3/14/2011

BudapesteTwinning Conference 2011

Maria Teresa AsprellaRosanna RussoIrina Vasilescu

Challenging pupils with Maths in eTwinning

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

`And you do Addition?' the White Queen asked. `What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?'`I don't know,' said Alice. `I lost count.'`She can't do Addition,' the Red Queen interrupted. `Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight.'`Nine from eight I can't, you know,' Alice replied very readily: `but -- '`She can't do Subtraction,' said the White Queen.

(Lewis Carrol - Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There)

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

How eTwinning can help us motivate students in the study

of Mathematics

• Enhances collaborative learning and learning communities, i.e. PEER EDUCATION

• Promotes a “multiple-intellingences” approach to teaching, involving students’ different skills

• Uses ICT naturally

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

Why do students find the study of Maths boring?

Because it is taught as: • Static• Far from everyday life• Mechanic• Ripetitive

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

Maths, instead, can be very INTERESTING

It • Is creative• Makes difficult situations simple• Is dynamic/ever changing• Is flexible• Can surprise us• Is fun• Is intriguing • Makes us curious• Is part of the world cultural heritage

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

CREATIVITYCarroll’s story seemed to us a good starting point, because it exalts fantasy with its numerous Maths allusions.

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

CURIOSITYIn the sections Strange Maths and Alice’s Maths of Maths in Wonderl@nd students have enjoyed looking for and solving strange Maths riddles and they have played with paradoxes, special numbers, odd coincidences…

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

EVERY DAY MATHSFor example, Maths has been applied to biology studies and daily situations.http://magazinefactory.edu.fi/magazines/mathsinwonderland/?str=40&artCat=1&artID=77

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

PERSONAL/DIFFERENT SOLUTIONSMaths games are a wonderful resource. Two or more teams can solve riddles using different/original/personal ways/methods/ strategies/ideas/reasoning. After, they can compare solutions and learn DIVERGENCE.

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

CHALLENGING EACH OTHERMutual challenges can make the collaboration more active and enhance the students’ motivation and competition spirit. Their teamwork skills will also be stimulated. Our students challenged each other both in the blog and in the audioblog.

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

GENDERGender mainstreaming is a EU priority! The project has made students aware of stereotypes in the scientific field (are girls worse than boys at Maths??).

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

Biographies of Women mathematicians have helped students see that the history of Maths has also been made by intelligent and bright women!

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

EMOTIONAL FOCUSMaths can be made “emotional” if teachers show it has been created by persons and has changed in time, if students read about personal stories of men and women mathematicians, their difficulties ...In the section History of Maths students have found about the history of PI, they have studied about Phythagoras’s ideas and have “performed” the crisis of his science.

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

PERFORMING MATHSMaking videos has made learning more effective and “active”. Conventional teaching asks students to STUDY topics. Maths in Wonderl@nd has asked students to “DRAMATIZE” learning, to put themselves in scientists’ shoes, to make Maths experiences, experiments, personal tragedies “live”...

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

CLIL AND EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIPStudying Maths in a second language is not so common in our schools. Etwinning promotes L2 empowerment by offering students and teachers occasions to use it in communicative and real contexts. Communication is understanding and dialogue.

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

ICT ROLE ICT has made students and teachers from distant

countries collaborate and work together by creating cooperative learning environments.

It has empowered different forms of communication: audiofiles, videos, images, magazines, animations.

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

NEW TOOLS AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES By using the tools they are familiar with, students’

involvement can be enhanced Mobile technologies allow them to study anywhere,

anytime, at their own pace. This is what we tried to do with our iPod Maths.

Which alternative approaches with eTwinning?

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

ConclusionsDue to the specific features of Math projects and to the “arid” nature of the subject, they should have an incentive aspect, that can be achieved though the types of activities that are planned, the degree of collaboration and the tools that are used.

Mathematics can thus become a “vehicle” for learning about the partners and for the mutual understanding of their cultural environment. Moreover, it will no longer be just a rubric in the timetable, but a learner-friendly school subject.

3/14/2011 eTwinning Conference, Budapest

THANK YOU!