• Background of the course
• The course
• Philosophy of the course
• Course 2008
  • Organisational matters, January 2008
• Previous courses 2006, 2007 - lists of participants
  • Course 2006
  • Course 2007
• Course 2007
  • Programme January 2007
• What did participants say about the course?
• Photogallery
  • Life Of course
  • Previous course - January 2004
  • Previous course - January 2005
  • Previous course - January 2006
• Archive - Project EMTISM 1999 - 2002
  • Co-ordinating Institutions and Project Partners
  • Rationale and Background of the Project
  • Final Reports
• Registration
• Contact

Background of the course

The course which is being offered is the result of three years research and development which took place from 1999 to 2002 and was funded by an EU Socrates/Comenius grant.

The institutions involved in the course are:

Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Praha, Czech Republic

The Faculty of Education, Charles University Prague, is one of the main providers for teacher education within the Czech Republic. It is also the main centre for research work in mathematical education with a considerable number of successful PhD students each year. Members of the Mathematics and Mathematical Education Department have experience of teaching in primary and secondary schools together with the provision of in-service courses in many parts of the country. Members also have worked with teachers in other countries notably Slovakia and Poland. Recent research has led to the development of new methods of constructive teaching. For many years there has been strong international links with a considerable number of countries, particularly within Europe. Members of the department hold positions of responsibility in European and international mathematical associations.

University of Derby, United Kingdom

 University of Derby has been involved with in-service training of teachers for over 40 years. It has been responsible with the local education authority for servicing teachers' needs in the whole region. It has been a provider of teacher education for almost 150 years and during that time has developed many links with institutions overseas and particularly through Erasmus supported funding. The Mathematics and Mathematics Education Department was at the forefront of the United Kingdom's development of constructive teaching methods from the mid 1960's, and has worked at international, national, regional and local levels to bring about positive changes in the teaching of mathematics. These developments were underpinned by extensive research.

The modules which make up the course have been produced by members of the above institutions who have been working on in-service provision for teachers for many years both within their own countries and internationally. The philosophy of the members of the project concerning teaching and learning was in accord and is as follows:

It is their experience that the current teaching of mathematics is too instructive, that is, it is an imitative way of processing and reproducing knowledge of mathematics. This produces at best a passive attitude towards the subject but more generally a negative one. There is a considerable body of international research to support this statement.

Much research has been undertaken together with work done in the classroom to try to overcome this problem. The project team believe that working with teachers is the most appropriate way of achieving the best and quickest way of making changes to improve the situation. They have arrived at the conclusion that teaching should be based on a constructive epistemology of learning, which produces creative activities and a deep understanding of mathematics. This change should produce a more positive attitude towards mathematics in students together with an increased enjoyment in the subject for them. The course content and teaching strategies are based on this premise.

The course has already taken place on eight different occasions between 2001 and 2007.

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