Fred Goffree 1934-2020

Fred Goffree, 1934-2020

Prof. dr. Fred Goffree, our former colleague, passed away on Friday May 1. For decades, Fred left his mark on the didactics of mathematics, especially at teacher training colleges. His 鈥淢athematics & Didactics鈥 books were the standard at almost every teacher training college from the early eighties. He worked successively at the Rijkskweekschool Twente, at the IOWO and SLO, and was a professor at the UvA.

Early on, Fred became involved in thinking about what prospective teachers should know and be able to do. In 1967, an initiative from the then Committee for the Modernization of Mathematics Curriculum led to the formation of a project team (Edu Wijdeveld, Fred Goffree and Adri Treffers) to organize and supervise the renewal of mathematics education at primary school. This initiative would develop into the Wiskobas project, in which Fred was involved in many practical publications, and about which he also wrote his dissertation: Learning to teach with Wiskobas. Educational development research Mathematics & Didactics at the Pedagogical Academy (1979).

This would remain the common thread in his work: concrete support for (prospective) primary school teachers, and reflection on learning tracks and educational goals. At the time of the Programming, Alignment, Completion and Quality project (PUIK, 1992-1995), the important book Proeve van een nationaal programma rekenen-wiskunde & didactiek op de pabo was published by Fred and his colleagues.

We say farewell to an important mathematics didactician and an amiable man.