Mathematics Teachers, New Technologies And Professional Development: Opportunities And Problems

In this work the use of ICT to improve mathematics teaching and learning processes, with reference mainly to secondary school context, is considered. A number of researchers have highlighted the belief that ICT could support teaching and learning processes in mathematics in many different ways: o the creation of new ways to give meaning to mathematical concepts; o the construction of new opportunities for interaction between students and knowledge; o the study of how it is possible to modify social interactions in the classroom (between teacher and student and between student and student); o the construction of contexts of use in which different ways of assisting students' mathematical activity could be enacted. How and under which conditions these opportunities could be achieved is a topic of research which requires to take into consideration different key aspects and viewpoints. In this paper we focus on the role assumed by the teacher in this process of transformation and change. The analysis of this role, although sometimes underestimated, is crucial to the development of an understanding of the problems which underlie the effective accomplishment of the innovation process. Such analysis is also directly linked with the opportunity to plan and to carry out adequate forms of teachers education and training.