Mastering math

Percentages and fractions remain a sealed book for an alarming number of school students. According to the PISA study of 2012, one in every five 15-year-olds can only do math on an elementary school level. This was why the Deutsche Telekom Stiftung created the Mathe sicher können (Mastering math) project in 2010.

In the project, students who are weak in math are given special help at the lower secondary level. The collaborative project is coordinated by the IEEM Institute for the development of and research into the teaching of mathematics at the Technical University of Dortmund. Since 2010 the project team has been developing, testing and disseminating teaching materials for "students at risk". Diagnostic tasks, for instance, help teachers identify students’ weaknesses at an early stage. As their problems often arise as early as in the third and fourth grade, the teaching of mathematics at elementary school is one aspect of the project work.

Materials and further training relating to Mastering Math can be obtained from the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education.