This project seeks to contribute to the development of Mathematics professionalism, within the context of education establishments serving 11-19 year olds, and influence teacher education through dissemination initially within associated bodies for higher education for teacher training, thereby creating a basis for long-term improvements. The project addresses the need to develop the integration of Programming in the teaching of Mathematics, as this has become part of the curricula in several countries, and where it is not yet part of the curricula, the need to integrate the two subjects is evident. It has become a key competence in order to provide the students with the competencies needed for their future. The project consists of five partners, supported by two associated partners. The project will draw knowledge from an earlier project, Project TEMP https://projecttemp.org, in which three of the partners explored and developed the possibilities to enhance the teaching of Mathematics with the use of ICT, using modern teaching methods such as flipped classroom and blended learning; Västerås stad (Sweden), Coligiul National AT Laurien (Romania) and UCL Acedemy (Great Britain). The other two partners have been chosen for their experiences and knowledge in the field in order to ensure that the project reaches its objectives: Lycée Saint-Exupéry (France) and Vasa övningsskola (Finland), thereby building a strong, well composed, partnership. The project intends to address the lack of good educational support for teachers of Mathematics in this area. In creating three Intellectual Outcomes, publicly available model lessons, teacher guide and an online course, we intend to achieve an up-skilling of teacher knowledge in the delivery of integrated Programming in the teaching of Mathematics. We also seek to promote collaborative transnational teacher development within Math pedagogy, through a shared approach to research, a shared development and project application, shared dissemination of findings, and using collaborative practices and teacher exchanges. This will enable Math professionals to share practice across European boundaries as it provides opportunities for teachers from differing mathematical cultures to work and learn together. The project results are expected to influence the culture and structure of the participating organisations during the project in the process of designing the Intellectual Outputs through collaborative, transnational design, trial and redesign, using Design Thinking as a methodology. The participating teachers will be part of a process that is highly participatory, using cumulative knowledge development. The partnership, with its internalised know-how and wide experience offers a transnational base of development, as well as a testing ground for innovative practices. The faculty for teacher training at the University of Uppsala, as an associated partner, will provide support and advice to the project, thereby contributing towards quality assurance. There will be documentation of experiences and results of testing lessons and the online course from each partner and other users following a set of criteria, as well as feed-back on the teacher guide. The students feed-back after the use of model lessons will also be documented. The project will be continuously monitored and evaluated. A template for interviews/online surveys with the participating teachers and a test group of students will be created, to be used before and after the execution of the project, in order to measure impact for the teachers and students. The results will be presented in five national seminars (multiplier events) reaching representatives from the educational systems in the partner countries. A last sixth seminar will be held in Brussels for a wider European audience in connection with the last project meeting. In addition a number of other local dissemination activities will be carried out on all levels, jointly and by each partner, making use of the partners associated local universities and other bodies of higher education, and the associated partner ENSA with well established European-wide network. All produced resources will be available after the project from the project website, which will be maintained and edited by the project coordinator. They will also be available on the partners' homepages, and the ENSA homepage.
The Erasmus+ Strategic partnership project, ProgMath was carried out 2018-2021. It contributes to the professionalism of teaching Mathematics to students aged 11-19. This is made possible through the development of good educational support material integrating programming in the teaching of Mathematics. It covers different Mathematical areas and different programming languages. The project idea emanated from the inclusion of programming in the teaching of Mathematics in the curricula of several countries. The need for this integration of subjects is evident as it has become a key competence for many students’ future professional life. The very nature of the project activities and objectives made it natural to use ICT in almost all aspects, for the creation of the project outcomes and for presentation and communication. The five project partners that were chosen for their experience and knowledge were: Västerås stad (Sweden), Coligiul National AT Laurien (Romania), UCL Acedemy (United Kingdom), Lycée Saint-Exupéry (France), and Vasa övningsskola (Finland). They were supported by the University of Uppsala and ENSA (European Network for Social Authorities) as associated partners. The partnership has carried out the project in a participatory way, where each participants competence has been used and respected. This has been a bearing factor throughout the project and was especially important as all participants supported each other to overcome the challenges caused by the pandemic. The project contributes to transnational teacher development within Math pedagogy, as well as practitioner research, using collaborative practices and exchange of differing mathematical cultures. The methodology was primarily based on Design Thinking and Kolb’s learning cycle, as partners worked together in national and transnational design teams. They used cumulative knowledge development to design, trial, evaluate and redesign materials in an iterative process, thus leading to continuous adjustments and improvements and providing a testing ground for innovative practices. The project set up an informative, up-dated, website with links to partners. associated institutions for higher education, school authorities and ENSA. All results, dissemination materials, presentations, recordings from Multiplier Events, and local final evaluations are available on the website. The website will be maintained and edited after the project, ensuring sustainability, and thereby creating a basis for long term improvements. The partnership has created three Intellectual Outputs: 1. A collection of model lessons, "recipe cards", using the integration of programming in the teaching of Mathematics and including three lessons for extra talented students. 2. An online course to support the use and implementation of the model lessons. 3. Guidelines with instructions on how to use the project methodology to produce Math lessons using programming, as well as how new lessons can be included in the collection of model lessons. The project has been continuously monitored and evaluated as part of the process of creating the Intellectual Outputs. The partnership decided to integrate the evaluation process with the production process since the students and some of the teachers that participated differed over time. Six final reports from the teams were submitted with a summary of their process, an evaluation of their results, student and teacher feedback, their own experience and learning outcomes. The faculty for teacher training at the University of Uppsala provided support and advice, thereby contributing towards quality assurance. The feed-back from all persons involved in the project is very positive. Students want more of programming in the teaching of Mathematics. Teachers found the material very useful and want to learn more. A significant number of dissemination activities have been carried out throughout the project. It has entailed presentations and workshops where teachers had the possibility to test the lessons, develop programming skills, and familiarise themselves with the online course. The project’s working process and results have been shared with, and favorably commented by, representatives for bodies for higher education affiliated to the partner organisations and responsible authorities on local, regional, and national levels. This is expected to have an impact on the materials used to promote the integration of programming in the teaching of Mathematics. Thereby it has the potential to influence the development of the national curricula. The project’s results and methodology were presented at five Multiplier Events reaching teachers and other representatives from the educational systems in the partner countries. A sixth Multiplier Event had to be cancelled due to Covid-19. It was planned to take place in Brussels addressing a larger international audience with representatives from several countries and regions.