RELATIONS BETWEEN TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND MATHEMATICS AT RESEARCH-INTENSIVE UNIVERSITIES

We examine the relationship between research and teaching practices as they are enacted by university professors in a research-intensive university. First we propose a theoretical model for the study of this relationship based on Chevallard’s anthropological theory. This model is used to design and analyze an interview study with physical geographers and mathematicians at the University of Copenhagen. We found significant differences in how the respondents from the two disciplines assessed the relationship between research and teaching. Above all, while geography research practices are often and smoothly integrated into geography teaching even at the undergraduate level, teaching in mathematics may at best be ‘similar’ to mathematical research practice, at least at the undergraduate level. Finally, we discuss the educational implications of these findings.     

Developing mathematics teacher knowledge: the paradidactic infrastructure of “open lesson” in Japan

In this paper, we first present a theoretical approach to study mathematics teacher knowledge and the conditions for developing it, which is firmly rooted in a systemic approach to didactic phenomena at large, namely the anthropological theory of the didactic. Then, a case of open lesson is presented and analysed, using this theoretical approach, to show how the format of open lesson contributes to the construction and diffusion of didactic knowledge in the community of mathematics teachers in Japan. The basic idea of this format is that teachers from other schools are invited to observe a class taught by a teacher then participate in a discussion session with him on the details of the lesson. For the case study, we analyse the lesson plan prepared for an open lesson, the observed lesson and the teachers’ discussion. As a result, an open lesson session has been described as a specific form of post-didactic practice related directly to an actual observed lesson, and aiming specifically at elaborating the theoretical aspects of teacher’s didactic practice in the lesson and beyond it.