Research Group for Didactics of Mathematics

We live in a world that is changing faster and more comprehensively than ever before. Almost all areas of our society are involved in this process: be it global trade, the possibilities of worldwide communication, the accelerated pace of technological innovation and scientific knowledge or the resulting upheavals in economic, ecological, moral, ethical, religious, political and cultural principles. 

Conclusions for the didactics of mathematics

One consequence of these social and technical changes is that when it comes to acquiring mathematical skills and abilities, securing basic routines is of central importance. On the other hand, it is important to master fundamental, timeless mathematical concepts, methods, procedures and problem-solving strategies in order to be able to understand and actively shape current and future developments. 

Conclusions for the didactics of geometry (for the subjects of mathematics, geometric drawing and descriptive geometry)

Today’s world is characterised by an enormous surge in technological innovations and the resulting change in our professional fields of work. One of the consequences is that we are increasingly performing sedentary activities, which means that the ability to think and act spatially – as proven by numerous international studies – is significantly less pronounced than in times when our society increasingly performed movement-orientated professional and private activities. This means that the ability to think spatially, to orientate oneself in space and to visualise various objects (everyday objects, building instructions, plans, cities, the course of roads and paths, etc.), which is necessary for successful life management, design and planning, must be promoted all the more. Only this ability makes it possible for us to design, build and process objects, to successfully plan and manage (driving, flying, hiking) routes and to cope with the requirements of our everyday work (e.g. as a doctor, to control and perform real operations on the screen). In addition, technological progress clearly shows that we are increasingly working digitally with spatial structures and designing, testing, inspecting and evaluating houses, furniture, bridges, engines and much more purely digitally. These activities require a high degree of spatial thinking skills, which must be trained and promoted in a structured analogue and digital way, especially in the subjects of geometric drawing, descriptive geometry and mathematics. Current studies also show the connection between well-developed spatial thinking skills and a significantly higher chance of being successful in the STEM/STEM field. 

Working methods and main focus of the Didactics of Mathematics research group

The Didactics of Mathematics working group is concerned with analysing structures of teaching and learning, designing innovative, structured concepts for successful teaching and learning, empirically testing these concepts in practice and scientifically reflecting on the transfer into practice.

You can find an overview of the main research areas of the Didactics of Mathematics research group here.