Computational thinking and mathematical thinking: digital literacy in mathematics curricula Erasmus Project

Project Title

Computational thinking and mathematical thinking: digital literacy in mathematics curricula

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 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Context/background of project
In The Netherlands, a three year practice oriented research project ‘Computational thinking and mathematical thinking: digital literacy in mathematics curricula’ has been awarded a grant. Two Dutch universities, SLO and five schools will be working closely together on addressing one of the most universal challenges for mathematics education nowadays: how to naturally integrate both computational as well as mathematical thinking into the curriculum?
The basic idea behind the proposed project is: how can we internationally profit from and contribute to this Dutch project on computational and mathematical thinking?

Objectives of your project
As the challenge of integrating is universal and internationally acknowledged, we seek to find a fruitful collaboration in this project.
There is a practical interest (“What are the design principle according to which we can develop a curriculum in which computational and mathematical thinking mutually enforce each other?”) as well as a scientific interest (“How robust are these design principles against different international contexts?”).
Our objective is to answer both the practical as well as the scientific question.
There is also an implicit goal: starting the discussion on a European Common Core Standard for Mathematics.

Number and profile of participants
1. Belgium; KU Leuven, https://www.kuleuven.be/english/
2. Luxembourg: SCRIPT, Coordination Service for Educational and Technological Research and Innovation, https://www.script.lu/
3. Slovenia: ZRSS, National Education Institute Slovenia, https://www.zrss.si/en/
4. Ireland: NCCA. National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, https://www.ncca.ie/en
5. Hungary: ELTE, Eötvös Loránd University, https://www.elte.hu/en/
6. Estonia: Innove, Estonian education competence center, https://www.innove.ee/
7. Slovenia: University of Ljubljana, https://www.uni-lj.si/eng/about_university_of_ljubljana.aspx
8. Norway: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, https://www.ntnu.edu/
9. The Netherlands: SLO, Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development, https://slo.nl/international/
In principle, in each participating country, the project partner works in a duo, in which expertise both with respect to curriculum development, as well as to educational research is represented.
The formal project partner will receive, when the project will be funded, the resources as appointed to according this proposal. Each partner will then take care of a fair division of these resources between curriculum development and educational research.

Description of activities
Basically, we will
* review the yields of the Dutch CMT-project: design principles, evaluation methods and teaching and learning materials;
* translate them into a preferred language for each project partner
* deploy them as good as possible in the project partners’ countries
* evaluate the yields of the materials in each country
* determine the robustness of the design principles over the international contexts
* start of development European Common Core Standards for Mathematics

Methodology to be used in carrying out the project
Organizationally, we will deploy the above activities first in all of the countries of the project partners. The project leader will after each of this deployment rounds collect the data and make an international analysis of the data. These results are to be discussed in the first coming project meeting after this activity round.
From practical point of view, each project partner will be responsible for national dissemination of the practical materials.
From the scientific side, the project leader will be responsible for the international dissemination and the publication of the scientific results.
With respect to the implicit project goal, we will sketch how a European Common Core Standard for Mathematics could look like.

A short description of the results and impact envisaged
The products to be developed and their impact
1. International review of the key elements of the CT-MT intervention; a transferable set of design principles with which a CT-MT mathematics curriculum can be developed.
2. International review and translation of concept learning activities;
3. International pilot of a concept set of empirically validated learning activities in a CT-MT intervention;
4. International pilot of a set of empirically validated learning activities for a CT-MT intervention;
5. International review of evaluative instruments;
6. Analysis of the empirical data and developing the final intervention;
7. A guide for CT-MT mathematics teachers; with this guide, mathematics teachers can design their own CT-MT education;
8. A sketch of a European Common Standards for Mathematics Framework; this will facilitate collaborative curriculum development in the future.

The potential longer term benefits
Upon the project’s results, in the countries of the project partners, a sustainable mathematics curriculum can be built.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 385707 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stichting Leerplanontwikkeling & Country: NL

Project Partners

• ZAVOD REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE ZA SOLSTVO
• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI
• NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT
• NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU
• EOTVOS LORAND TUDOMANYEGYETEM
• KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
• SCRIPT Innovation et Agence Qualité