MAP
Mathematics with Perspective

Supported by INTERREG 4 A Syddanmark-Schleswig-K.E.R.N. with funding from the European Regional Development Fund

MaP - Mathematik mit Perspektive/Matematik med perspektiv is a unique collaboration between the central scientific educational institutions in the Syddanmark-Schleswig-K.E.R.N. region. The project aims to develop a permanent mathematics support program - tailored to Schleswig-Holstein and Syddanmark - that will further develop and integrate successful concepts in both countries by overcoming national educational policy boundaries. In doing so, the project focuses on training and further education opportunities for teaching staff, developed cooperatively, implemented across borders and introduced into the education policy debate with respect to the need for professionalization. This will sustainably improve mathematics education and at the same time support the professionalization of continuing education in the education sector.

Objectives of the project

MaP's primary goal is to increase the level of mathematical education among the population. This will help eliminate the shortage of skilled workers in the STEM professions and, as a result, sustainably improve the conditions for economic development in the Syddanmark-Schleswig-K.E.R.N. region. The central strategy for the duration of the project is to professionalize the training and further education of teachers and educators in childcare facilities. Activities are provided directly for this purpose. Furthermore, the development of new innovative concepts to improve the quality of training and further education offers in the program area will be initiated in transnational sub-projects with the aim of further developing the informal further education sector into a professional employment sector.

Bi-national cooperation will be strengthened to achieve these goals by using the opportunity to learn from each other through cross-border exchange. Cross-border activities are therefore a key characteristic of MaP:

• learning about successful and innovative concepts of education and training and professional practice from Schleswig-Holstein and Syddanmark
• participating in such concepts in the binational exchange between Schleswig-Holstein and Syddanmark
• adapting and implementing suitable concepts for initial and further training courses from Schleswig-Holstein and Syddanmark in the respective other country
• jointly developing new structural measures to improve the quality of education and training courses in the program area by integrating the existing knowledge resources in Schleswig-Holstein and Syddanmark, also involving decision-makers from education policy and education administration.

Target group of MaP

MAP primarily targets math teachers from all types of schools and educational staff in daycare centers. By focusing on teachers from all childhood and youth educational institutions, multipliers are reached who can better foster the mathematical skills of a large group of kindergarten children and students in the Syddanmark-Schleswig-K.E.R.N. region over the long term throughout their educational biography and awaken and increase their interest in mathematics. As a result, significantly greater effects can be expected than with projects that address individual groups of students. As further training often takes place in the form of school-internal, non-subject-specific further training events, MaP also offers a necessary and attractive subject-specific supplement to the existing further training offer. It goes above and beyond the existing offerings in that it takes cross-border concepts into account and includes best-practice models from both countries.

Project partner

IPN, Department Mathematics Education (Leadpartner):
Prof. Dr. Aiso Heinze, Dr. Maike Vollstedt, Insa Schnittjer, Dr. Birte Niebuhr

Institut für die Qualitätsentwicklung an Schulen in Schleswig-Holstein (IQSH):
Helmut Mittelmann, Thorsten Dwinger

Syddansk Universitet Odense, Center for Naturvidenskabernes og Matematikkens Didaktik:
Assoc. Prof. Ph.D Claus Michelsen, Ph.D. Thomas Albrechtsen

University College Lillebælt:
Mie Engelbert Jensen

Universität Flensburg, Institut für Mathematik und ihre Didaktik:
Prof. Dr. Hinrich Lorenzen, Malte Wellnitz

Kiel University, Department of Mathematics:
Dr. Barbara Langfeld