Multiculturalism, Migration, Mathematics Education and Language - Teachers' Needs and Teaching Materials

The multicultural nature of modern society constitutes one of the most significant changes to have influenced schools in many European countries, especially at primary and middle school level. The teacher’s job is all the more difficult because he/she is usually not sufficiently prepared to deal with the new classroom context with pupils having a migrant background, coming from countries with different cultures and different languages. The teacher is seldom aware of the need to rethink and if necessary modify his/her methodological and pedagogical approach. This attitude is even more evident in maths teachers who often consider their subject universal and culture-free. Little has been done in Europe as far as maths teaching in multicultural contexts is concerned. The different languages and cultures present in the classroom make the teaching/learning process even more arduous than it already is, especially for pupils from minority cultures and/or with a migrant background or for Roma pupils. This project envisages the design and piloting of materials for both the initial and in-service training of middle school maths teachers who constitute the project’s primary target group. The secondary target group is their pupils, in particular those from other cultures. The materials have been produced after careful analysis of the video recordings of teaching activities. Their focus was also on the role of language in the communication of mathematical concepts and their aim was to stimulate the maths teacher’s awareness of the need to find a satisfactory balance between mathematical language and classroom language, especially when dealing with pupils with a different culture and language. The project’s training proposals aimed at promoting maths teaching strategies which are relevant to activities and problems taken from everyday life including that of different cultures in order to highlight their positive aspects

An introduction to TWG25: Inclusive mathematics education – challenges for students with special needs

Inclusive mathematics education is a complex and multifaceted, under-researched area where research often requires collaboration between various fields of study – mathematics education, special education, pedagogy, psychology, etc. The Thematic Working Group ‘TWG25 – Challenges for Students with Special Needs’, established in 2019, is one of the platforms opening up space for collaborative research in this area. This means that TWG25 embraces research in very different fields of mathematics, research from the point of view of teachers, pupils, teacher education and classroom practices at all school levels from preschool education to upper secondary, even university level. The presented papers and posters give the opportunity to share but also to grow aware of what the field of inclusive mathematics education involves in an international context. Apart from the topics of the single papers and posters more general questions of inclusive mathematics are discussed in this introduction.

Multiculturalism in theory and teachers’ practice

The paper presents interim results of an international research study focusing on the issue of multiculturalism in mathematics education. A questionnaire was developed and administered in six European countries with the goal of mapping teachers’ experience with and opinions on teaching mathematics in multicultural classes. The paper presents analysis of answers in the six European countries and compares the differences in experience, opinions and needs of teachers in these countries

MaT\ub2SMC: materials for teaching together: science andmMathematics teachers collaborating for better results

Let us start with an important statement: Mathematics and Science teachers do a good, and often an outstanding, job in teaching young people the basic knowledge of their respective fields! It is not the intent of this book to criticize what they do or how they do it. Keeping that in mind, and noting the fact that the teaching content of these fields intersects and overlaps, we observed \u2013 and this took us by surprise \u2013 that there is hardly any collaboration or consultancy between mathematics and science teachers (or textbook authors). Mathematics teachers often use science contexts in tasks, and science teachers often use mathematics, however they are usually working independently. Science context is often arbitrarily chosen, mathematics used with little regard towards learning. Looking through existing teaching and learning materials, we quickly discovered that these materials, too, were mostly designed by either science, or mathematics educators, and that they do not offer active support or lots of opportunities for collaboration. Being an international team of mathematics and science teacher educators, we set out to improve the situation. We developed materials that are useful for both mathematics and science teachers, materials that are designed to increase the competences in both subjects at the same time, allowing for interdisciplinary learning and for collaboration between science and mathematics teachers, ranging from common lesson planning to team teaching. These materials have been piloted and tested by students, teachers and teacher educators in several countries, as well as reviewed by two education specialists. Based on this feedback, the materials were then revised and brought into their final form. The materials in this book, containing lesson descriptions, work sheets etc., can be used as they are by mathematics and science teachers. They however also can be taken apart and set together in a new and different way, or bits and pieces of them can be used in teaching, as the teachers see fit. They also can be used in teacher training, making science and mathematics teacher trainees aware that working together \u2013 now and in their later careers \u2013 can improve their experience and the learning of their future students. We hope that with this book we encourage teachers to actively seek collaboration, so regardless whether you are a science or a mathematics teacher, go ahead and join forces with a colleague from the other field