Mathematics in everyday lifeA study of Norwegian teachers' beliefs andactions concerning the connection withmathematics and everyday life

Reidar Mosvold

Department of MathematicsUniversity of Bergen2005

Preface

This study is a Dr. philos (doctor philosophiae) study. The study was financed and supported byTelemarksforsking Notodden (Telemark Educational Research) through Norges Forskningsråd (TheResearch Council of Norway).The study has not been done in isolation. There are several people that have helped me in differentways. First and foremost, I am immensely grateful to Otto B. Bekken for his advice and supportduring recent years. He has assisted me in taking my first steps into the research community inmathematics education, and without him there would not be a thesis like this.I will also express my deepest gratitude to all the teachers who let me observe their teaching forseveral weeks, and for letting me learn more about their beliefs and teaching strategies whileconnecting mathematics to everyday life situations. It has been rewarding to meet so many of youexperienced teachers. You are supposed to be anonymous here, so I am not allowed to display yournames, but I thank you very much for having been so nice, and for having collaborated with me insuch a great way.I am grateful to Telemarksforsking – Notodden, for giving me this scholarship, and for letting mework where it suited me best. Special thanks go to Gard Brekke, who has been in charge of thisproject. My work with this thesis has been a pleasant journey, and I am now looking forward tospend some time working with the colleagues in Notodden.I would also like to thank Marjorie Lorvik for reading my thesis and helping me improve theEnglish language.In the first part of my study I was situated in Kristiansand, and had the privilege of participating inone course in research methodology with Maria Luiza Cestari and another course with BarbaraJaworski. I feel lucky to have been given the opportunity to discuss my own research project in theinitial phase with them. This was very helpful for me.At the beginning of my project I spent an inspiring week in Bognor Regis, in the southern part of England. I want to give special thanks to Afzal Ahmed and his colleagues for their hospitalityduring that visit, and for giving me so many ideas for my project. I look back on the days in BognorRegis with great pleasure, as a perfect early inspiration for my work.I also spent some wonderful days in the Netherlands together with Otto. B. Bekken and Maria LuizaCestari. There I got the opportunity to meet some of the most important Dutch researchers in thefield. Thanks go to Jan van Maanen for great hospitality in our visit to Groningen and Utrecht, andto Barbara van Amerom for inviting us to the celebration dinner after we witnessed her dissertationdefence, and to Jan de Lange and his colleagues at the Freudenthal Institute for giving us someinteresting days learning more about their research and projects.In the Spring of 2003 I was lucky to spend a month at UCLA and the Lesson Lab in California.Thanks are due to Jim Stigler and Ron Gallimore for opening the doors at Lesson Lab to make thestudy of videos from the TIMSS 1999 Video Study possible, and to Angel Chui and RossellaSantagata for assisting with all practical issues.I would also like to thank Ted Gamelin and his colleagues at the mathematics department at UCLAfor giving me some inspirational weeks there. Thanks are due to Carolina DeHart, for letting meparticipate in her lessons for teacher students, and to the people of the LuciMath group for all theinformation about this interesting project, and to Phil Curtis for letting me use his office while I wasin Los Angeles. I remember the days of work in that office where I had the best possible view of thebeautiful UCLA campus, with great pleasure.i