A collaborative European inquiry into Technology Enhanced Mathematical Pedagogy Erasmus Project

Project Title

A collaborative European inquiry into Technology Enhanced Mathematical Pedagogy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Gender equality / equal opportunities; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The project emerged from the desire across mathematical cultures within the partnership to enhance the experience of math learners in the age group 11 to 19 in secondary schools. The partnership was composed by the administration for child and education in the Swedish City of Västerås, the Colegiul National A T Laurian in Botosani, Romania and the UCL- Academy in London, UK. It was well composed as the mathematical cultures represented within this project each approach the teaching of, the learning process of and the output of math slightly differently, yet all recognise a common need to address the three pedagogic themes, Questioning, ICT enhanced learning and Assessment as Learning. The project was therefore based on drawing these three elements together to enhance questioning, assessment and practices of blended learning. For this to be successful a new pedagogy needed to be developed. We have therefore promoted collaborative teacher development within Math pedagogy, through a shared approach to research, a shared project development and application, shared dissemination of findings and through a joint teacher training enabling math professionals to share practice across European boundaries. Each partner is associated with at least one institution for higher education that has been involved in the project as advicers, part of steering groups and disseminators. Through this projects three partners, representing three mathematical cultures, each with their specific skill set concerning each aspect of the pedagogy and research process, have worked together to devise, trial, apply, review a Technology Enhanced Mathematical Pedagogy (TEMP).
Between September 2015 and June 2016, working collaboratively to develop TEMP each partner has applied TEMP to a particular mathematical concept and cohort of students relevant to the context of each partner; for example underachieving boys learning algebra or functions. An application of TEMP within a partner institution has been facilitated by three educators working in research triads, the City of Västerås had two triads working in lower and upper secondary schools respectively. The research triad consisted of three math educators who had opted into the project and were guided by a project lead within each institution. Within each institution an Action Research approach has been used as the methodology of research. A commonly agreed and collaboratively developed method was applied at the start and end of each phase to measure attitudinal change of both students and teacher participants. The same process was applied with a new focus for TEMP, based on the results of the first run between September 2016 and the summer of 2017. To further facilitate the transnationality and improve the quality of the final results, the implementation and the sustainability of the project results a joint staff training was carried out in the spring of 2017.
The project has been widely disseminated through local, regional and national networks of the partners themselves, and through the networks of the associated institutions for higher education and national agencies for education. The project is expected to have an direct impact on the teaching and learning of Mathematics, which in turn will have an impact on the students results. It will impact the training of future teachers as well as the continuous professional learning of the teachers active in the European schools today. Through Questioning, teachers who put stimulating questions to their students, new innovative ways to use ICT tools, and the use of Assessment as Learning, comes increased interest in math and with that increased motivation and an elevated ability to manage advanced mathematical reasoning. This in turn will enhance the results. This is particularly the case for male leaners of math where all partners felt that the gap between the genders was a concern, but is also promoting the quiet girls ability to discuss, ask questions and express themselves.
It is hoped that the report based on the findings of developing and applying variations of TEMP across two years and three mathematical cultures will be of value to a large range of interested parties. We hope that the ICT tools developed through the project, that are available through our project website will be of use to a range of educators. We also hope that this project will lead to further collaborative projects, as we intend to apply for a new Erasmus+ strategic partnership for the development of innovation in school education further enhancing ICT in Mathematics, adding some new partners.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 52425 Eur

Project Coordinator

VASTERAS KOMMUN & Country: SE

Project Partners

• Colegiul National A T Laurian Botosani
• UCL Academy