Nowadays competence in mathematics is addressed as one of the most important issue for self-fulfilment at both social and personal level and numeracy skills are considered as one of the priorities for educational cooperation at EU level. It is a common pattern in classroom communication that teaching mathematics is characterized by the use of the textbook and by the teacher dominating the conversation by asking the questions and evaluating the students. This makes students passive and afraid listeners. However, there is a great consensus that cooperation creates learning; productive classrooms build on students participation and thinking. The purpose of “TIM - Theatre in Mathematics” project is to face the main obstacles in the way of teaching and learning mathematics at EU level. It aims to contribute to the ways to improve mathematics teaching and learning, in particular providing a new methodology - TIM Methodology - to teach mathematics using drama and theatre workshop. The project will be carried out by COREP - Social and Community Theatre Centre of the University of Turin (IT), Western Norway University of applied Science - HVL (NO), Technical University of Crete (GR), ASTA theatre company (PT) and DORS - Regional centre of documentation for health promotion (IT). It will develop the TIM methodology by deepening and combining two existing approaches: “Mathemart – Playing with mathematics in the theatre workshop” and “Process Drama - change of roles, perspectives, and role aspects in teaching mathematics”. Mathemart is a new approach that consists in teaching mathematics through Social and Community Theatre (SCT) methodology of the University of Turin. Mathemart uses SCT to get students involved in the game of mathematics by means of theatrical games and activities: an overall approach that includes mind and body, inborn creativity and engagement.This theatrical setting conveys a creative, playful and trusting atmosphere enabling students to freely explore without judging what they are doing, learning from mistakes in a sequence of trial and error. Process Drama, developed by the HVL University of Bergen, aims at changing the teacher dominated pattern of communication by introducing and exploring roles and role aspects (the sceptic, the curious, the authority, the mediator) to create more student active learning processes, emphasizing the ability to change roles and perspectives in a learning process with arguments more than just answers. TIM methodology will be built taking into account the 4 partner countries education systems in order to have a flexible and adaptable tool to each national and regional context. In the manual it will be described in his potential of adaptation to any context or level of literacy of the students within the range 8-14 years old. Other intellectual outputs: A TIM e-learning platform where to find in digital formats all the outputs of the project, to share and exchange digital learning resources related to the methodology A theatrical conference about “The fear of mathematics” will be realized and shown to at least 600 stakeholders (teachers, insiders, etc..) One actor per country will be trained and will be able to spread the conference in his country. 4 scientific articles about TIM The main target group will include teachers and student teachers. A specific TIM training of teachers will be developed: 20 experts, 5 per country, will be trained to train teachers and at least 400 teachers will be trained in TIM Methodology. The project will focus on the teachers training in order to reach, as secondary target, the largest number of students thanks to the multiplier effect of the trained teachers. It is foreseen that in the first year after the end of the project at least 16.000 students in Europe will be taught mathematics also with TIM. After the project the group of 20 trainers will be able to continue the training of teachers in their own country with the support of the regional/national school offices already involved in the project. We expect, at the end of the project, to have resident trainings in TIM Methodology in the partners’ Universities and institutions. Other secondary and long-term targets will be the institutions, existing projects and associations involved in teaching mathematics: from the Universities to local schools, from European projects and networks to the local ones. The e-learning platform will be the virtual place where all these professionals can meet, exchange opinions, and materials using the repositories. It will be the place where it is possible to share knowledge about TIM. This will improve their way of teaching mathematics and will foster the creation of a community of professionals using TIM, exchanging knowledge and spreading the methodology and the tools among their networks. At that time, the benefits will be evident in the classrooms, as the quality of the teaching improves, the students will indirectly take profit by the project
Nowadays competence in mathematics is addressed as one of the most important issues for self-fulfilment at both social and personal level and numeracy skills are considered as one of the priorities for educational cooperation at EU level. Usually, teaching mathematics is characterised by the use of the textbook and by the teacher dominating the conversation by asking questions and evaluating the students: a pattern that makes students passive and afraid listeners. The purpose of the “TIM - Theatre in Mathematics” project is to face the main obstacles in teaching and learning mathematics at EU level. It aims to contribute to improving mathematics teaching and learning, in particular providing a new methodology - TIM Methodology - to teach mathematics using drama and theatre workshops. The project has been carried out by COREP - Social and Community Theatre Centre of the University of Turin (IT), Western Norway University of applied Science - HVL (NO), Technical University of Crete (GR), ASTA theatre company (PT) and DORS - Regional centre of documentation for health promotion (IT). The project developed the TIM methodology by deepening and combining two existing approaches: “Mathemart – Playing with mathematics in the theatre workshop” and “Process Drama - change of roles, perspectives, and role aspects in teaching mathematics”. Mathemart is a new approach that consists in teaching mathematics through Social and Community Theatre (SCT) methodology of the University of Turin. Mathemart uses SCT to get students involved in the game of mathematics by means of theatrical games and activities: a creative and playful approach that includes mind and body, inborn creativity and engagement enabling students to freely explore without judging what they are doing and learning from mistakes. Process Drama, developed by the HVL University of Bergen, aims at changing the teacher dominated pattern of communication by introducing and exploring roles and role aspects (the sceptic, the curious, the authority, the mediator) to create more student active learning processes, emphasising the ability to change roles and perspectives in a learning process with questions more than just answers. The TIM methodology manual, first output of the project, has been built as an adaptable tool for teachers. It describes TIM theory, activities and exercises in their potential of adaptation for different contexts and students within the range 8-14 years old. Other outputs of the project are: The TIM e-learning platform, accessible from the TIM website (www.theatreinmath.eu), containing all the outputs of the project in digital formats, and where digital learning resources can be shared The interactive theatre performance for schools “MATH.SCARE.BOOM” about the fear of mathematics, staged in the 4 project languages. The performance now keeps touring and being staged for students in Europe. Four scientific articles about the methodology, accepted for publication by high level international journals The main target groups of the project are teachers and students. An international group of 53 professionals from the field of Education received a specific TIM training to become TIM trainers, which enabled them to then work in schools side by side with maths teachers and to implement the Methodology with students in the classroom. Teachers involved in the project learnt the techniques of the TIM Methodology and became part of the TIM community also as co-creators of TIM materials by creating new lessons tailored to their groups of students. In the implementation process, over 40 classes and approximately 900 students have been involved. TIM trainers continue spreading the TIM Methodology in the 4 countries. In order to validate the methodology the activities in schools were evaluated, showing positive results: teachers and students confirmed that TIM has transmitted mathematical contents, creating a positive participatory and emotional climate in the classroom through the reinforcement of life skills. These results sparked the attention of educational institutions due to the fact that, after 2 years of Covid emergency, the educational sector recognizes how empowering students’ relational and emotional skills is essential to help them to overcome the emotional and psychological fatigue suffered in this period. Other secondary and long-term targets such as institutions, existing projects and associations addressing maths teaching have been involved in the project and became part of the TIM community, and further collaborations started, such as the implementation of TIM training in Math Education Departments in Universities and collaboration with Drama in Education research institutions and organisations. The project has thus been the first step for the creation of a community of professionals using TIM, exchanging knowledge and spreading the methodology and the tools among their networks.