Culturally Diverse Approaches to Learning Mathematics and Computational Thinking

Culturally Diverse Approaches to Learning Mathematics and Computational Thinking (No. NPHZ-2018/10063)

Projekto laikotarpis: nuo 2018-05-01 iki 2020-08-31

Finansavimo šaltinis: Nordplus Horizontal

About the project

Mathematics and Informatics (Computer Science) are two core subjects that are central in ensuring that deep understanding and use of digital competencies are accessible to everybody. The revised Mathematics 2030 learning framework for PISA includes Computational Thinking (CT) and system thinking into mathematical literacy.

The objectives of the Nordplus project and network were to build a body of knowledge and enhance e-learning to allow promoting innovative, interactive and inclusive learning of mathematics and Computational Thinking as an integral part of informatics education through a systematic exchange of experience between Nordic-Baltic partner countries with different cultural background. The fundamentals of mathematics, informatics and computational thinking are learnt and taught in different ways in the Nordic and Baltic countries. The project was aimed to understand better this diversity and to utilise that knowledge to build flexible multi-cultural support for learning mathematics and informatics using e-learning platforms. Culturally diverse and inclusive approaches to online learning of mathematics and informatics contribute to the democratic goals of enhancing access to education and technical careers.

The project partner institutions (four universities: Bergen, Turku, Vilnius, and KTH Royal institute of technology; and two schools: Nummenpakan in Finland and Klaipeda Gedminu in Lithuania) investigated culturally different approaches to reasoning in mathematics and CT, created a set of innovative informatics tasks that were translated into three languages, made these innovative tasks available both electronically (in ViLLE platform) and in printed form (like Bebras task cards), and developed school teachers' professional competence through training/workshops (mainly online due to covid-19).

The project partners established an excellent network among participating countries and contributed to the digital competence education of teachers in their countries. The project partners published 16 research papers and made over 10 presentations at international conferences in connection to the project results.

Despite the pandemic and the lockdown situation in the countries, the project partners have succeeded to establish an excellent network of four universities and two schools in mathematics and informatics education. The research plan of the eAssessment in mathematics and CT was elaborated and contextualised to local needs. Researchers will continue the work with ViLLE and observe pupils’ progression in learning mathematics and CT.

Project consortium

Coordinator:
Vilnius University (LT)

Partners:
University of Turku (FI)
Universitetet i Bergen (NO)
KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
Klaipeda Gedminu progymnasium (LT)
Nummenpakan primary school (FI)

Activities

The project activities were based on two challenges: The ViLLE virtual platform should be extended to focus on Maths exercises developed by University of Turku (ville.utu.fi) and Bebras challenge on Computational Thinking developed by Vilnius university (bebras.org). The Bebras challenge has been a major activity in all the partner countries: Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

The project had three major areas of contribution: (1) Two types of workshops: (a) preparation material for teacher training: ViLLE exercises and Bebras task cards, (b) collaboration on tasks - developing CT tasks; (2) Testing the material developed by the partners in schools participating in the network (Lithuania and Finland); and (3) Dissemination events: local seminars for teachers, school visits, participation in education conferences.

All planned activities are done. Actually we did more activities that it was planned. However we needed to re-plan the onside activities to online activities (March 2020 - June 2021). We had onsite activities as it was planned:

  • Preparation of material for teacher training - workshop at the University of Vilnius, August 2018, 1-2 persons from each partner institution have participated.
  • Computational thinking task development workshop in Lithuania, December 2018, Druskininkai was arranged, 2-3 persons from each partner institution were participated.
  • CT-Workshop and practical school implementation meeting in Turku, May 2019.
  • Participation in International conferences: Constructionism conference in Vilnius, August 21-25, 2018.
  • Conference ICER Helsinki, Finland, 2018. Partners from Vilnius University, University of Turku and KTH were attended and made presentations.
  • Utilization and implementation partner meeting in Gedminu basic school, Klaipeda, Lithuania, October 2019.
  • Local seminars for teachers organized by Vilnius University and University of Turku in September 2019.
  • Online seminars for teachers were organized by partners on September-October 2020 and March-May 2021.

Results and dissemination

The results of the preparedness research has been partially published in the following publications.

  1. Dagienė, V., & Vinikienė, L. (2018). Different cultures - different approaches to reasoning and algorithms // Constructionism 2018: Constructionism, computational thinking and educational innovation: conference proceedings / Edited by V. Dagienė and E. Jasutė. Vilnius: Vilnius University, 738-742. http://www.constructionism2018.fsf.vu.lt/file/repository/Proceeding_2018_Constructionism.pdf
  2. Kurvinen, E., Dagienė, V., & Laakso, M-J. (2018) The impact and effectiveness of technology enhanced mathematics learning // Constructionism 201 : Constructionism, computational thinking and educational innovation: conference proceedings / Edited by V. Dagienė and E. Jasutė. Vilnius: Vilnius University, 351-363. http://www.constructionism2018.fsf.vu.lt/file/repository/Proceeding_2018_Constructionism.pdf
  3. Dagienė, V., & Stupurienė, G. (2018). Short tasks - big ideas: constructive approach for learning and teaching of informatics concepts in primary education // Constructionism 2018: Constructionism, computational thinking and educational innovation: conference proceedings / Edited by V. Dagienė and E. Jasutė. Vilnius: Vilnius University, 169-179. http://www.constructionism2018.fsf.vu.lt/file/repository/Proceeding_2018_Constructionism.pdf>
  4. Juškevičienė, A., & Dagienė, V. (2018). Interconnection between Computational Thinking and Digital Competence // Constructionism2018 : Constructionism, computational thinking and educational innovation: conference proceedings / Edited by V. Dagienė and E. Jasutė. Vilnius: Vilnius University, 305-321. http://www.constructionism2018.fsf.vu.lt/file/repository/Proceeding_2018_Constructionism.pdf
  5. Jevsikova, T., Dagiene, V., Dolgopolovas, V. (2018). Preferences of Novice Software Engineering Students: Temperament Style and Attitudes Towards Programming Activities. Informatics in Schools. Fundamentals of Computer Science and Software Engineering (pp.101-113).
  6. Mannila, L., Nordén, L.-Å., & Pears, A. (2018). Digital Competence, Teacher Self-Efficacy and Training Needs. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER '18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 78–85. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3230977.3230993
  7. Frezza, F., Pears, A., Daniels, M., Kann, V., Kapoor, A., McDermott, R., Peters, A.-K., Wallace, Ch., Sabin,M., & Cajander, Å. (2018). Modeling global competencies for computing education. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2018). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 348–349. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3197091.3205844
  8. Pears, A. N. (2019). Developing Computational Thinking," Fad" or" Fundamental"? Constructivist Foundations 14 (3), 2019
  9. Dagienė, V., Futschek, G., & Stupurienė, G. (2019). Creativity in solving short tasks for learning computational thinking. Constructivist foundations, 14 (3), 382-396.
  10. Dagienė, V., Futschek, G., & Stupurienė, G. (2019). Authors’ response: Concepts of computing in “mind-size bites”. Constructivist foundations, 14(3), 413-415 [Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science); Scopus; ERIH Plus]
  11. Dolgopolovas, V., Dagienė, V., Jasutė, E., & Jevsikova, T. (2019). Design science research for computational thinking in constructionist education: a pragmatist perspective. Problemos, 95, 144-159. doi:10.15388/Problemos.95.12
  12. Dagienė, V., & Futschek, G. (2019). On the way to constructionist learning of computational thinking in regular school settings. Constructivist foundations, 14(3), 231-233 [Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science); Scopus; ERIH Plus] [CiteScore: 1,60; SNIP: 1,188; SJR: 0,408; Q1 (2019, Scopus Sources)]
  13. Pears, A., Barendsen, E., Dagienė, V., Dolgopolovas, V., & Jasutė, E. (2019). Holistic STEAM education through computational thinking: a perspective on training future teachers. In Lecture notes in computer science: vol. 11913. Informatics in schools. New ideas in school informatics: 12th international conference on informatics in schools: situation, evolution, and perspectives, ISSEP 2019, Larnaca, Cyprus, November 18–20, 2019: proceedings (pp. 41-52). Cham: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-33759-9_4
  14. Dagiene, V., Hromkovic J., & Lacher R. (2020). A Two-Dimensional Classification Model for the Bebras Tasks on Informatics Based Simultaneously on Subfields and Competencies, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12518, 42-54, Springer, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-63212-0_4
  15. Dagiene, V., Jevsikova, T., Stupuriene, G., Juskeviciene (2021). Teaching computational thinking in primary schools: Worldwide trends and teachers’ attitudes. Computer Science and Information Systems 2021 OnLine-First Issue 00, 23-33. https://doi.org/10.2298/CSIS201215033D

  16. Hartell, E., Brugge, R., Boberg, A., Kozma, C., & Pears, A. (2021). K-ULF : Creating Research Synergy in the Interface Between School and the Academy. PATT38 Book of Abstracts., 27–28. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-294075

Dissemination

  1. E. Jasute, 2019. Mąstau ir kuriu: informatinio mąstymo ugdymas pradinėse klasėse. Conference "Education Policy in Cultural Contexts: Transmission and/or Transformation". Seminar for teachers. https://fsfeducation.wordpress.com/teachersday/mastau-ir-kuriu-informatinio-mastymo-ugdymas-pradinese-klasese/
  2. A. Juškevičienė, 2019. Informatinio mąstymo ugdymas pasitelkus šiuolaikines technologijas. Conference "Education Policy in Cultural Contexts: Transmission and/or Transformation". Seminar for teachers. https://fsfeducation.wordpress.com/teachersday/informatinio-mastymo-ugdymas-pasitelkus-siuolaikines-technologijas/
  3. Nordplus on Vilnius university website. https://www.fsf.vu.lt/mokslas/projektai/tarptautiniai-projektai/nordplus?layout=edit&id=2794=culturally-diverse-approaches-to-learning-mathematics-and-computational-thinking-2#project-consortium
  4. Booth in The Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference 2020. https://hopin.com/events/fie2020#booths
  5. Presentations:

a. Using exercises in VILLE to teach CT in Schools. - Turku University, Finland.
b. Cultural dimensions of Mathematics and and CT in learning and teaching - Arnold Pears

Presentations at international conferences:

  1. Bebras: Computer Science Challenge as a Valuable Learning Experience. International IT teacher seminar, India, 2020 October 31 (online).
  2. Building Digital Competencies: Keep Balance. International CS teachers seminar, Indonesia. 2020 October 17 (online).
  3. Computational Thinking Education: Challenges. International Teacher Forum, Hong Kong, 2020 August 8 (online).
  4. How to teach informatics and problem solving. International workshop on computational thinking, Singapore, 2020 February 28.
  5. Computational Thinking and STEM education, International conference on STEM education, Chaing Mai, Thailand, 2020 February 14-15.
  6. Informatics Education: A Taxonomy for the Bebras tasks. International Informatics Education workshop, Pitztahl, Austria, 2020 February 4-8.
  7. How to teach informatics concepts and problem solving with Bebras tasks. International Teacher workshop informatics education, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, 2020 February 3.
  8. Bebras Countries Report: Overview. International seminar on creating informatics tasks, Dajeon, South Korea, 2020, May 18-22 (online).
  9. Computational Thinking for All: What it is about? International Conference in Hong Kong, 2019 June 11-17 d.
  10. Computational Thinking and Bebras Model. International Conference: Education and Technology. Salerno university, Italy, 2019, November
  11. Computational Thinking – a Competence of XXIst century. Lviv, Ukraina, 2019 m. April
  12. Informatics Education in Europe. ETH, Zurich, 2019 January.
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