Oral Communication (OC)

Overview:

  • Concept and main idea
  • Submission procedure
  • Restrictions
  • Reviewing
  • Presentation and Publication

Concept and main idea

Oral Communications are intended to present smaller studies and research that is best communicated by means of a shorter oral presentations instead of a full Research Report. They should present empirical or theoretical research studies on a topic that relates to the major goals of PME:

  • to promote international contacts and exchange of scientific information in the field of mathematical education;
  • to promote and stimulate interdisciplinary research in the aforesaid area; and
  • to further a deeper and more correct understanding of the psychological and other aspects of teaching and learning mathematics and the implications thereof.

Reports should describe on which past research it builds, give a concise overview of the new results attained, and what the main implications of these results are.

Contributions need not be limited to completed research. Ongoing studies may be submitted, provided that theoretical framework, preliminary results, and a discussion of these results appear in the text submitted. Proposals which are too similar to papers previously presented cannot be accepted. Proposals that represent new and significant contributions to research in the Psychology of Mathematics Education are especially encouraged.

PME Oral Communications are reviewed in a double-blind peer review process by at least one member of the International Programme Committee.

Submission Procedure

Proposals for Oral Communications are to be written in English without an abstract. The document may be up to one page long and must be in line with the formatting guidelines provided by the conference organizers. More information is available in the conference template file. For the peer review process, authors must submit a second, blinded version of their proposal. Papers that do not conform with the formatting guidelines, exceed the maximum number of pages or which are not accompanied by a properly blinded version may be rejected without further consideration or peer review.

The preparation of a proposal for an Oral Communication is a challenging enterprise since the space is limited to one page only. Note that no abstract is necessary for an Oral Communication paper. Advice on how to prepare an Oral Communication paper can be found on the PME website (see Preparation of OC and PP contributions).

Please consider the following issues before you submit you proposal: Submission Checklist OC and PP

Proposals for Oral Communications must be submitted via ConfTool (www.conftool.com/pme) no later than March, 1st, in the year of the conference (see conference announcement for exact dates).

Submissions to ConfTool are only possible if the presenting author is registered in the ConfTool system and has paid the non-refundable conference deposit.

Two files must be submitted for each proposal:

  • for publication, the word file that strictly follows the formatting guidelines
  • for review, a “blinded version” as PDF file in which it is not possible for a reviewer to infer the authors’ identities from the text.

Please note that no revisions are possible after submission. Each contribution is accepted or rejected in the form in which it was submitted.

Restrictions

Every pre-registered person may submit up to one Oral Communication. The proposal should be submitted by the author who will deliver the presentation during the conference.

Each conference participant may present at most one Oral Communication or one Research Report, including the Research Reports that are part of Colloquia.

Each conference participant may have his/her name on not more than four conference contributions. Additionally each conference participant may act as organizer of at most one Colloquium.

Reviewing

Proposals for Oral Communications will be double-blind peer-reviewed by at least one member of the IPC (International Program Committee). Notification of the decision of the International Program Committee to accept or reject the Oral Communication proposal will be available after the 2nd meeting oft he International Programme Committee in April.

Review criteria

Apart from what has been said above, the review process is guided by certain criteria.

1. The proposal must satisfy the formatting guidelines given in the first announcement.

2. The proposal should give a description of the research that has been conducted or that is being conducted. It is the basis for the review process which decides whether the OC can be presented at the conference. The text part should contain the following essential aspects (in an order that makes sense):

  • a short description of the theoretical background or framework
  • research goals, questions or hypotheses
  • the methods used for the study
  • the (most important) results obtained by the study; if the proposal presents a planned study, then expected results must be described (with reasons why these results are expected)
  • finally, a short discussion or conclusions should be mentioned, giving an idea how the research question or goals are satisfied.

3. The proposal should contain a reference section providing the references cited in the text part. Due to space limitation, to cite one or two papers would be preferable so that people get an idea in which paradigm or perspective the study is located.

It is obvious that for each of these aspects only a small number of sentences can be used, since the space is limited to one page. To prepare the proposal in such a compact way is challenging but every year many PME members are successful. Please be aware that proposals with more than one page will be rejected without further consideration.

Advice for authors how to prepare an Oral Communication paper can be found on the PME website (see Preparation of OC and PP contributions).

Publication and presentation

Accepted papers will be included in the proceedings only if the full conference registration fee has been paid in time. The deadline for this payment is published in the 2nd announcement (usually in May).

The IPC will group three Oral Communications according to the distinctive themes in order to provide the opportunity for a common discussion period at the end of each group of OC session. A chairperson will be assigned to each Oral Communication session. He/she will introduce the presenters, make a comment regarding photographing, audio- and videotaping the session, monitor timing of the session, and moderate the discussion

In OC sessions, 10 minutes are allowed for each presentation which include the time it takes for changing presenter, getting ready, etc. However, the remaining 30 minutes of discussion time can be organized in different ways. For OC sessions, the IC recommends one of two timing options. Some sessions may contain presentations that are closely related, while for other sessions, this may be less the case. Based on the chair’s reading of the OC summaries, and after consultation of the three presenters before the start of the session, he/she can select the appropriate option.

  • Option 1: Joint discussion at the end for presentations with related themes
    After each presentation, there is the opportunity to clarify immediate questions for at most 5 minutes. 15 additional minutes of discussion are in the end of the session.
  • Option 2: Separate discussions for presentations with separate themes
    The chairperson starts 10 minutes of questions and discussion directly after each 10-minute presentation.

For more information, please see the Guidelines for Preparing and Presenting Oral Communication Presentations and the Guidelines for Session Chairs.

The publication and presentation should follow the PME formatting guidelines and must be in accordance with the PME publication ethics.