The Effect of Teacher Beliefs on Student Competence in Mathematical Modeling – An Intervention Study

This paper presents an intervention study whose aim was to promote teacher beliefs about mathematics and learning mathematics and student competences in mathematical modeling. In the intervention, teachers received written curriculum materials about mathematical modeling. The concept underlying the materials was based on constructivist ideas and findings from mathematics education. Teacher beliefs about mathematics, learning and self-efficacy were expected to have a major impact on their classroom practices. We therefore assessed teacher beliefs about the usefulness of mathematics, learning (constructivist and socio-constructivist beliefs) and teacher self-efficacy when teaching modeling (teacher or class level variable). The student level variables assessed were modeling competence and other individual factors, such as basic mathematical skills and cognitive abilities. The effectiveness of the intervention was measured in a pre-post control group design using multilevel structural equation modeling. The results showed no direct effect of the intervention on student modeling competence. However, they did reveal that the intervention had a significant effect on teacher beliefs about learning (constructivist and socio-constructivist view) and an effect of these teacher beliefs about learning on student modeling competence. Further, the results showed that students’ gains in modeling competence is not only mediated by teacher beliefs, but also influenced by individual factors. Implications for teaching as well as limitations of the study are discussed

Scaling up Innovative Teaching Approaches in Mathematics: Supporting Teachers to Take up a New Role as Professional Development Course Leaders for Inquiry-Based Learning

This paper reports on a professional development activity (PD) for course leaders, which was designed within the European project Primas (2010-13, www.primas-project.eu). Primas aimed at the implementation of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in day-to-day teaching on a large scale. The focus is on the education of mathematics course leaders in Germany, who were all teachers. In order to support them in taking up their role and run courses on (IBL), a course leader seminar following design research was developed. The course aimed at course leaders’ learning on two levels: (1) as mathematics teachers about IBL and (2) as course leaders about running PD on IBL. A small scale retrospective interview study gives insights into the needs the participants face when learning about IBL as teachers and when learning as future course leaders. It also illuminates in which way participants took up their role as a course leader. These insights suggest how to optimize the course following design research

Die komplexe Virosphäre von Knoblauch (Allium sativum)

Der Virusstatus und die Ertragsstabilität der für den ökologischen Anbau interessanten Knoblauchsorten und Herkünfte wurde bestimmt sowie der Einfluss des Virusbefalls auf den Knollenertrag und -qualität ermittelt