MaSDiV - Supporting mathematics and science teachers in addressing diversity and promoting fundamental values

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MaSDiV (Supporting mathematics and science teachers in addressing diversity and promoting fundamental values) is a high-level research and evaluation project, involving leading education institutes from across Europe in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and 11 Ministries of Education.

The MaSDiV partners develop and implement a helpful course for teachers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for promoting science and mathematics literacy towards all students, including disadvantaged students from diverse cultural and social backgrounds, thus supporting learning processes about fundamental values in multicultural settings.

Furthermore, the MaSDiV partners rigorously evaluate this course using a multimethod research design. This policy experimentation measure, which is funded by the Erasmus+ Key Action 3 programme of the European Union, aims at scaling-up successful measures across Europe.

The aim of the MaSDiV project is to develop a research-based, quality-controlled and tested measure – a professional development course for teachers meant to promote an inclusive STEM education – that is broadly implemented and scaled-up across Europe. MaSDiV develops this course according to the latest research and standards for the quality of professional development and bases it on the principles of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL), which is a well-researched STEM education concept. MaSDiV further develops and expands IBL in suitable ways to promote science and mathematics literacy among all students under the conditions of diverse and multicultural classrooms. The truly innovative feature of this course is the link it creates between STEM education and IBL on one hand and the fundamental values of intercultural learning on the other.

This course for professional development comprises three modules that are made available as free and open resources and include supplementary materials, such as suitable classroom tasks for teachers, guidelines for teacher educators giving the course, etc. Thus, the course addresses:

  • IBL as an approach for addressing achievement-related diversity;
  • IBL in realistic, relevant contexts, and;
  • IBL in multicultural settings.

This course for professional development aims at developing teachers’ competences for practising inclusive science and mathematics education for the learning benefit of all students, regardless of their cultural or socio-economic backgrounds. The main target groups are lower secondary school teachers in general education across Europe.

MaSDiV uses a pre-post design to test the developed measure in six countries. The project’s multimethod evaluation design makes use of quantitative and qualitative procedures. The evaluation makes it possible to assess the measure’s effects reliably, as well as paving the way for a scaled-up measure. Leading science education research institutes, which are also members of the International Consortium for STEM Education (ICSE), together with European Ministries of Education, are developing this measure.

The project runs from 2017 to 2020. Its final years are devoted to the process of scaling-up the measure, to ensure that the course for professional development is implemented as widely as possible in national educational settings. MaSDiV’s cooperation with 11 European Ministries of Education and its connections with relevant national and European networks and communities in STEM education, ranging from research and policy to practice, ensures maximum impact and thus maximum benefit, resulting in a high-quality, socially relevant, just and inclusive STEM education.

 

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