Scholarly Activities

Selected Publications

ED 5110 Quantitative Research Method

ED 4151

ED 4244

ED 4258
4439

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:

Outline of Research Interest:

Visual literacy in everyday life and in the workplace is undergoing radical transformation: virtual realities, holographic imagery, graphic interfaces, multimedia, morphing are all examples. Images are being transformed instantaneously and so pervasively that it is often impossible to distinguish reality from image. And yet, despite the pressing need for an understanding of spatial transformations, school geometry, where basic spatial understandings are supposedly developed, remains a source of problems rather than solutions (NAEP, 1992; see also Dossey, Mullis & Jones, 1993). Although students have some knowledge of basic geometric shapes and associated terminology they display almost no aptitude for understanding or solving geometric problems. Indeed, school geometry has been problematic for several decades. Twenty years ago, Wirszup (1976) concluded that "a review of the teaching of geometry indicates at once that only a very small number of the elementary schools offer any organized studies in visual geometry, and where they are done, they begin with measurements and other concepts which correspond to a more advanced level of thought development. This immediate jump to the quantitative aspect of geometry . . . does not promote any deeper understanding and is soon completely forgotten."(p. 96). Since Wirszup's assessment, school geometry has undergone only minor transformation. The major contributions remain the work of the van Hieles and East European scholars (compare O'Daffer, 1980 with Freudenthal, 1973). 

In response to these predicaments, the authors of this proposal have in recent years developed an approach to school geometry in which the visual aspects of children's early spatial experiences are explicitly accessed in their construction of both simpler spatial entities (decomposition) and more complex spatial entities (compositional). We called this approach Dissection-Motion Operations (DMO) where the term "dissection" refers to the decomposition, the term "motion" refers to the composition, and the operations refer to the transactional/transformational nature of the composition/decompositional processes. We have shared this work with the mathematics education community through workshops, conference presentations and publications (see forexample Rahim, 1986; Rahim & Sawada, 1986, 1989, 1990; Rahim, 1994a, 1994b; Rahim, Sawada & Strasser, 1996). For the most part, the reception of our ideas by teachers and researchers has been extremely positive. While the example materials have worked quite well in classrooms, and our articulation of the approach is for the most part coherent, our DMO approach is not formally situated in the research literature. The intent of this proposed project is to establish DMO as a viable and promising approach to spatial understanding. 

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Recent Scholarly Activities:
　

Created a new graduate course "Curriculum Studies in Mathematics"- approved.

Present Student Teaching Supervisor and Statistics Advisor, Faculty of Education, Lakehead University

Invited by Muta University, Amman, Jordan to exchange ideas and approaches on the current practices/reform movements in Mathematics Education, August 1-11, 1999.

Invited to participate in the annual conference of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, June 3-7,1999.

Conducted an evaluation task for the CIDA Research Project: Management Training for Head teachers in Small States of the Eastern Caribbean. May 8-22, 1999.

Invited by the Beijing Normal University, China to contribute and participate in the International Conference on Mathematics Education, History of Mathematics and Cultural History of Mathematics Informatics, April 26-30,1998.

Coordinator for the 1997 Annual Conference of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG) held at Lakehead University, May 23-27, 1997.

Invited to present a paper at the 1st Internatinal Conference on Mathematics Education -Egypt November 14 - 18, 1999.

Invited by the Beijing Normal University to contribute to the International Conference on Mathematics Education, History of Mathematics, Cultural History of Mathematics Informatics, April 26-29 1998, Beijing. 
The pre-proceedings of the conference contains an abstract of the paper presented titled Cultural Contributions of Babylonian Mathematics and Social Sciences to the Civilization of Humankind.

A full account of this paper will be available soon. 

Coordinated the Annual Conference for the Canadian Mathematics Education Study group (CMESG/GCDEM), May 23-27, 1997. Dr. Keith Roy, Chair of the Mathematics & Statistics Department is the vice coordinator of the conference. The conference was held at Lakehead University campus, Regional Center, There were about 70 mathematicians and mathematics educators from all over the country with participants from the rest of the world. The Internet Web Site for the conference is:
http://www.lakeheadu.ca/~cmesgwww/gcdem97.html

Invited to participate and contribute to Working Group 3.1 (Secondary Education) of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) conference on the topic "Secondary School Mathematics in The World of Communication Technology: Learning, Teaching and The Curriculum". The conference took place in Villard de Lans Resort, the Alps, Gernoble, France, October 26 - 31, 1997. The participation was by invitation only and restricted to 90 participants around the world. 

 Visited The University of The West Indies, Faculty of Education, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, May 9 -23, 1999 and conducted a research project evaluation with Dr. Edric Gift of the University of the West Indies at Saint Augustine Campus, Trinidad.  The evaluation is part of a huge CIDA Research Project "Management Training for Headteachers in Small States of the Eastern Caribbean".  The evaluation process covers a chain of 9 Caribbean islands: ANGUILLA, ANTIGUA, ST. VINCENT, DOMINICA, ST. LUCIA, ST. KITTS, NEVIS, MONTSERRAT, & GRENEDA. 

A research initiative is in the planning stage with Dr. Taisir Subhi, Faculty of Arts and Science, AL-Albeit University, Amman, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, focused on the use of the Logo language as a means for exploring geometric concepts. As well, the investigation will focus on how to integrate Logo in the classroom pratices. 

Invited by the Arab Development Institute, Beirut, Lebanon, to participate and contribute to The Second Scientific Conference on "The Future of Science & Mathematics Teaching and The Needs of Arab Society" Tunis, Tunisia, December 19 - 22, 1996. The participation was only by invitation. Rahim presented a paper "A New Prospect in Teaching and Learning mathematics: Linking Intuitive-Oriented and Deductive-Oriented Approaches Through the use of Computers & Dissection-Motion Hands-on Activities ". A description of the session was published in English and in Arabic language in the ABSTRACT , the Arab Development Institute, p. 15-16, 1996. In addition, the entire paper is in press and scheduled to appear in the conference proceedings. 

Selected by the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) to contribute to the IMCI's study: New Prospects on the Teaching of Geometry for the 21st Century, at Catania, Italy, Dipartimento di Matematica, Citta' Universitaria, September 28-October 2, 1995. The participation was by invitation only and restricted to 75 participants around the world. Rahim presented a paper "Journeys among Polygonal Regions through Dissection-Motion Operations (DMO) - The Acute Triangular region, Pre-proceedings, The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction, Catania, Italy, pp. 221-224, 1995.

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