Symposium on Elementary Maths Teaching (SEMT)

Can we do more to support pre-service and in-service primary school teachers and their educators in their struggle for more effective, interesting and challenging mathematics teaching? Are 5−12 year old pupils’ attitudes to mathematics and their needs and abilities different? Should more attention be paid to the teaching methods, contents and activities used in teaching these pupils? Does this group of pupils have any special needs? Are there any cognitive and psychological limits and boundaries that must be respected? What is their prior experience with mathematics which they enter primary school with and which can be built on? Are there any special tools and aids that can be successfully used for this specific target group? These are just some of the questions that made Czech primary school mathematics educators and researchers realize that the platform for the discussion of these issues was far from satisfactory as other international scientific events did not specialise in this age range, in consequence of which there was lack of space for discussing the questions specific for this age group. The answer to this need is the conference Symposium on Elementary Maths Teaching (SEMT) which focuses on the teaching of mathematics to this group, i.e. children within the age-range 5−12 years.