Award for TU Dortmund University’s Math Teaching Concept

The teaching concept

As all performance assessment studies show: Students with low language proficiency are unable to learn as much in ostensibly non-linguistic subjects, such as mathematics, as their peers who are linguistically more proficient. It is therefore important to foster language proficiency in the teaching of specific subjects. For many years now, Professor Susanne Prediger and her 19-person team at TU Dortmund University have worked hard to identify how this can best be achieved. On the basis of their research, she and her team have developed a teaching concept for language training in mathematics teaching (SiMa) and put it into practice in the shape of teaching materials. The SiMa teaching concept makes it possible for all students not only to learn mathematical rules but also to explain mathematical concepts and use them to argue their case. This is supported by learning situations that involve an extensive use of language and language memories based on graphics.

The training concept

As Deputy Director of the German Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education, Susanne Prediger knows that innovative teaching concepts only then catch on in teaching practice when teachers are also given further training in the new fields. Research was needed for developing the SiMa training concept too, this time regarding the question of what teachers find easy and where they need special support.

“All teachers want to help students with low language proficiency. Some of them, however, only by simplifying the language they use. In our training sessions, we work together on just the opposite: We insist on an extensive use of language so that children must explain and argue their case over and over again, first of all with the help of pictures and in the respective context and only later in a formal way. Teachers reflect on examples and videos and in doing so can learn how to put this into practice,” explains Professor Prediger. In a large-scale field study with 79 classes, her team was indeed able to demonstrate that such language training in mathematics teaching leads to a better performance in mathematics than normal teaching. And this includes those students with low language proficiency – something particularly remarkable.

The prize

The goal of the Polytechnic Prize is to honor education experts nationwide for their outstanding services to the further development of teaching practice. This year, teaching concepts in the STEM subjects were sought which implement a constructive approach to diversity – language competence is an important factor here. “We’re incredibly pleased about the Polytechnic Prize. We feel honored to have been chosen from among the abundance of fantastic and innovative concepts which were nominated. It’s not a matter of course in subject didactics that both our research work and our transfer activities are appreciated in this manner,” said Professor Prediger on behalf of her team.

Professor Jürg Kramer, Director of the German Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education, congratulated Professor Prediger and her team on their success: “The key to SiMa’s success lies in the close dovetailing of design research in the field of subject didactics and practice, that is, collaboration with teachers as well as colleagues from training institutes. This exchange between equals is essential for the successful transfer of knowledge and research results into practice. The SiMa project illustrates this in a very impressive way.”

Background

The SiMa Teaching and Training Concept was developed and tested by Professor Susanne Prediger of TU Dort­mund University. She was appointed as professor at the Institute for Development and Research in Mathematics Education (IEEM) of TU Dortmund University in 2006 and is in charge of the 19-person “MuM” research group, which is concerned with mathematics and multilingualism. She has been Deputy Director of the German Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education since 2017, where together with eight other universities she develops and tests training measures for mathematics teachers in order to help them, in collaboration with institutes at federal state level, to further enhance their teaching. 

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