Update April 8, 2009  



News from
Hartwig Meissner

There is a Homepage summarizing the work from Hartwig Meissner and his team since the seventies at the Westf. Wilhelms-University in Muenster. Here we will report from more recent events.


1. Projects

There were two empirical investigations in primary schools, one in geometry education and one in arithmetic education. Both projects are finished now.

Project "Village"
          We taught our unit "We Build a Village" in eight courses (3rd-graders, primary school). This sequence of 7 lessons introduces or repeats the geometry topics from the primary school curriculum. There is no geometry pre-knowledge necessary for this unit.

The data are evaluated now, see
Meißner, H.: Projekt DORF - Raumvorstellungen verbessern. Journal fuer Mathematikdidaktik 27, S. 28 - 51. Teubner Stuttgart 2006. 
You also may click to get the drawings for the test items, some more details about the test results (in German) and a summary in English.

Project "TIM 2"
          TIM means  Taschenrechner Im Mathematikunterricht, i.e. calculators in mathematics education. In our investigations since the seventies we concentrated on the use of simple calculators in mathematics education with the goal "Become independent from the calculator by using the calculator”.       
          In our project TIM 2 we used calculators to train mental arithmetic and the development of number sense in eight courses (3rd-graders, primary school). After a sequence of 8 lessons (including pretest and posttest without calculators) we could prove that the calculator can be used to become a powerful tool to further mental arithmetic abilities and number sense.

The data are evaluated now, see
Meißner, H.: Taschenrechner in der Grundschule. mathematica didactica, 29. Jg., Heft 1, p. 5-25. Franzbecker Verlag Hildesheim, Germany 2006
We also recommend to study our special web sites on the use of calculators in TIM projects and our international survey about the use of calculators. There also is a Discussion Forum about the future use of paper & pencil techniques.

The empirical investigations also helped to get additional insight into mathematical learning processes. Here we concentrated and we still concentrate on two other projects.

Project "Concept Formation"
          In the village project we could study very effectively the interaction of mental processes with acting or handling or manipulating the many geometrical objects and drawings used in the lessons. We discovered that also in geometry teaching "procepts", i.e. "spatial procepts" develop.

Our results are summarized in the PhD work from Guido Pinkernell:
Pinkernell, G.: Räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen im Geometrieunterricht - eine didaktische Analyse mit Fallstudien. Verlag Franzbecker, Hildesheim, Berlin 2006

Forum
          Simple calculators exist since more than 30 years. But in arithmetic education in primary schools we still teach paper & pencil skills almost as if there would be no calculators at all. We waste the time of our children for about 100 hours to teach and to train algorithms and skills which after primary school they never will need again. We must get a new balance. Are there suggestions or experiences? Please click and react to our

Forum on the Future of Paper & Pencil Techniques.


2. Future Developments

Hartwig Meissner is Professor Emeritus since 2004. His momentary work concentrates on reflecting recent developments in mathematics education to analyze possibilities how to modernize future teaching and learning processes, nationally and internationally. His work focusses on four main aspects:   


3. Guests

There were guests from Africa, China, the Czech Republic and the USA. Prof. Surindar M. Uppal from the Jomo Kenyata University in Nairobi was studying the German school system and our work here in Muenster. Dr. Jianhong Huang from the Shanghai Teacher Training Center came to join our empirical investigations in geometry teaching in primary schools (see „2. Projects" below). With Dr. Alena Hospesova from the South Bohemian University in Ceske Budejovice we had an interesting exchange of experiences with primary school children concerning their knowledge in arithmetic and geometry. Prof. Gerald A. Goldin from Rutgers University, New Jersey gave a presentation upon emotional components in learning mathematics. You also may be interested in having a look into our guest book. Updated information about guests in our Institute also may be found via the Homepage of the Fachbereich.

4. Organizing  and  Participation  at  Conferences

Hartwig Meissner and his team has organized the international conference on "Creativity and Mathematics Education" from 15-19 July 1999 in Muenster to discuss these questions. The program  included workshops, problem solving in teams, and more. 

Meissner also prepared the work of the Topic Study Group (TSG 16) "Creativity in Mathematics Education and the Education of Gifted Students"  at  ICME 9 in Makuhari near Tokyo in August 2000 and gave research reports at the PME conference in Hiroshima and at other conferences in Japan in 2000 (at the Math. Ed. Study Group  in Tokyo und at the Symposium "Some Proposals towards Math. Ed. in the 21st Century" in Osaka).

In 2001 Meissner participated in conferences in the Czech Republic (presentations at CERME 2 in Marianske Lazne and in Ceske Budejovice) and in November 2001, initiated by Linda Sheffield, he joint the special strand on creativity in mathematics education at the NAGC congress in Cincinnati / USA.

There were some more conference activities from Hartwig Meissner, see also the web page on creativity.  

in 2002
The exchange of experiences in the field of creativity in mathematics education continues at the 2nd International Conference on "Creativity in Mathematics Education and the Education of Gifted Students" which was organized by Agnis Andzans   in Riga, Latvia. (Paper presentation from Hartwig Meissner). 

in 2003 
Emiliya Angelova Velikova organized the 3rd International Conference on "Creativity in Mathematics Education and the Education of Gifted Students" in Rousse, Bulgaria. (Invited plenary lecture from Hartwig Meissner).

in 2004 
At ICME 10 in Copenhagen Linda K. Sheffield (USA), Hartwig Meissner (Germany) and Foong Pui Yee (Singapore) organized and run the Workshop "Developing mathematical creativity in young children".

in 2005 
Hartwig Meissner presented at CIEAEM 57 in Piazza Armerina (Sicily) a Workshop on "Calculators in Primary Grades?" He also was invited to Shanghai (China) to organize and to chair the special Symposium on Creativity in Mathematics Education at the International Conference EARCOME 3. In autumn 2005 he participated at the Mini-Conference "Extending the Challenge ..." at the Northern Kentucky University (USA) with an oral presentation and a panel discussion. At the annual conference NAGC 52 in Louisville, Kentucky he then presented a paper in the Special Strand on Advanced Math & Science: "Giftedness and Creativity - Similarities and Differences". 

in 2006 
Invitation and participation at ICMI STUDY 16 on "Challenging mathematics in and beyond the classroom" in Trondheim (Norway) and at ICMI STUDY 17 on "Digital technologies and mathematics teaching and learning: Rethinking the terrain" in Hanoi (Vietnam). Workshop on "Calculators and Creativity" at the 4th International Conference on "Creativity in Mathematics Education and the Education of Gifted Students" in Ceske Budejovice and short oral presentation on "Spatial Geometry" at PME 30 in Praha, Czech Republic. 

in 2007 
Participation at CIEAEM 59 in Dobogoko (Hungary). 

in 2008 
Paper presentations at the 5th International Conference on "Creativity in Mathematics Education and the Education of Gifted Students" in Haifa (Israel) and at the international GDM conference in Budapest (Hungary). Member of the Organizing Team for the Discussion Group DG 9 “Promoting Creativity for All Students in Mathematics Education” at ICME 11. 

in 2009 
Member of the IPC and “Animator” for the subtheme “Creativity in mathematical activities” at CIEAEM 61 in Montreal (Canada).