Annual Report 2013, Istanbul

The main network 24 activities are the following:

(1) the ECER conference (its organisation and eliciting of high quality papers and symposia) and

(2) the Season School on Design-Based-Research in Jaen (in November).

Although the ECER 2013 had much fewer attendants than in previous years, the Mathematics Education Research Network did not suffer from low attendance too much: whilst there were less attendees from across Europe, there were clearly more from Turkey, which has a sizable mathematics education community.

Talking to participants at several sessions and those at the business meeting, it appeared that the sessions were academically interesting: there was a good variety of themes, and the quality of papers was fine; a good number of younger researchers were included; and the sessions were well attended and well-run. In particular, the symposia and ‘common’ sessions (with NW03 and NW20) were well received.

As in previous years, network 24 had a very high number of outer-European contributions, ranging from Australia to the US, and including of course contributions from many European countries.

At the business meeting the following points were suggested:

(1) to continue the collaboration with other networks, as different network ideas (and participants) stimulate the discussions

(2) to initiate (at every conference) a ‚Country’s day’ (say at ECER 2013 a ‚Turkish day’) where the individual country where ECER is taking place that year can present their mathematics education research works

(3) to have a book launch (if appropriate) with invitations

(4) to elicit speakers for a Roundtable (e.g. on a particular methodology)

(5) to link closer tot he ECER yearly theme; and to pick up the idea of a ‚network-forum’ (see 2012 report).

However, there were also shortcomings: the network room was noisy (whether the window was open or closed) and stuffy (if windows were closed). However, ICT facilities were regarded as adequate. In addition, the room allocated to network 24 was a theatre-style presentation room, which was (large enough but) not conducive to discussions.

In terms of the number of sessions: all sessions were allocated, and several sessions were shared with NW03 and NW20 – this was seen as very fruitful. There were also a small number of withdrawals (last minute).