EUROPEAN PROJECT : MATHEU

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EUROPEAN PROJECT MATHEU IDENTIFICATION,
MOTIVATION AND SUPPORT OF MATHEMATICAL TALENTS IN
EUROPEAN SCHOOLS
By Gregory Makrides Coordinator of the MATHEU
project and Emilia Velikova MASSEE
Representative in the project
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MATH.EU
In many European schools the mathematics
curriculum is designed to serve the average and
special needs students without identifying and
supporting potentially talented/competent
students in mathematics. The aim of this project
is to develop methods and educational tools,
which will help the educators to identify and
motivate talented students in mathematics as well
as to support their development within the
European Community without any discrimination.
The project intends to merge forces and
establish a network through the Mathematical
Societies and universities in the European area
to support the aims of the project as well as to
use new technologies in the support,
dissemination and sustainability of the developed
structure of cooperation.
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MATH.EU
The main activities of the project will be

• Analysis of the flexibility of existing
  mathematics curricula in European Schools with
  emphasis in the partner countries focusing on the
  aspect of talented students

• Analysis of methods and tools used in European
  countries for the identification, motivation and
  support of talented students in mathematics

• Design methods and tools for identifying
  potentially talented students in both primary and
  secondary education levels and for training
  teachers so that they can bring the students to
  express their 'talent' in mathematics (talent as
  ability to face and solve problematic situation
  and to appreciate the role of theoretical
  thought)

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MATH.EU

• Design methods and tools for identifying
  potentially talented students in both primary and
  secondary education levels and for training
  teachers so that they can bring the students to
  express their 'talent' in mathematics (talent as
  ability to face and solve problematic situation
  and to appreciate the role of theoretical thought)

• Develop methods/solutions and a programme for
  changing attitudes within government ,
  universities and foundations in providing
  fellowships and support in order to keep
  mathematical brains in Europe

• Design a special Web-site devoted to this
  project which will enable the sustainability of
  the project aims

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MATH.EU
Main outcomes will be

• A European Manual with methods and tools for
  identifying, motivating and supporting talented
  students in mathematics

• An information programme for government,
  universities and foundations

• A training course for both primary and secondary
  school educators for identifying and developing
  talented students in mathematics

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MATH.EU
The project will contribute to a brain
gain-effect for the European Community and will
help in the aims of the Education Council of the
European Union as agreed on 12 February 2001 in
Stockholm to set mathematics as one of the major
priority subjects.
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MATH.EU current developments
The Concept of a Ladder
A ladder in this case is a self-contained
mathematical text, focused on a specific topic,
which could be used by teachers or by students in
their work in and beyond the classroom. In
essence the ladder is a sequence of mathematical
problems, explanations and questions for
self-testing ordered in slowly increasing degree
of difficulty.
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The Concept of a Ladder
MATH.EU
By working on the text the student could elevate
his/her mathematical knowledge to essentially
higher levels. This is where the name ladder
comes from a device for climbing to a higher
level, an instrument facilitating the process of
overcoming different difficulties. Using the
ladder the students (but also their teachers)
could enrich, deepen and test their knowledge on
a specific mathematical topic. The lower part of
the ladder is rooted in the normal curriculum
material studied in the class. As steps one has
the mathematical problems, definitions and
explanations, pieces of information and other
challenges that the learner has to master in
order to acquire the higher level of
understanding the material. Depending on their
individual abilities the students will advance
i.e. climb to different heights on the ladder.
The degree of advancement will single out higher
ability students. Therefore the ladders will help
identify talented students too.
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The Concept of a Ladder
If the ladder is well designed and consists of
interesting and challenging problems, it will
attract and motivate the students to apply more
time and energy in studying mathematics.
It is important to design the ladders in such a
way that the level of difficulty increases slowly
(a small distance between two consecutive steps)
and the students are capable of climbing the
steps even without the help of the teacher. The
definitions and the explanations should help this
happen. The presence of questions and problems
the solution of which is commented later will
allow the student to check whether or not he/she
understands what is going on.
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The Concept of a Ladder

• The Manual that the Project MATHEU has to produce
  and present to EU at its final stage could be a
  set of such ladders. Offered to students in and
  beyond the classroom the ladders in the Manual
  will serve all the purposes of the Project
  Identification, Motivation and Support of
  mathematical talent.

Last but not least offering ladders to students
and teachers will not require restructuring of
the whole educational process in school. It is
close to some traditional practices which were
abandoned in the last decades. The perturbation
(if any) of the normal educational process will
be small and, correspondingly, the level of
resistance on the side of teachers and school
authorities minimal.
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Target Groups
All mathematics educators at all educational
levels (primary and secondary) associated with
the partner institutions will directly benefit.
Educators in other areas may also benefit as the
methods and tools for identifying mathematical
talented students could also be used to identify
talented students in other subjects. Through the
dissemination process individual educators from
all countries in the European Community and
beyond as well as educator staff of educational
authorities will benefit from the outcomes of
this project through their participation in the
training course to be offered under Comenius
Action 2.2. Finally, the largest group to benefit
is the European Communitys potentially
talented/competent students in mathematics.
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PARTNERSHIP
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Contact
www.matheu.org Email makrides.g_at_intercollege.ac.c
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