Mathematics education is a very important factor influencing individual's life chances. People with unsatisfactory mathematics skills often meet severe limitations in their choices at the job market in technology-rich society. Therefore mathematics school education for all citizens is recognized as the field to be promoted across Europe. The needs of diverse population of pupils in secondary schools are addressed by actions that aim to narrow the observed gaps in mathematics skills and to reduce the share of underachievement. Despite the obvious employment possibilities that require mathematical knowledge and skills, at the secondary school level pupils show low interest, widely spread negative attitudes and low achievements in mathematical literacy. Even more, as a consequence of lacking knowledge in mathematics and science, in higher education students face problems concerning academic success, which then lead to a high rate of a dropout in higher education.Research confirms that most students are not able to acquire basic skills without meeting situations in which these skills are to be used and which are perceived as meaningful (practically, intellectually) by the students. Therefore, the MERIA project will focus on educational paradigm of problem-based learning by making mathematics relevant and interesting to students, and in particular on development of teachers’ competencies to establish appropriate “inquiry situations”. Through resolving these situations, students acquire and apply basic mathematical skills. Development of student-centered methodology will be based on the two well established strategies that are solidly rooted in research (the Realistic Mathematics Education and the Theory of Didactical Situations) in the partner countries. The results of the project activities ensure a repository of good practices as a new curriculum material that can be transferable together with methodological framework for implementation and evaluation of mathematics education across Europe. Didactic materials designed during project will help teachers create classroom situations that promote deep learning approach, power of mathematical modelling and abstract thinking. All materials will be published with Creative Commons License and will populate national digital repositories (in Croatia E-school digital repository).The undergoing curriculum reform in Croatia is an additional opportunity for the project to re-conceptualize and implement new ideas in mathematics education. In doing so, its impact in Croatia will be huge as it will guide numerous teachers' transition to new methods of teaching and learning. Above that, the main value of the project lies in the creation of a framework for relevant problem-based mathematics education using a systematic approach and design of reference materials for the repository that will continue to be developed by partner institutions after the project ends. MERIA project intends to address the underachievement but also “overlooked middle” in mathematics by taking into account actual needs of stakeholders in the educational systems within the partnership countries. As the project strives for inclusiveness, indirect stakeholders for the projects’ results are all teachers and students participating in secondary education. The project will support the curriculum in participating countries by enhancing teacher participation and offering teacher training. The support for teachers is also offered for design of their own lecture materials, thus highlighting their “21st century” competences (European Reference Framework) such as creativity and critical thinking. It is estimated that 180 teachers will be actively involved in the projects activity, either completing the workshop program or attending the international teachers’ conference. Direct users of project actions will be chosen based on their role in the local educational bodies and thus we will ensure that reaching more teachers through follow-up activities will be more effective. The project will enhance the collaboration between educational and research institutions and it will increase the level of exchange of experiences and good practices among high-schools across Europe. Thus the project MERIA will be a solid starting point for further educational actions of the partnering institutions supporting teachers’ professional development, addressing under-achievement in mathematics, promoting key competences for lifelong learning and it will have a significant role in strengthening the impact of education on youth employment.
Project MERIA has been proposed on the initiative of mathematicians and mathematics educators from Croatia, Slovenia, Denmark and the Netherlands to improve mathematics education. The “exercise paradigm” in many everyday practices of teaching mathematics (including upper secondary and even university courses) may be a main factor that shapes the common students’ impression of mathematics as uninteresting (tedious routine work), irrelevant (at least to them) and useless (except to pass an exam). The alternative proposed and pursued in this project can be roughly characterized as inquiry based mathematics teaching (IBMT), where exercises are replaced by “inquiry activities” of various types. The project aimed to be based on serious and visionary research on how to realize the aforementioned tasks.The main objectives of the project are: 1) promoting IBMT based on the theoretical approaches of Theory of Didactical Situations (TDS) and Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), 2) providing systematic and overarching support to the curriculum, by creating a repository of mathematical showcase scenarios and modules for secondary schools, 3) upgrading teaching skills of in-service teachers so that they have necessary competences for dealing with diversified groups of learners by using learner-centred approaches and methods, 4) strengthening cooperation and flow of ideas between educational and research institutions dealing with mathematics education at different levels as well as transfer of innovative practices at European level. The project team consisted of mathematicians and researchers in mathematics education (university professors), mathematics teachers and teacher trainers from 11 institutions (6 faculties or universities, 2 high schools, 2 professional associations and 1 national institute for education). Jointly, the project partners designed six intellectual outputs: Practical Guide to IBMT, Template for Teaching Scenarios and Modules, collection of six scenarios and modules, Workshop Guide and Project Impact Analysis. The team has worked closely with teachers from 13 associated schools in all four countries. The role of the associated schools was to try out the teaching materials and provide feedback on its usability, as well as to participate in the interviews providing a basis for the understanding of teachers' needs and barriers for implementing IBMT. In the final phase of the project, we have organized cycles of professional development for mathematics teachers in Croatia, Slovenia and Denmark. A cycle consisted of two workshops, between which the teachers used teaching materials in their own classrooms. Teachers collaborated, discussed and reflected on the implementation which makes a very rare and very precious form of professional development. Students have evaluated lessons based on MERIA scenarios as interesting and engaging, while teachers describe materials as concrete, detailed and useable. Teachers have in particular pointed out that this type of material is rare and needed, in particular due to current curriculum reforms in Denmark and Croatia which focus more on problem solving and active learning. On the other hand, we have learned that teachers lack time and experience to design their own innovative materials. Hence, an interactive repository has been set up on the project web page for teachers to share their materials and further efforts of the project team will be made to develop design principles for tasks that support IBMT. At the end of the project, a final conference with teachers from all four countries was organized at the Faculty of Science. At the conference, all intellectual outputs were disseminated, plenary talks were given that extend the theoretical frameworks used in the project, workshops presenting teachers' new ideas was organized and finally, a public lesson was given by one of the teachers form the team. For a majority of participants it was a first such experience, which emphasized the importance of collaboration between teachers aimed at improving the teaching practices. Understanding the ways in which in-service teachers improv their skills and collaborate provided an idea for a follow-up project that has been also granted by the Erasmus+ programme. This project is called Teachers' Inquiry in Mathematics Education (TIME) and it will focus on small communities of teachers using the method of Lesson Study to jointly experiment and improve the quality of teaching in their schools.