mathe 2000, established at TU Dortmund in 1987, is a scientific project for the development and research into mathematical teaching in all grades, based on the understanding of mathematics as a science of interactively explorable patterns and mathematics education as a design science. In contrast to the specialization on single problems of mathematics education, mathe 2000 perceives the design of learning environments, empirical research, teacher training, educational advice and public relations as an overall task.
KIRA – How Children think mathematically (2008-2010)Project Director: Christoph Selter |
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The project KIRA develops and evaluates materials, which are to enable the students to understand children’s ways of thinking better so that they can respond to them individually. This way, future teachers learn more about how children think mathematically. Project opportunities are created for students to expand their competences regarding the central contents of primary school arithmetic in a practice-oriented way. The students conduct – for example, in seminars – mathematical interviews with children. The interviewers are trying to get a better understanding of the individual thinking of the particular child. For this purpose materials are developed, which help the students in this respect (e.g. interview guidelines). Apart from that, the students analyze video scenes, transcripts, descriptions of teaching episodes as well as written documents of the children, which are especially produced and edited in such a way that they encourage the involvement with the heterogeneous thinking of children.
Kosima is a long-term research and development project for mathematical teaching in lower secondary education. Varied aspects of mathematical learning processes in meaningful contexts are examined. In doing so, steps of development and research into learning arrangements, inservice education and evaluation as well as the work of all crucial partners are closely linked with each other. Universities, educational publisher (Cornelsen) and teachers with practical experience are dealing with the development and evaluation of learning arrangements.
The project PIK AS is a joint project of Deutsche Telekom Foundation, Ministry of Education and TU Dortmund for the further development of mathematical teaching in primary schools. The primary goals are the provision of support services and the development of supporting materials which are regarded as helpful and are used by the key players of the subject-related reform of teaching practice – teachers, math experts, head teachers, members of competence teams, advisory teachers, discipline leaders. For that purpose five teachers delegated part-time (50%), members of the Institute of Development and Research into Mathematical Teaching (IEEM) and the Institute of School Development Research (IfS) are working closely together.
The project dortMINT is a joint project of different disciplines (STEM, linguistics, special education) and institutes (DoKoLL, HDZ, IfS) participating in preservice STEM Teacher Education. It implements the focus area “”Analysing and supporting student thinking” into teacher education programmes at TU Dortmund sustainably and on a broad basis. With that it takes up current profession-theoretical discussions and development efforts and establishes the interdisciplinary cooperation and research with concrete education imperatives accentuated as important for future teachers as an integrating core. In the three contentual project measures the subject-scientific, the subject-didactic and school-practical study components of future teachers at special education centres, elementary schools, secondary modern schools, middle schools, comprehensive schools and academic high schools are further developed. Two structural measures – the building of a MINT-laboratory for learning inquiringly and the education of excellent lower secondary-students in the field diagnosis and individual promotion – are flanking the three contentual areas.
Together with a group of educational researchers as well as of specialists for subject didactics from the Ruhr Universities and within the scope of the target agreement the introduction of all-day schools is to be tested, scientifically accompanied and practically supported under the aegis of the Institute of School Development Research at TU Dortmund. Within a period of six years (with the option of a four-year extension) up to 30 academic high schools have the chance to get intensive support to become all-day schools. But they are not only supposed to sustainably change their organizational structure but to change their school culture traditionally based on selection into a culture of individual promotion of the existing potentials of pupils. Here the development of teaching is a special component of an overall development of the participating academic high schools. The development is systematized by different modules but autonomously controlled by the single schools. For the use of synergies in case of similar problems a network structure with regional core elements is supposed to provide for innovative and fast solutions. So the chosen project design aims at a clearly increased participation of adolescents from uneducated environments and/or with a migration background and at improving the quality of graduation altogether.
The IEEM has initiated the interdisciplinary “Graduate School Didactic Design research on Diagnostic Teaching and Learning (FUNKEN)”. Central aim of the interdisciplinary graduate school is to strengthen the collaboration between the didactic disciplines of different subjects and offer a structured PhD program for promoting young researchers. The graduate school works within the research framework of Didactic design research.
The project develops and researches teaching structures, teaching conceptions and teaching materials, especially aiming at supporting low attainers in mathematics. The target group consists of the 20% of the eight-graders which more or less are only able to do primary mathematics according to PISA 2006. In order to help them, materials are developed for diagnosing individual difficulties as well as for supporting them accordingly. In addition, informations for teachers are provided (such as videos or background infos about typical difficulties) which enables them to work with the materials.
