Personality, learning approaches and teaching styles in undergraduate mathematics - PLATSUM

Project facts

Project promoter:
Brno University of Technology
Project Number:
CZ07-0292
Target groups
Teachers, trainers, managers, leaders and other staff within higher education institutions
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€51,887
Final project cost:
€49,469
From Norway Grants:
€ 39,838
The project is carried out in:
ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA

Description

The aim of the project is to strengthen collaboration between the Czech Republic and Norway by proceeding in current collaboration of mathematics educators and researchers from Brno University of Technology (BUT) and University of Agder (UiA). Collaboration between BUT and UiA is based on the exchange of knowledge and experience in education, research, management and social aspects of academia. The institutions involved in the project will focus on research based on the proposal of Norwegian colleagues studying correlations between study results and personality types of students. This institutional cooperation project should result in submission of joint research papers to reputable international journals and in joint presentation of the project and its outcomes at academic events like symposia, workshops, seminars and conferences. Special attention will be paid to important social aspects including promotion of social and economic sustainability in education and science.

Summary of project results

The aim of the project was to extend bilateral cooperation between the Czech Republic (BUT) and Norway (UiA) at several levels with the focus on research in mathematics education. Development in bilateral cooperation was achieved by joint participation of both partner institutions in all activities of the project. The absolutely most important benefit was the extended bilateral collaboration of partner institutions which involved more participants than before, which means that the collaboration has developed into more sustainable relationship. Presentations and reports are freely available on the project website: https://www.ceitec.eu/platsum/

Summary of bilateral results

In recent decades, educators teaching mathematics at university level reported a significant decline of mathematical skills among the students coming to the universities in many European countries. As a reaction, some countries started to develop the so-called „Mathematics and Statistics Support Centres“. This solution, although successful, is addressing the consequence, not the cause of the so-called „Mathematics Problem“ issue. There was a need to investigate this issue in view of recent results obtained by a group of Norwegian scientists led by Professors Solve Saebo and Helge Brovold. Further, in 2015 BUT got support from Norway Grants for project METMAS (NF-CZ07-ICP-3-201-2015). After start of this project, a need for stronger cooperation on all levels of tertiary education (sharing experience, knowledge and ideas in mathematics and mathematics education) was identified. Therefore, BUT and UiA applied for another grant (ICP Project) as a convenient tool to fulfill these needs.