The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction
ICMI
Bulletin No. 46
June 1999

An Interim Announcement of ICME-9

Hiroshi Fujita

The National Organizing Committee (NOC) for the 9th International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME-9), on behalf of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI), is pleased to announce that ICME-9 will be held in Tokyo/Makuhari, Japan, from July 31 to August 6 in the year 2000.

In ICME-9, we intend to meet the standing objectives which have been achieved since 1969 by the eight previous ICMEs, namely, to make international efforts to develop mathematical education in order to improve the learning and teaching of mathematics in various countries and cultural zones, and over the world. Moreover, we are conscious of our honor to host this ICME to be held for the first time in Asia, which encourages us to strive in order to create a friendly atmosphere and concrete chances in ICME-9 where the academic view and intellectual wisdom from both of the East and the West are exchanged to yield promising ways leading to the progress of mathematics education in the coming century.

Needless to say, the success of ICME-9 cannot be attained without strong participation by many math educators and teachers from various parts of the globe. To this end, we firstly wish the plan of ICME-9 to be known by as many people as possible. The First Announcement of ICME-9 was produced several months ago and has been distributed to various corners of the world, and its electronic form can be seen now in the official home page of ICME-9, the URL of which is

http:/www.ma.kagu.sut.ac.jp/~icme9/

On the other hand, the Second Announcement of ICME-9 is now being compiled by the NOC in close collaboration with the IPC (International Program Committee for ICME-9) which has just finished its second meeting in Tokyo. It will appear and will be shipped around the end of September 1999. As a matter of fact, the purpose of this note is to describe the current status of the preparation for ICME-9 and to provide some of preliminary but concrete information, a bit earlier than the Second Announcement, for those math educators and teachers who are interested in ICME-9, and who would consider to come to Japan in 2000 to participate in ICME-9.

If you wish to receive the Second Announcement, please write to Secretariat of ICME-9 by making use of the reply card attached to the First Announcement or by giving personal information (name, title, gender, affiliation, mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address, if available) in any form.

Address of Secretariat of ICME-9

(Prof. Toshio Sawada, Secretary General)

e-mail: icme9@ma.kagu.sut.ac.jp

postal:

Secretariat of ICME-9,

Department of Mathematics, Science University of Tokyo,

26 Wakamiya, Shinjuku-ku

162-0827 Tokyo JAPAN

fax: +81-3-3260-7823

1. General Information

Principal Activities

In its structure, ICME-9 follows recent ICMEs, particularly, ICME-8. Its principal activities include Plenary and Regular Lectures (PLs and RLs), Working Groups for Action (WGAs), Topic Study Groups (TSGs), an International Round Table (IRT), Short Communications in Poster Sessions, Report Sessions on ICMI Studies. Sessions for ICMI Affiliated Study Groups (HPM, PME, IOWME, WFNMC), Workshops, National Presentations and various Exhibitions will enrich the program. Special meetings will also be arranged (ICMI General Assembly, meetings of Associations representatives, Magazines editors, etc.).

Proceedings

Each participant will receive a copy of the Official Proceedings.

Language

English is the main official language and Japanese is a subsidiary official language. Most lectures and presentations are required to be given in English. We, the Japanese, are seriously concerned about the language barrier, the difficulty of spoken English for most of the participants whose mother tongues are not English. Simultaneous interpretation will be arranged for the plenary activities and for main sessions as often as possible within the limitation of the Congress budget. Other possible means to lower the language barrier are being considered.

Venue

The Congress site, Makuhari, is located between the center of Tokyo and Tokyo International Airport (Narita). The activities of ICME-9 will take place in the Nippon Convention Center (NCC) which is an international convention complex located in the core of Makuhari, and in Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT) which is a private university with its campus neighboring Makuhari. Within NCC, three buildings are used to accommodate the program: the Makuhari Event Hall (MEH), the International Conference Hall (NCH) and the International Exhibition Hall. NCC and CIT are connected by JR (Japan Railroad) with one stop ride (2.5 km). Every participant will be given a pre-paid card for this JR short trip.

Conference Tours

The fourth day, August 3, is Excursion Day of the Congress. Among several options of one-day tours to be offered, there will be a combination of a visit to Japanese schools with observation of classes at work and a half-day sightseeing. Since, according to the regular schedules, all Japanese schools are in summer vacation during the period of ICME-9, these classroom activities shown to the visitors must be specially arranged, and hence the number of Congress participants acceptable to this might be considerably limited. Early signing-up is recommended for those who are interested in this option.

2. Registration Fee, etc.

Registration Fee

The standard registration fee for a regular participant of ICME-9 is 40,000 JPY (Japanese Yen), while the lower fee for early birds and the higher fee for late birds will be 37,000 JPY and 43,000 JPY, respectively. The switching dates of these scales will be specified together with detailed procedures of payment in the Second Announcement. Here we just mention that payment should be made in Japanese Yens. Under circumstances where this might cause unusual difficulty, United States dollars (USD) will be accepted, but then a handling charge of 3000 JPY will be added to each registration fee.

The registration fee for an accompanying person will be 12,000 JPY regardless of the date of payment.

Accommodations

Arrangements for the hotel reservation will be made with the assistance of JTB (Japan Travel Bureau). It is generally said that a tourist stay in Japan is expensive, but this depends on the way one goes around. NOC and JTB are trying to secure a good number of cheap but decent hotels and other types of accommodations, the result of which will be presented in the Second Announcement. Incidentally, the living cost in Tokyo is between the cost in London and that in New York according to the newspapers.

Grants for participants from non-affluent countries

ICME-9 follows ICME-8 in diverting some of its income arising from the registration fees as a "Solidarity Tax", in order to achieve a greater participation of math educators and teachers from non-affluent countries. A more specific plan in regard to these grants will be described in the Second Announcement.

3. Plenary and Sub-Plenary Sessions

PLs

As reported by the First Announcement, four 60-minute plenary lectures will be delivered by Mogens Niss (Denmark), Hiroshi Fujita (Japan), Erich Ch. Wittmann (Germany), and Terezinha Nunes (Brazil/UK). The first two will be given on the first day, the third one on the sixth day, and the fourth one on the last day of the Congress.

IRT

The International Round Table Discussion (IRT) will take place in the 90-minute time-slot right after the opening ceremony. In the spirit to act in concert with WMY2000, this IRT is designed to involve three distance speakers from three countries who discuss with several panelists on the platform of MEH via a tele-conference system, which is made possible by a considerable assistance in technology and logistics offered by NEC Corporation. The moderator is Lee Peng Yee (Singapore), and as for the distance speakers, three socially influential and intellectually eminent persons from USA, Singapore and Japan are now being invited. The subject of IRT is tentatively set as "The role of mathematics in general education for the 21st century".

RLs

There will be around 60 regular lectures in six 60-minute time-slots (45 minutes for RL followed by 15-minutes for discussions). The Second Announcement will include the names of the speakers and titles of all RLs.

4. Working Groups for Action

There are 13 Working Groups for Action (WGAs) in ICME-9 as shown below with their titles and the names of Chief Organizers (COs).

The concept of WGA essentially succeeds the concept of WG in previous ICMEs and could be defined as a group which is composed of those experts and general participants who are concerned with hot and controversial topics regarding the subject/theme of the WGA, and who intend to think together and work together in order to recognize the existing issues, and in order to search resolutions or approaches to resolutions of them and thus wish to improve mathematics education in the relevant range.

Each WGA will be allotted three 120-minute time-slots and one extra slot of 90 minutes, if necessary. In the program of ICME-9, a Report-back Session for WGAs is introduced in a 90-minute time-slot on the last day, where general audience can hear the activities and results of several WGAs different from their own but of their concern.

Here follows the list of WGAs and their COs. The names and e-mail addresses of the Associated Organizers who help the COs in organization of WGA will be written in the Second Announcement.

WGA1 Mathematics Education in Pre- and Primary School

CO = Ann Anderson (Canada) <ann.anderson@ubc.ca>

CO = Linda Sheffield (USA) <sheffield@nku.edu>

WGA2 Mathematics Education in Junior Secondary School

CO = Ferdinando Arzarello (Italy) < arzarello@dm.unito.it>

CO = Alwyn Olivier (South Africa) <aio@akad.sun.ac.za>

WGA3 Mathematics Education in Senior Secondary School

CO = Abraham Arcavi (Israel) <ntarcavi@wiccmail.weizmann.ac.il>

CO = Michèle Artigue (France) <artigue@gauss.math.jussieu.fr>

WGA4 Mathematics Education in Two-Year Colleges and Other Tertiary Institutions

CO = Marilyn Mays (USA) <memays@dcccd.edu>

WGA5 Mathematics Education in Universities

CO = Lynn Steen (USA) <steen@stolaf.edu>

CO = Qixiao Ye (China) <yeqx@sun.ihep.ac.cn>

WGA6 Adult and Life-long Education in Mathematics

CO = Gail FitzSimons (Australia) <GFitzsimons@lucy.cc.swin.edu.au>

WGA7 The Professional Pre- and In- service Education of Mathematics Teachers

CO = Peter Sullivan (Australia) <p.sullivan@christ.acu.edu.au>

CO = Ruifen Tang (China) <ftggtf@online.sh.cn>

WGA8 Research, Practice and Theory of Mathematics Education

CO = Deborah Loewnberg Ball (USA) <dball@umich.edu>

CO = Ruhama Even (Israel) <nteven@wiccmail.weizmann.ac.il>

WGA9 Communication and Language in Mathematics Education

CO = Bill Barton (New Zealand) <b.barton@auckland.ac.nz>

WGA10 Assessment in Mathematics Education

CO = Ole Bjorkqvist (Finland) <objorkqv@abo.fi>

WGA11 The Use of Technology in Mathematics Education (Computers, Calculators, IT Media)