European Research in Mathematics Education I - Fakultät für ...

European Research in Mathematics Education I: Group 4 403
2. Backgrounds
When we include the projects in the mathematics education we want to increase the
competencies in the content-cognitive area (permanent knowledge and skills, etc.) as
well as functional-cognitive (problem appreciation, ability to think critically,
processually, to reason, etc.). A further goal is the improvement of abilities in the area
of self-competence (self-reflection, self-assurance, initiative, etc.) and socialcompetence
(ability of co-operation, skill to act, behave, negotiate, to present, to cope
with conflicts, etc.). Very important goal is the improvement of school climate
(relationships between students and teachers, among students, elimination of stress,
etc.) (Grecmanová & Urbanovská 1997).
The ideas of „Project education“ appeared in Czechoslovakia in twenties (Príhoda,
Vrána) as a response to the work of J. Dewey and W.H. Kilpatrick (their work is
mentioned also in (Ludwig, 1996-1997)). Vrána (1936) specified „project“ as
something aiming at a certain goal, which stresses to arrange, to find out, to survey, to
carry out, etc. According to Vrána the project is also powerful motivating factor -
students are ready to work, they are motivated through responsibility in results of their
work and therefore they are able to assess its quality. On the other hand Vrána
emphasises that it is not possible to use only „project method“, it is not possible to teach
only in the form of projects.
The fundamental starting point of our approach to projects are ideas of didactical
constructivism (Hejný & Kurina 1998) which are connected with ideas of social
constructivism (Jaworski 1994); its conception was created within the framework of
our research „Mathematical education of 5-15-year-old students“. From the point of
view of utilisation of projects in mathematics education are important especially the
following ideas of didactical constructivism:
Mathematics is a specific sort of human activity.
Pieces of knowledge are not transferable (only information is transferable).
Pieces of knowledge are created on the basis of experience and foregoing
knowledge.
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