The Executive Committee had its third meeting in Madrid on 31st August - 1st September
1997. Beside in meetings, the work of the EC is conducted by correspondence and
electronic communication under the direction of the President and the Secretary.
As of 1st January 1997, Latvia and Uruguay have been adopted as new members of IMU
and hence of ICMI as well. Also ICMI continues to receive applications from countries
to be co-opted as non-IMU member states of ICMI in accordance with the terms of
reference. In 1997 it was decided, with the endorsement of the International Mathematical
Union, to co-opt Indonesia as a non-IMU member of ICMI. The Adhering Organisation
is the Indonesian Mathematical Society. Other applications were considered by the EC in
1997. Final decisions are expected to be made in 1998.
A number of countries have not (yet) appointed National Representatives in ICMI. These
are Georgia, Greece, Latvia, Mexico, Pakistan, Romania, Slovenia, and Uruguay.
It is part of ICMI's general policy to encourage member states to establish National Sub-Commissions of ICMI. In 1997 the EC was not informed of the establishment of new
National Sub-Commissions.
The next International Congress on Mathematical Education, ICME-9, will be held in
Makuhari, Chiba, Japan, in 2000. Preliminary dates are 31 July to 7 August. An
International Programme Committee was appointed in 1996. It is chaired by Professor
Hiroshi Fujita, Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. The list of members was published in the
ICMI Bulletin No. 42, June 1997, p. 17. The IPC has been working for most of 1997 by
means of electronic post under the direction of Professor Fujita. The IPC will meet for the
first time in the beginning of March 1998.
No official bids have been received by the Executive Committee with respect to ICME-10
in 2004. However, Brazil has produced a declaration of intent to let ICMI know that it is
preparing a bid to host this Congress.
The mounting and conducting of so-called ICMI studies on crucial themes and issues in
mathematics education were continued in 1997. The ICMI studies are published by Kluwer
Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, under the general editorship of the
President and the Secretary of ICMI.
The study Mathematics Education as a Research Domain: A Search for Identity. An ICMI
Study, based mainly on the study conference What is Research in Mathematics Education,
and What Are Its Results?, held at University of Maryland, College Park, USA, May 1994,
appeared, in two volumes (576 pages), at the beginning of 1998. The study is edited byAnna Sierpinska and Jeremy Kilpatrick.
The manuscript for the study on Perspectives on the Teaching of Geometry for the 21st
Century, the corresponding study conference of which was held at Università di Catania,
Italy, September-October 1995, was sent to the publisher in the autumn of 1997. The
study, edited by Vinicio Villani and Carmelo Mammana, will appear in the beginning of
1998.
The next study in the series is devoted to the theme The Role of the History of Mathematics in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics. An International Programme
Committee was appointed in 1996 (a list of members' names was published in the ICMI
Bulletin, No. 41, December 1996, p. 14) with John Fauvel, the Open University, UK, and
Jan van Maanen, the University of Groningen, the Netherlands as co-chairs. The
Discussion Document for this study was published in various journals and newsletters,
including the ICMI Bulletin, No. 42, June 1997, pp. 9-16, and in an abbreviated version
in L'Enseignement mathématique, 2e Série, t. 43, fasc 1-2, janvier-juin 1997, pp. 199-203.
The study conference will be held in France, at CIRM, Luminy (near Marseille), 20-25
April 1998, with Jean-Luc Dorier, Grenoble, France, in charge of the Local Organisation.
Moreover, the ICMI EC has mounted a study on the Teaching and Learning of
Mathematics at University Level. The IPC which was appointed in 1997 (a list of
members' names is included in the ICMI Bulletin, No. 42, June 1997, p. 18) is chaired by
Derek Holton, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. The Discussion Document for
this study has been/will be published in numerous places, including the ICMI Bulletin, No.
43, December 1997, pp. 3-13, and L'Enseignement mathématique, 2e Série, t. 43, fasc. 3-4, juillet-décembre 1997, pp. 381-390. The corresponding study conference will take place
in Singapore, 8-12 December 1998.
Plans for further studies, on average one per year, are under development.
No ICMI Regional Conferences were held in 1997. The next such meeting, The First ICMI
East Asia Regional Conference on Mathematics Education (ICMI-EARCOME 1), will be
held in Chungbuk, The Republic of Korea, 17-21 August 1998.
ICMI continues to have four affiliated study groups, HPM (The International Study Group
for the Relations Between the History and Pedagogy of Mathematics), IOWME (The
International Organisation of Women and Mathematics Education), and PME (The
International Group for the Psychology of Learning Mathematics), and WFNMC (The
World Federation of National Mathematical Competitions).
In 1992 ICMI established a Solidarity Programme to help the development of mathematics
education in countries in which there is a need for it that justifies international assistance.
The first stage in this programme was the mounting of a Solidarity Fund based on private
contributions by individuals, associations, etc. The Fund is to be activated to support
concrete initiatives and activities that may foster solidarity in mathematics education
between well-defined quarters in developed and less developed countries. The SolidarityFund has received donations from various organisations and individuals in mathematics
education for which it is most grateful. Thus, in 1997 the Fund received a donation of
French Francs 5.000 from the French National Sub-Commission of ICMI, C.F.E.M. In
1997 no projects were supported by the Solidarity Fund. Although the total funds are not
excessive, the ICMI EC would welcome applications concerning projects which are worthy
of support in line with the general aims of the Fund.
In order to consider, plan and prepare the main aspects of ICMI's involvement in the
World Mathematical Year 2000, an ad hoc committee, ICMI WMY 2000 Committee, has
been formed, under the chairmanship of ICMI's President, Professor Miguel de Guzmán.
The other members are listed in the ICMI Bulletin No. 42, June 1997, pp. 18-19.
In 1997, ICMI Bulletin Nos. 42 and 43 were published under the editorship of the
Secretary of ICMI. Furthermore, the ICMI Bulletin is available in the following electronic
forms: In ASCII-format on direct request to the editor. On the World Wide Web, where
it can be found under the following coordinates on the IMU-server, through URL:
or
Since the end of 1995, information concerning ICMI can be found on the ICMI-pages of
the IMU-server on the World Wide Web. The pages are located through URL:
or
Organisation