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

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. 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)

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

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

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.

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.

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. 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. 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.

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 Community’s potentially talented/competent students in mathematics.

1. CYPRUS (INTERCOLLEGE) 2. BULGARIA (ACADEMY OF SCIENCES) 3. CYPRUS (UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS) 4. CZECH REPUBLIC (CHARLES UNIVERSITY) 5. GERMANY(UNIVERSITY DUISBURG-ESSEN) 6. GREECE (UNIVERSITY OF CRETE) 7. ITALY (UNIVERSITY OF PALERMO) 8. ROMANIA (NORTH UNIVERSITY) 9. U.K. (UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON) PARTNERSHIP

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