TÜRKBİLMAT-6 - Çağrılı Konuşmacı

Keynote Speaker 1. 

Since many years, he is interested in the use of digital technologies in mathematics education and in teacher education. He wrote books about Algebra, Geometry, Calculus, and Computers in Mathematics Education. He contributed to many international conferences like ICME, PME, EARCOME or ICTMT. He was the chair of the technology-group of CERME and he is still the chair of the conference series "Mathematics Education in the Digital Age". He worked at the universities of Oldenburg, Gießen and, since the year 2000, at the University of Würzburg. At the moment, he gives lectures at the University of Ausburg. 

Keynote Speaker Title: Conic Sections – a digital Revival of manifoldly interesting mathematical Objects
Since more than 2000 years, conic sections have always been geometric objects with diverse properties, a rich structure and numerous construction possibilities. They can be found in many environmental situations, have a high heuristic potential, and link many mathematical fields such as elementary geometry, analytic geometry, and calculus. Until the 1960s, conic sections have been an obligatory content of mathematics lessons at high school. Today, for various reasons, they have largely disappeared as independent objects from school lessons, although they are related – implicitly – to many contents in mathematics lessons, for example to reverse proportional and quadratic functions or to perspective drawings. Today, with the help of digital technologies, the historical development of these curves can be experienced in a new way, and the topic of conic sections offers is related to central educational goals of mathematics education. In the lecture, conic sections will be discussed from a didactic, methodological and digital point of view.
 

Keynote Speaker 2. 

Prof. Dr. Laura Van Zoest, Western Michigan University, United States
Prof. Dr. Laura R. Van Zoest is a professor of mathematics, specializing in mathematics education, in the Department of Mathematics at Western Michigan University. She specializes in secondary mathematics teacher education, focusing specifically on the process of becoming an effective mathematics teacher and ways university coursework can accelerate that process. Lines of research have included investigating the effect of reform curriculum materials on teacher development, the use of practice-based materials in university methods courses, and the cultivation of productive norms in teacher education. Her current NSF-funded work (buildingonmosts.org) focuses on conceptualizing the teaching practice of building on high-potential instances. Van Zoest has served as the principal investigator for research and professional development projects funded at over three million dollars and published in research and practitioner journals, including the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Teacher and Teacher Education, Mathematics Teacher Educator and the Mathematics Teacher. She was editor of Teachers Engaged in Research: Inquiry into Mathematics Practice, 9–12, guest co-editor of the ZDM: The International Journal on Mathematics Education focus issue Theoretical frameworks in research on and with mathematics teachers, and co-editor of Research Trends in Mathematics Education. She co-chaired the 2012 PME-NA conference hosted by WMU, served as chair of the steering committee of PME-NA, currently serves on the International Advisory Board for Research in Mathematics Education, and is chair of the Editorial Panel for Mathematics Teacher Educators.

Keynote Speaker Title: Building on Mathematical Opportunities in Student Thinking
Building is a teaching practice designed to take full advantage of Mathematical Opportunities in Student Thinking (MOSTs)—high potential student mathematical contributions that provide an in-the-moment opportunity to engage the class in joint sense making about that contribution to better understand the important mathematics within it. This talk will share what the MOST research group has learned about the teaching practice of building and how teachers can use this practice to generate powerful mathematical discussions in their classrooms.

Keynote Speaker 3. 

Prof. Dr. Gizem Karaali, Pomona College, United States
Karaali’s mathematics research involves algebraic objects of Representation Theory and certain algebraic and combinatorial structures on them, which have deep geometric significance. Her scholarly interests include humanistic mathematics, pedagogy, and quantitative literacy, as well as social justice implications of  mathematics and mathematics education. She is a founding editor of Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.

Keynote Speaker Title: Teaching mathematics humanistically
Humanistic mathematics is a philosophical and perhaps even an ideological perspective on the essence and nature of mathematics. Humanistic mathematics as a position requires that we view mathematics as a human endeavor, and that each of the aesthetic, cultural, historical, literary, pedagogical, philosophical, psychological, and sociological aspects of mathematics are essential for and relevant to the practice of the discipline.
Teaching mathematics humanistically requires moving beyond ideology and getting into praxis. Accepting from the start that the student is not simply a cognitive unit but also has emotions, social connections, political identities, and cultural heritages, and intentionally engaging with the whole student are the first steps into the practice of teaching mathematics humanistically.
In this talk we will begin with an exploration of the philosophical pillars of humanistic mathematics. Then we will take a look at the current state of the mathematics classrooms and think about the dehumanizing effects of the status quo. Then we will come back to humanistic mathematics and look for answers there to (re)humanize the mathematics classroom for all students.
 

Keynote Speaker 4. 

Prof. Dr. Miroslaw Majewski, New York Institute of Technology (Professor Emeritus) College of Arts and Sciences
Dr. Majewski was born in Poland, educated in mathematics—M.Sc. and Ph.D. in non-classical geometries at the Nicholas Copernicus University in Poland. He is former dean of School of Information Technology, Inter-University of Macau (now this is the Saint Joseph University).  Since May 2013 his official title is ‘Professor Emeritus’ of the New York Institute of Technology, College of Arts & Sciences. He is the author of about 50 papers and books on computer graphics, applications of computers in education, mathematics, computer science education, geometry in art and architecture. Some of his recent papers and books are related to geometry in Islamic art and the history of medieval Islamic mathematics. His book ‘Islamic Geometric Ornament in Istanbul’ shows modern detailed geometric constructions of many geometric ornaments that can be seen in Istanbul. His new series of books ‘Practical Geometric Pattern Design’ is a systematic overview of geometric ideas embedded in ancient and modern architecture and architectural decorations.  
In his private life, he enjoys gardening, mountain hiking, photography, and geometric art. His Symmetrica project (https://symmetrica.wordpress.com/ ) combines various applications of geometry in art, in particular in Islamic art.

Keynote Speaker Title: Using Traditional Turkish Architecture as a Source of Inspiration for Students’ Projects in Mathematics
In recent decades with the continuous changes in the mathematics curriculum, many geometry-related topics were neglected or removed from our classroom activities. Thus some teachers pursue these topics as independent students’ projects. There is also a growing interest in various courses and workshops dealing with practical geometric pattern design. The Author has taught courses and conducted workshops on geometry and pattern design at Istanbul Design Center for many years. Participants in these events were mainly high school or university students. In this lecture, we will discuss selected concepts of geometry used by Seljuk and Ottoman architects in designing the famous Seljuk geometric mosaics and even more famous Ottoman kundekari doors and windows. We will show how these geometric concepts were used in selected examples taken from mosques and tombs of Istanbul, Konya, Bursa, and Edirne. We will also demonstrate using geometry software, e.g., Geometer’s Sketchpad or GeoGebra, for constructing geometric patterns.