Life in the time of COVID: Thoughts on current trends and future directions in mathematics education

Abstract

Mathematics, eight articles; HAUSBERGER; BOSCH, 2021), and a third Special Classroom Notes Issue examining issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Takeaways from teaching through a global pandemic -practical examples of lasting value in tertiary mathematics education, 21 articles; SEATON; LOCH; LUGOSI 2021). Other contemporary works include my role as Guest Editor (see OATES; SEAH, 2021) for a Special Issue of the Australian Journal of Education, with seven articles examining Learning progression/trajectories in mathematics and science education; as a contributing author to a chapter (GALLIGAN et al., 2020) which reviewed recent research in tertiary mathematics in the latest four-yearly MERGA 2 review of Australasian-focused research (BOBIS et al., 2020, Research in Mathematics Education in Australasia (RiMEA) 2016-2019); and two chapters with a technology focus, the first a chapter in The Handbook of Cognitive Science, 3 which explores the role of the internet in the process of developing students into independent learners, through the different forms of blended learning and how humans and media interact in the learning process (ENGELBRECHT; OATES, 2021); and a second chapter which examines, and provides explicit examples of an authentic assessment to promote active online learning and a critical reflection for pre-service teachers in a mathematics pedagogy course (OATES; DENNY, 2021).Not surprisingly, given their publication over 2020 to 2021, a consistent theme in many of these works, and indeed a motivating driver behind some (e.g., SEATON; LOCH; LUGOSI, 2021), is the pervasive effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mathematics education. Even before the role of technology was forced into stark relief by the need for most schools and universities to suddenly go online, many studies had been debating the role technology played in shaping, and the potential for it to change, the ways in which we teach and learn mathematics