The role of stage presence in primary mathematics teachers' education

The aim of this research is to cope with the expression challenge regarding the embodiment of mathematical ideas in primary teachers’ professional activity in the classroom. Our guess was that 20th century's approaches and technical contributions to actors and dancers training by Rudolf Laban (1879-1958), Émile-Jacques Delcroze (1865-1950) and Eugenio Barba (b. 1936) could be applied to the design of a specific math teachers dramatizing training (Laban 1948, 1971, Dalcroze 1921, Barba 1991). Starting in late 2012, theoretical research has been carried on along with the design, implementation and assessment of workshops with pre-service students (degree in Primary Education) and with in-service teachers. We discuss the theoretical framework, regarding 20th performance training, together with relevant mentions of the role of stage presence in the teaching of mathematics by two mathematicians and outstanding scholars in mathematics education, the Italian Federigo Enriques (1871-1946) and the Hungarian born American George Polya (1887-1985). The pedagogical aspects of mimesis, “a link between what is expressed and what really is” (Scaramuzzo 2010, 2013, 2016) were also considered, regarding both mathematics teachers education and professional development and pupil's learning of mathematics in preschool and primary school. We then considered the structure of 3-4 hours sessions and 16 hours workshops; the different exercises, regarding sight, motion in the space (the classroom),; the accompanying writing (personal notebooks or zibaldoni). We discussed our qualitative methodology in assessment (Van Manen 1990), the main results, and future research perspectives.