The project members of ‘Visualising learning goals for mathematics’ came together at the Coornhert Gymnasium in Gouda to celebrate the start of their co-creation project on the 30th of September. It turned into a nice and productive meeting for the participants from StOVOG, Universiteit Utrecht, Numworx and NOLAI. “It was fun to look everyone in the eyes and feel the energy: now we begin.”
Co-creation project ‘Visualising learning goals for mathematics’ started
Mathematics teachers at the Coornhert Gymnasium in Gouda use self-designed course materials in order to enrich their classes. Do these private materials sufficiently align with the learning goals and are these goals achieved? AI provides clarity. “The personal nature of the classes causes them to become more interesting and efficient.”
Forty years of knowledge regarding mathematics education
Martijn Koper and Ron Dames, mathematics teachers and participants of this co-creation, share a long history together. Ron has been a teacher for forty years and even taught mathematics to Martijn. “I already had a great connection with Ron as a student, and it is amazing to go into this project with him. He has immense knowledge due to his many years of experience and he therefore knows exactly what the students need to learn mathematics,” Martijn says.
Meanwhile, he has been a teacher for fourteen years. In his starting years, he saw the great need for adapted course material, and together with Ron he made assignments for the students. “Initially it was a book in the form of a Word document. Later, we turned it into a website with video explanations and games that made the assignments more lively. My employment history includes some time as a web developer, so Ron mainly arranged the knowledge aspect and I worked on its presentation. It is great fun to develop methods with him that you can immediately use. You figure out what works and what you need to adjust, and that means it has its ups and downs,” Martijn explains.
The complexity of the mathematics exercises causes some difficulties in regards to checking if the learning goals are achieved sufficiently. Martijn explains: “A calculation includes various components that a student needs to master to get to the correct solution. If an answer is incorrect, it’s useful to know what component of the exercise the student hasn’t mastered yet. AI can make this visible in a model, which would allow you to see how each student is doing in achieving their learning goals.”
Digital learning environment
The Coornhert Gymnasium uses the Digital Mathematics Environment by Numworx in their curriculum. This is how Ron and Martijn met Peter Boon. He is the director of this web-based mathematics platform, and he is also the project leader of this co-creation. Peter was a mathematics teacher for twelve years. Ever since, he has been trying to make mathematics classes more fun with the help of computer software as an educational developer at the Freudenthal Institute. “Twenty-five years ago I started developing new learning activities that you can’t do on paper. We started building web pages that allowed you to hold and expand mathematical 3D constructions. Later, I worked on an online learning environment for mathematics, which allowed you to integrate these fun elements into the classes, as opposed to just using them as an extra activity for the last day of school before the holidays,” Peter laughs.
"After all, you don’t just want to know what a student does, but also what a student learns. That means you need to keep an eye on the learning goals.”
“The role of AI became more prominent when we used handwriting recognition to digitise mathematical formulas. Afterwards, we developed tools to test the students and we delved deep into the technology to build a proper learning goals system. After all, you don’t just want to know what a student does, but also what a student learns. That means you need to keep an eye on the learning goals.
Graphical overview connection learning goals
Peter explains how these goals are interconnected, and he shows how you can visualise this. “In a network, a so-called graph, points indicate which learning goals the students need to achieve. For some goals, prior knowledge is required. You can indicate those connections with arrows in the network. If a goal has been completed, then it is very likely that a student has also mastered the underlying goals, and thus that part of the graph will turn green. This allows the teacher to see if students have mastered the material, or in what areas the student needs some extra guidance. Teachers can connect their own materials to the goals in the graph. The aim is that this will happen automatically via text recognition. This allows you not only to measure the students’ progress, but also to see if the materials match the learning goals.
"I hope that this will give teachers more freedom to shape their classes in their own way, and I believe that this only enriches Dutch education.”
Peter looks forward to the collaboration with a lot of confidence: “I have known the teachers for quite some time, and it is fun to trigger their enthusiasm. They each have their own substantiated arguments to make this project a success, so I am very proud of our team. I hope that this will give teachers more freedom to shape their classes in their own way, and I believe that this only enriches Dutch education.”
Contact information
- Organizational unit
- National Education Lab AI (NOLAI)
- Theme
- Artificial intelligence (AI), Education
