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International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education - Upcoming Special Issues

To appear in 2023
Special issue [working title]: 
Bafflement and the interactive pursuit of consistency: Coping with the fantastic beast
Guest Editors:
Tommy Dreyfus, Chris Rasmussen, Michal Tabach

Bafflement has happened repeatedly in the history of mathematics, and happens frequently in classrooms. It is often due to paradoxical or seemingly contradictory perspectives, and typically finds its expression in mathematicians’ and students’ puzzlement or perplexity, which can spark productive outcomes in advancing knowledge. Accordingly, classroom situations that support bafflement, while epistemologically and didactically challenging, may be potentially constructive for learning processes. Learning opportunities that arise from bafflement may be potentially more prevalent and productive for students in inquiry-based classrooms, classrooms in which students are supported in sense-making activities through whole class and small group collaborative exploration and problem solving. Individual students may feel more comfortable expressing non-conventional thoughts in a small group; and, different groups in a class may come to opposing conclusions concerning an apparently paradoxical mathematical state of affairs. This Special Issue will comprise invited papers which approach and illuminate the phenomenon of bafflement in an inquiry-based college mathematics classroom with different research questions, different theoretical approaches, different conceptualizations, and different methodological lenses, such as didactical, cultural, cognitive, socio-cognitive, discursive, semiotic, and affective ones. The Special Issue will discuss the specific insights provided by each of these different treatments and will identify commonalities across them.


To appear in 2024 or 2025
Special issue: Digital Experiences in University Mathematics Education: Advances and Expectations
Guest Editors:  Eirini Geraniou, Eleonora Faggiano, Janka Medová, Melih Turgut

In the light of the book Mathematics Education in the Digital Age: Learning, Practice and Theory (this opens in a new tab) and the quality of the series of ERME Topic Conferences MEDA and INDRUM, we are delighted to announce this International Journal for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics (IJRUME) Special Issue, “Digital Experiences in University Mathematics Education. Advances and Expectations”.

This Special Issue (SI) aims at investigating questions concerning the design, teaching, learning and assessment with the use of digital technology within university mathematics education (UME), and whether, and how, such these have met the expectations of the mathematics education research community before, during and after the pandemic crisis. The focus of this SI not only covers transitional aspects that precede UME, but also mathematical courses in pre-service teacher education.

In particular, the SI aims to develop discussions around the following themes.

(1) Instructional design, curriculum, and institutional priorities regarding digital technologies in UME

  • Designs of digital (curriculum) resources supporting the development of individual learning trajectories and collaboration
  • Functionalities and roles of Virtual Learning Environments, such as Moodle, in the instructional design and communication
  • Machine Learning, Learning Analytics, Artificial Intelligence for instructional design and assessment
  • Computational Thinking and Programming instructional design and policies

(2) Teaching and learning practices with digital resources in UME

  • University teachers and students as (co-)designers of digital resources for teaching, learning and doing mathematics
  • Students’ experiences, ways of thinking (algebraic, geometric, computational, etc.) and development of competencies (reasoning, proving, modelling, problem solving, etc.) as affected by the use of digital resources
  • Students’, teachers’ and multipliers’ experiences with emerging digital resources such as mobile apps, theorem provers, digital concept maps

(3) Teacher and student practices with regard to algorithmics, computational thinking and programming Rethinking (digital) assessment in UME

  • Adaptive feedback in learning and formative and summative assessment
  • Affordances and drawbacks of automated assessment instruments and issues of transfer from pen and paper to automation of test items for digital exams

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