Objectives:
The proposed research will focus on the opportunities to influence professional competences of future primary mathematics teachers through experienced inquiry based mathematics education (IBME). The main project activities are:
1) Clarifying the concept of IBME in the Czech context.
2) Designing and testing learning environments for future primary teachers in which they experience IBME as pupils.
3) Analyzing how students are able to evolve the gained experience into strengthening their mathematical SMK.
4) Analyzing how students are able to evolve IBME environments into own illustrations, examples, explanations and powerful analogies, that is how students are able to transform the SMK into PCK.
Programme type: Lifelong Learning Programme COMENIUS Multilateral project
Objectives:
The European materials on educational policy stress the importance of formation of pupils´ competences as: competence to learn, to communicate, to solve problems, to make conjectures, etc. This process should start in early age and on the primary school level it is supported mainly by the teacher.
On the general level this project aims at the development of primary school pupils:
to support the development of their learning competences;
to support the consciousness of the meaning of mathematics as a part of human culture;
to encourage pupils' motivation to learn mathematics;
to realize pupils' individual (cognitive) potentials;
to create the possibility for students to experience success in the process of problem solving.
These aims should be achieved by means of support and enhancement of teachers directed on:
to get to know examples for substantial learning environments and by that experience the nature of mathematics and recognize and use the potential for teaching and learning;
to strengthen teacher’s mathematical content knowledge in relation to and requested for these specific learning environments;
how to cope with the heterogeneity and realize natural differentiation in mathematics classrooms;
to support the change of belief on the substance and importance of mathematics for primary school level.
In concrete terms each local team in cooperation with teachers from partners and associated schools will prepare elaborated materials and examples of substantial learning environments:
its mathematical background (importance for the development of mathematical thinking, connections to crucial mathematical ideas, different ways of solutions);
different possibilities how to put it into practice in the classrooms;
our experience from field experiment (concentrating mostly on the pupils´ motivation and development of their different competences);
possibilities to develop, cultivate, and enrich mathematical ideas.
In the project proposal mathematics education is understood as one of the constituents of general primary school education (pupilss aged 6 - 15) whose aim is universal development of a pupil's personality. Following issues will be explored: (a) appropriate conception of mathematics with balanced motivation, operable, application and work factors, (b) work of the teacher who is well aware of his/her role and modifies his/her work with respect to his/her beliefs, particular school and class practice and goals of mathematics education. Pupils' cognition will be treated in its relation to teachers' activities. The result of the project elaboration of studies in the following fields: (a) mathematical literacy of primary school pupils specifiedon the level of content and teaching forms in primary education, (b) characterisation of competences in didactics of mathematics and its relation to teachers´ beliefs, (c) importance of the use of calculus (computation) in problem solving.
By mathematics classroom culture, we mean a set of characteristics describing processes going on during the teaching of mathematics at school. The research will focus on the following areas: (a) characterisation of processes which constitute the mathematics classroom culture, (b) study of mutual influences between the mathematics classroom culture and the process of concept acquisition, (c) study of processes going on in the teaching of mathematics aimed at the way the mathematics classroom culture is built through interaction and communication between a teacher and pupil(s), (d) study of possibilities of changing and developing the culture of teaching via teacher education and co-operation between teachers and researchers.