kommunikation och andra matematikdidaktiska frågor. Han har också organiserat kurser i dialogseminarieform.

Adult students have generally more experience than young students, and are thus often more articulate about various issues. Furthermore, workplace mathematics needs to be put into connection and comparison with the more theoretical school mathematics to be efficient knowledge. This section of the Copenhagen Seminar aims at developing the ability for mathematics teachers to inspire discovering dialogues about mathematical issues, relevance and applications, where workplace experience may play a role. Adult students’ work experience may then become a natural resource in the education. Also, the teachers may evolve as teachers more by such mathematical dialogues. Achieving relevant mathematical dialogues is a rather ground breaking work since mathematics traditionally is very silent. If it is spoken, it is very often one-way-communication. The section is a small step towards developing a language for mathematical dialogue that works well for everyone.
 
 
Lena Lindenskov, is Professor wsr in Mathematics and Science Education at DPU School of Education, Aarhus University. Lena works at the Department of Curriculum Research, in 'Program for Fagdidaktik' (lit: 'Research programme for subject matter didactics') with adult learning mathematics as one of her research interests.

Her different research interests in adults', adolescents' and children's engagements in learning and utilising subjects such as mathematics is symbolised in the question Should it be hard. The 'should' symbolises the silent power regime of mathematics as a tool for screening out a certain amount of people, i.e. by exacting mathematics at a certain level to access education and job. The 'it' symbolises the need for seriously analysing and reflecting upon which competences are relevant: is 'it' conceptual math understandings, math skills, mathematical competences, math-containing competences as analytical competences or ? The 'hard' symbolises people's experiences of struggling with difficulties in mathematics.
 
Birgitte Henriksen is a Master in Mathematics Education and also a Master in German Teaching and Learning. She teaches Mathematics at the Teacher Education Blaagaard/KDAS and works as Senior Consultant at NAVIMAT, the National Center of Mathematics Education, which is part of the Profession Institute DIDAK at UCC, University College Capital. Previously she taught mathematics at an adult education center and a language center.

During her studies at Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsskole, she has developed projects and a thesis, which has focused on bilingual and mathematics teaching. At the Copenhagen Seminar there will be a focus on the linguistic challenges that bilingual students may encounter in mathematics teaching and mathematics tasks. Choice of words, sentence structure and sentence length are among the linguistic elements that may impact on reading comprehension. Also native language and cultural backgrounds is important for bilingual students' mathematics learning and therefore focuses the section also on how these could be involved as a resource for mathematics teaching.