Secondary Education Department Staff Home Page

Dr. David Pimm
Professor,
Department of Secondary Education
Director of Cmaste Institute
Faculty of Education, University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB. Canada. T6G 2G5
Telephone: (780) 492- 0195
Fax: (780) 492-9102
Email: david.pimm@ualberta.ca

My main research is in exploring the inter-relationships between languageand mathematics. My work has focused both on analyses of mathematics classroom language and on producing theoretical accounts of linguistic aspects of mathematics itself. I am particularly interested in the roles of metaphor and metonymy in creative mathematical endeavour. My secondary research interest is in the potential influence of studies of the history and philosophy of mathematics on theteaching of mathematics.

1975–1979     Fulbright Scholar
1986               British Council/Fulbright Links in Higher Education Award (with Dr. J. Mason) of £5000 for
                       exchange visits with Profs Wilson and Kilpatrick at the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia,
                       USA.
1998               NSF-funded research project ($1 million US) with Lynn Paine (PI), Dan Chazan and Suzanne
                       Wilson (all at Michigan State University) and Senta Raizen (PI) and Ted Britton (NCSE,
                       Washington, D.C.) on an international study of teacher induction in mathematics and science in the
                       middle grades.

Speaking Mathematically: Communication in Mathematics Classrooms, Routledge & Kegan Paul,240pp. (May 1987) (A book in their series Language, Education and Society.) A paperback edition was published in 1989, and a Spanish translation was published in 1990.

Symbols and Meanings in School Mathematics , Routledge, 250pp. (hardcover and paperback April 1995.)

Mathematics, Teachers and Children (D. Pimm, ed.), Hodder & Stoughton, 316pp. (November 1988) (I commissioned 17 of the 31 chapters - the others were reprints - and worked with the authors on their chapters. Two-thirds of the book is original material.)

Teaching and Learning School Mathematics (D. Pimm and E. Love, eds), Hodder and Stoughton, London, (November 1991). (I commissioned all but three of the twenty-one chapters - the others were reprints - and worked with the authors on their chapters. Nine-tenths of the book is original material.)

‘“This is so”: a text on texts’ (with Eric Love), in A. Bishop (1996) et al. (ed.) International Handbook of Mathematics Education, Kluwer, Dordrecht, Holland, pp. 371-409.

‘Diverse communications’, Communication in Mathematics K-12 and Beyond, NCTM 1996 Yearbook, NCTM, Reston, VA, pp. 11-19.

‘The commodification of teaching: teacher education in England’ (with M. Selinger), in Grimmett, P. and Wideen, M. (eds) Changing Times in Teacher Education: Restructuring or Reconceptualization?, Falmer Press, 1995, pp. 47-66.

‘Another psychology of mathematics education’, in Ernest, P. (ed.), Constructing Mathematical Knowledge: Epistemology and Mathematical Education, Falmer Press, London, 1994, pp. 111-124.

‘Mathematics classroom language: form, function and force’,in Biehler, R., Scholz, R., Sträßer, R. and Winkelmann, B. (eds) Didactics of Mathematics as a Scientific Discipline, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1994, pp. 159-169.

‘Spoken mathematical classroom culture: artifice andartificiality’, to appear in Lerman, S. (ed.), Cultural Perspectives on the Mathematics Classroom, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1994, pp. 133-147.

‘Classroom language and the teaching of mathematics’, in Nickson, M. and Lerman, S. (eds), The Social Context of Mathematics Education: Theory and Practice, South Bank Press, London, 1992, pp. 67-80

‘Why are we doing this? Reporting back on investigations’, in Communication in the Mathematics Classroom, Sawada, D. (ed.), MCATA monograph, Alberta Teachers Association, Edmonton, 1992, pp. 43-56.

‘Communicating mathematically’, in Durkin, K.and Shire, B. (eds), Language in Mathematical Education,Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1991, pp. 17-23.

‘Mathematical metaphor’, in Wessels, D. (ed.), The Role of Language in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, University of South Africa, 1990. (Reprinted from the article of the same title which appeared in For the Learning of Mathematics.)

‘Language and mathematics’ (with C. Laborde et al.), in Nesher, P. and Kilpatrick, J. (eds) Mathematics and Cognition, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 53-69.

‘Learning activities and classroom roles with and without computers’ (with R. Fraser et al.), in Jones, A. and Scrimshaw, P. (eds) Computers in Education 5–13, Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1988, pp. 203-30. Also inBoyd-Barrett, O. and Scanlon, E. (eds) Computers and Learning, Addison-Wesley, London, 1990, pp. 205-28. (Reprinted from the article of the same title which appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Behavior .)

‘The symbol is the object’, in Ainley, J. (ed.), Papers in honour of Richard Skemp, University of Warwick, 1986, pp. 48-62.

‘Mathematics? I speak it fluently’, in Floyd, A. (ed.), Developing Mathematical Thinking, Addison-Wesley, London, 1982, pp. 139-150.

‘The advance party’, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 29(2) 1995, pp. 97-122. (Essay review of Tall, D. (ed.) Advanced Mathematical Thinking.)

‘Language and mathematics’, The International Encyclopaedia of Education (2nd edn) Husen, T. and Postlethwaite, T.(eds), Pergamon Press, 1994, pp. 3634-3639. (A commissioned 3500-word entry)

‘Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me’, Interchange, 24(4), 1993, pp. 435-441.

‘Just a matter of definition’, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 25(3), 1993, pp. 261-277. (Essay review of Raffaella Borasi’s book Learning Mathematics Through Inquiry.)

‘From should to could: reflections on possibilities of mathematics teacher education’, For the Learning of Mathematics 13(2), 1993, 27-32.

‘The silence of the body’, For the Learning of Mathematics 13(1), 1993, 35-9.

‘Signs of the times’, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 22(4), 1991, pp. 391-405. (Essay review of Valerie Walkerdine’s book The Mastery of Reason.)

‘Mathematics, Logo and Language’, a series of three articles with Prof. T. Kieren in the journal Logo Exchange, 8(1)-8(3), 1989, pp. 18-20, 14-17, 26-28.

‘Mathematical metaphor’, For the Learning of Mathematics, 8(1), 1988, pp. 30-34.

‘Learning activities and classroom roles with and without computers’ (with R. Fraser et al.), Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 6, 1988, pp. 305-338.

‘Letter from Adelaide’, For the Learning of Mathematics, 5(1),1985, pp. 33-5

‘Generic examples: seeing the general in the particular’ (with John Mason), Educational Studies in Mathematics,15(3), 1984, pp. 277-289.

‘Similarities and differences between mathematical and linguistic transformations’, Nottingham Linguistic Circular,12(1), 1983, pp. 66-82.

Computer-aided teaching’ (with R. Phillips et al.), Ergonomics, 27, 1984, pp. 243-58.

‘Why the history of mathematics should not be rated X’, For the Learning of Mathematics, 3(1),1982, pp. 12-15.

‘Metaphor and analogy in mathematics’, For the Learning of Mathematics, 1(3), 1981, pp. 47-50.

‘Modern times: the symbolic surfaces of language, mathematics and art’, Plenary lecture, Twentieth PME Conference, Valencia, Spain, 1996.

‘Geometric proofs and knowledge without axioms’, Proceedings of the 1995 Canadian Maths Education Study Group meeting, London, Ontario, 1996.

‘Attending to unconscious elements’, Eighteenth PME Conference, Lisbon, Portugal, 1994, vol. IV, pp. 41-48.

‘Metaphor and metonymy in mathematical discourse’, PME-NAAnnual Conference, Blacksburg, Virginia, October 1991, vol. 2, pp. 43-49.

‘Teaching as meta-communication’, Fifteenth PME Conference, Assisi, Italy, 1991, vol. III, pp. 161-8..

‘Nouveaux outils éducatifs et l’Open University: innovation pour l’enseignement des sciences et des mathématiques’ (‘New educational tools and the Open University: science and mathematics education’), Proceedings of the Participe Futur Colloquium, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, 1991, pp. 305-310.

‘Mathematical versus political awareness’, in Political Dimensions of Mathematics Education: Action and Critique, Proceedings of the first international conference, R. Noss etal. (eds), Institute of Education, London, 1990, pp. 200-4.

‘Certain metonymic aspects of mathematical discourse’, Fourteenth PME Conference, Oaxtapec, Mexico, 1990, pp. 129-36

‘Natural language and mathematical language’, Proceedings of the 1989 Canadian Maths Education Study Group meeting, L. Mendoza (ed.) Brock University, Ontario, 1990, pp. 61-69.

‘Logic and logical thinking, mathematics and mathematical thinking, in England’, Proceedings of the twelfth Conference of Mathematical Logic, C. Bernardi (ed.) Rome, Italy, 1989, pp. 57-72.

‘Proof, justification and conviction’, report of Topic Group 7, Proceedings of ICME 6 , K. and S. Hirst (eds), Budapest, Hungary, 1988, pp. 350-3.

Book review of C. Janvier (ed.), The role of representations in the learning of mathematics (Lawrence Erlbaum, 1987), in Educational Studies in Mathematics 21(1), 1990, pp. 91-99.

(with J. Coupland et al.) ‘CAL in the classroom: analysis techniques’, Shell Centre for Mathematical Education, University of Nottingham, 1985.

(with H. Burkhardt et al.) ‘Microcomputers in the mathematics classroom’, Shell Centre for Mathematical Education,University of Nottingham, 1984.

‘1729 = 1984’ (Views of ICME V), Mathematics Teaching, 109, 1984, pp. 21-2.

‘Self images for a computer’, Mathematics Teaching, 105, 1983, pp. 40-3. (Reprinted in Imagery (Chatley, J., ed.), 1988, Association of Teachers of Mathematics.)

‘Leapfrog observed’, Shell Centre for Mathematical Education, University of Nottingham, 1980. (Report of a consultancy to design and conduct an evaluation of ATV's mathematics series Leapfrog.)

‘Mathematics Education in France’, booklet prepared by APMEP for ICME VI (60 pp) (1988).