Objective 1: Our primary objective was to address a pressing need for the development of new methodologies to better utilise the opportunities that ICT in teaching Math could bring. This was articulated throughout the investigations conducted and reported upon by teacher participants.
Objective 2: Our goal was to promote and facilitate transnational teacher development. On reviewing and reflecting upon the impact of this project upon practices as educators all felt that their practice had positively changed. The majority felt that their ability to use ICT was enhanced and that they would wish to pursue this aspect of practice further. A greater sense of mathematical cultural appreciation across countries was achieved alongside a greater awareness of practices across educational phases even within the same country was developed; “A sense of commonality over country borders.”, “good opportunities for co-operation and communication with European partners” “The collaboration in my triad with teachers that work in same grade but also very good discussions with the other triad, it has been very interesting discussions between lower secondary and upper secondary. And also to discover similarities and dissimilarities between the countries curriculum and every day work.“, “Students (teenagers) are the same.”, “discussions during the TEMP meetings with colleagues from different countries as well as lesson observations”. Beyond our expectations participants reported upon the way they had altered their methods of teaching as a result of engaging with the project; “Using flipped classroom with questions as my pre-understanding for planning my lessons.” “I have made changes in my ways of teaching, and hopefully I will continue develop my practice further.” “the flipped learning makes my planning different than before. My expectations on the students change, I expect them to know something when they come to class.” “I have moved towards a more creative way of presenting, assessing and supporting students ever since I started the project. I am highly motivated in continuing to develop my practise and become better in using IT in maths lessons.” and “Although I’m not teaching maths, I have learned new ways of teaching during this project.”
The approaches undertaken to facilitating this project also enabled some educators to recognise that their general teaching skills and soft skills were developed as a result of collaboration with new and ‘different’ peoples, “I’ve learned about some new methods and ideas of teaching and how to increase the interest students have in learning.”, “My social skills were definitely improved and I think I become a better person.” “improved skills in communication, collaboration and professional knowledge”. All participants reported an increased knowledge of using IT tools within mathematics when compared to the baseline questionnaire. This increase was the most within the Romanian and UK triad. This was matched by a reported increase in confidence in using IT tools within the teaching of Math.
We also sought to have broader impact and to achieve this we developed and disseminated resources others could access and use. We worked to develop and trial these resources before reporting on them through presentations and through a final written report. We have made all presentations and reports available through our project website to enable interested parties to understand the process that led to the final tools. These final tools have taken the form of ‘Recipe Cards’, step by step guides on using a developed tool within the Math classroom. These cards have been written for teachers by teachers and have been placed upon our website so that access is available to all. These cards also represent the collaborative efforts of all transnational partners through this programme of teacher development.
Objective 3: Address the emerging disparity within rates of progress between Boys and Girls in Mathematics with a particular focus upon learner engagement. The tool developed by each triad had a particular focus on increasing engagement. Throughout the evaluation phase students voice was collected to ascertain the extent to which the tools increased engagement in and out of the class. Evidence, available within the presentations and final reports, indicates that the application of flipped learning using the Zaption and Screencast-O-Matic tools had a positive impact on student engagement with learning Math independently at home and then in class when class based activities responded to the assessed outcomes of these online activities.
Project T.E.M.P 