ESF initiative to re-energise mathematics teaching

August 30, 2008 Mathematics is the only truly universal language. It describes the world and facilitates the vast majority of our advances in understanding. Mathematics underpins education: the only surefire cure to the world’s ills. Mathematics teaching is as vital as ever both in support of key fields such as life sciences, alternative energy development, or information technology, and also through its unique ability to develop problem solving skills. It should be highly relevant not just for the elite few but for all people in education. Recent research has shown that school students’ mathematical achievement is directly influenced by the students’ beliefs about mathematics and its teaching, teachers’ beliefs about mathematics and its teaching, and the ways in which teachers initiate and sustain learning opportunities. An attempt to re-energise mathematics teaching in Europe is being made in a new European Science Foundation (ESF) project examining a range of factors thought to influence achievement.

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