ICMI Study 14: Applications and Modelling in Mathematics Education--Discussion Document.

Abstract

This paper is the Discussion Documentfor a forthcoming ICMI Study on Applications and Modelling in MathematicsEducation. As will be well-known, fromtime to time ICMI (the InternationalCommission on Mathematical Instruction)mounts specific studies in order toinvestigate, both in depth and in detail,particular fields of interest inmathematics education. The purpose of thisDiscussion Document is to raise someimportant issues related to the theory andpractice of teaching and learningmathematical modelling and applications,and in particular to stimulate reactionsand contributions to these issues and tothe topic of applications and modelling asa whole (see Section 4). Based onthese reactions and contributions, alimited number (approximately 75) ofparticipants will be invited to aconference (the Study Conference)which is to take place in February 2004 inDortmund (Germany). Finally, using thecontributions to this conference, a bookwill be produced (the Study Volume)whose content will reflect thestate-of-the-art in the topic ofapplications and modelling in mathematicseducation and suggest directions for futuredevelopments in research and practice.The authors of this Discussion Document are themembers of the International ProgrammeCommittee for this ICMI Study. Thecommittee consists of 14 people from 12countries, listed at the end of Section4. The structure of the Document isas follows. In Section 1, we identifysome reasons why it seems appropriate tohold a study on applications and modelling.Section 2 sets a conceptual frameworkfor the theme of this Study, and Section3 contains a selection of importantissues, challenges and questions related tothis theme. In Section 4 we describepossible modes and ways of reacting to theDiscussion Document, and in the finalSection 5 we provide a shortbibliography relevant to the theme of thisStudy.