Abstract
The target of the present study is to illustrate the importance of the communities of practice for teaching and learning mathematics. This is a composite subject that requires the discussion and analysis of several factors including a general introduction to the communities of practice, the status of mathematics education in the modern society, the desired learning skills of the 21st century, the profile of the competent teacher of mathematics, the socio-cultural views for the teaching and learning of mathematics, etc. All the above factors are combined here to present ideas and conclusions about the form, the role, and the usefulness of the communities of practice for teaching and learning mathematics, especially for the developing countries. Although this is not a new idea, it is believed that the analysis of the subject provided here is interesting and useful for the reader.
Highlights
The required learning skills of the 21st century are presented in Section 5, while Section 6 reviews the socio-cultural theories for teaching and learning mathematics
According to Wittman ([5], pp. 359-360), in our modern society mathematics must be conceived as a broad social phenomenon whose diversity of uses and modes of expression is only in part reflected by specialized mathematics, as typically found in university departments of mathematics
The teachers must take part in the design of the teaching units, but this can be no excuse for mathematics educators to retrain from this task
Summary
The new technologies and especially the development of computers have made easy the communication among people from different countries and continents. Experiences can be shared, ideas can be exchanged, educational problems can be solved, new methods or means of teaching/learning can de transferred, etc. The target of the paper at hand is to discuss such kind of possibilities for the teaching and learning of mathematics. This is done as follows: Section 2 is devoted to a brief and general introduction to CoP’s. The Communities of Practice (CoP’s) are groups of people (experts or practitioners in a particular field) who share a concern for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly, having the opportunity to develop themselves personally and professionally. Among the many studies and researches about CoP’s that are available in the literature, Hildreth &
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
