EdUmatics – European Development for the Use of Mathematics Technology in Classrooms
EdUmatics supported maths teachers in secondary school to use and integrate mathematics technology in their classroom practice.
The EdUmatics Project (2009-2012) brought together twenty school and university partners from seven EU countries to design, trial, evaluate and disseminate a teacher development course for secondary school mathematics teachers.
The resulting five professional development modules offer a range of tasks and activities for both trainee and experienced teachers. Whilst aimed primarily at teachers, they also include tasks for students to enable them to use technology within modelling and problem-solving activities.
The modules are available on the EdUmatics website: http://www.edumatics.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de/mod1/index.html
Basic information
- Davison CE High School and Technology College for Girls, UK
- Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Czech Republic
- Základní škola a mateřská škola Na Slovance, Czech Republic
- Universität Würzburg, Germany/
- Hans-Leinberger-Gymnasium Landshut, Germany
- Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, France
- Lycée Parc Chabrières, France
- Institut de Recherche sur l'Enseignement des Mathématiques, France,
- Lycée Régional Georges Clemenceau, France
- Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7, France
- Lycée Jacques Prévert, France
- Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg, Germany
- Berthold-Gymnasium Freiburg, France
- Università di Torino, Italy
- Liceo Scientifico Statale Arturo Issel, Italy
- Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands
- CSG Liudger, locatie Raai, Italy
- Univerza v Mariboru Pedagoška fakulteta Maribor, Slovenia
- Gimnazija Jožeta Plečnika Ljubljana, Slovenia
The project addressed the wide concern that, although a range of technologies are available, the majority of teachers have not had any formal opportunities to learn about them and fewer teachers still have integrated the more complex technologies within their practices.
Recent studies in mathematics education show that, despite many national and institutional actions within the EU aiming to integrate ICT into mathematics classrooms, such integration in secondary schools remains weak. The huge diversity of ICT resources leaves teachers often unsure of which to use, and when and how to use them.
Studies also reveal that the reasons for the slow integration of ICT in mathematics into classroom practice are deeply linked to the training strategies used. Approaches to training are sometimes unrelated to teachers' current classroom practices, being essentially based on the transmission of technological rather than pedagogical skills. Thus, there has been little impact on supporting teachers to make best use of new opportunities created by digital educational content and services.
The EdUmatics training modules exemplify the best use of ICT in mathematics education, underpinned by the current research in this area: dynamic experience of mathematics, working with different representations, seeing the relationship between algebra and geometry, etc.
There are five professional development modules developed by the EdUmatics Project. Together they form a teacher course covering the core aspects of using ICT in mathematics education:
1. Starting to work with ICT
2. From static to dynamic representations
3. Constructing functions and models
4. Using ICT in the classroom: Teaching approaches
5. Interrelationships between software.
The course resources are available online through a multilingual collaborative platform (http://www.edumatics.mathematik.uni-wuerzburg.de/mod1) and include video of classroom case studies, interactive applets, teaching materials, etc.
The course also integrates face-to-face meetings (within each country), online-work, individual tasks and practical work in the classroom.