Workshop by the German-Taiwanese research program TaiGer
A total of 21 researchers from Taiwan, Germany and Switzerland met for a virtual workshop on October 26th , 2022. In short presentations and workgroup phases, they jointly presented and reflected on the status of the results achieved so far in the "Taiwanese-German Research Program on Cultural-Societal Influences on Mathematics Education", TaiGer for short.
The binational research program was initiated in 2016 by Prof. Dr. Aiso Heinze, Director of the Department of Mathematics Education at the IPN, and Prof. Dr. Kai-Lin Yang from the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei (Taiwan). Within the framework of a project initiation workshop in Taipei, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), seven research teams with scientists from six Taiwanese, one Swiss and ten German universities met to investigate questions concerning mathematics learning comparatively in Taiwan and Germany. The two countries are especially suited as they have major cultural differences that have implications for school learning and educational traditions in mathematics. Mathematics education research questions from the elementary level to teacher education have been addressed in empirical studies in binational research projects since 2017.
Interesting results obtained so far were published in scientific journals and presented for discussion at conferences, despite the restrictions caused by the pandemic. For example, a project on estimating lengths in elementary school showed how the different mathematics curricula and teaching approaches in Taiwan and Germany are reflected in the acquired competencies of elementary school children. To what extent the different cultural norms influence the question of what is considered "good mathematics teaching" could be identified in another project on the teaching perceptions of mathematics teachers as well as mathematics teachers. The participants of the TaiGer workshop agreed that the joint work should continue. In addition, initial ideas emerged on how the results of the research program can be summarized in a book.
Please see the website for an overview of the TaiGer program.
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