Learning from children to improve primary school teachers’ math-specific education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Learning from children to improve primary school teachers’ math-specific education

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 higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Inclusion – equity; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

The relationship with mathematics of early-childhood and primary school teachers has not always been easy. In many cases, their childhood experience has given rise to feelings of rejection or anguish, together with a vision of mathematics reduced to calculation and mechanical procedures. This is a background not very suitable for teaching mathematics in school classrooms, much less if we think of inclusive classrooms.

In order to provide teachers with new experiences that would change both their view of mathematics and their attitude towards its teaching, a group of teachers in charge of teacher training proposed to create mathematics workshops that could be offered to participants of two different profiles: university students on the one hand, and teachers in professional development on the other. For their design, we were inspired by the mathematics workshops that the Sesdown Association carries out with children with Trisomy 21 outside school hours: activities that make sense to the participants, in which a dynamic vision of mathematics as a creation linked to human needs and aspirations is transmitted. This is what we were looking for for the adult target groups, with a project that responds to the following objectives: 1) to propose a training model (initial and professional development) for teachers to teach mathematics based on understanding concepts and non-routine procedures, 2) to train teachers to assist the diversity of students in the specific area of mathematics through active methodologies, 3) to promote inclusive education in school classrooms, proposing teaching models based on the functional diversity of students and 4) to encourage greater involvement of the University with other surrounding institutions and entities, as a benchmark for the promotion of educational inclusion.

To address objective 1), six core areas of mathematics training were identified to define the topics of the six project workshops: understanding arithmetic algorithms, problem solving, the relationship between arithmetic and geometry, mental arithmetic and calculator use, the history of mathematics and its teaching, and geometry. For each of these areas, a questionnaire was designed and passed to the two groups of participants (1374) in Spain, France and Italy. Once the training needs of the participants had been detected, the didactic material that constitutes the six workshops of the project was elaborated. These activities are developed using active methodologies and are easily transferable to an inclusive classroom, thus meeting objectives 2) and 3) at the same time. These workshops have been implemented with a total of 3445 participants of the two profiles described above in the partner institutions.

In response to objective 4), new didactic materials were developed for a third profile of participants in the project: children with some type of intellectual disability, which have resulted in a didactic manual with ten thematic workshops aimed at children with this profile, the third profile of participants in the project. These workshops have been put into practice with a total 32 boys and girls with Trisomy 21 in Zaragoza and Pamplona, resulting in videos that have been included in the workshops for adults. Their analysis completes the training of future and current teachers for an inclusive classroom (objective 3) in which not only children with an intellectual disability, but all students, can better understand the world in which they live using mathematics.

During the three and a half years of the project, numerous activities have been carried out: two training sessions for teachers and students from partner institutions (Zaragoza, 2019, and Rome, 2020) and several courses, both face-to-face and virtual, in which both the workshops designed for university students and active teachers and those aimed at children with intellectual disabilities have been made known to stakeholders and target groups. This material, hosted on the project’s website (https://www.unavarra.es/anfomam) has been presented in the three final multiplier events, in which a total of 727 attendants – education students, school teachers and university lecturers – have participated, thus contributing to the achievement of the proposed objectives.

The long-term impact of ANFoMAM will come when these teachers in training bring the change of mentality and the resources received in the workshops designed in the project to the classrooms. In addition, these workshops have been presented at 8 international congresses aimed at specialists in mathematics, and in mathematics didactics, intellectual disabilities and inclusive education, and have been widely accepted.

Project Website

https://www.unavarra.es/anfomam

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 221688,25 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD PUBLICA DE NAVARRA & Country: ES

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI ROMA TRE
• Associazione Tokalon
• Sociedad de Estudios sobre el Síndrome de Down
• UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA