Mathematics

“The meeting closed with a request by the teachers to come to the university
to meet with didacticians for further informal planning away from the pressures
of school” (Goodchild et. al., 2013, p. 9).
“...meeting between didacticians and teachers... at Eli’s home. It was hoped
the location would be more conducive to informal discussion than in a school
or university environment” (Goodchild et. al., 2013, p. 13).
Last but not least, multipliers pointed out the must to approach course
participants in positive and collegial way. One of the multipliers promotes the
Thomas Isaacs’ (Stanford University) attitude that to be successful when
persuading public, we must not think that it is us who know everything, and
that it is our task to tell that to public, and if they do not get it, we should repeat
it and even louder; it simply does not work this way.
3.5 What was the biggest challenge for multipliers?
For multiplier GP it was very challenging to put teachers in pupils’ position, i. e.
make them learn instead of teach. This involved also finding the right methods
which would make them explore and discover facts that the multipliers were
supposed to teach them, plus reminding them that in real school conditions
they would be back in the teachers’ position.
Generally, interviewed multipliers admit that their role is quite demanding.
Teaching teachers how they should teach their learners sounds ridiculous,
since in-service teachers usually have much more teaching experience than
multipliers do. Therefore, the way multipliers communicated with the course
participants was very important. Showing respect and appreciation turned out
to be a successful way of approaching them and gaining their trust.
Consecutively, multipliers faced even more difficult task – not to lose their
trust, provide them with adequate activities, and keep on being supportive.
Drawing the participants’ attention to new teaching ways and aids, and
showing them the importance of self-reflection and professional meta-cognition
was also very challenging.
3.6 What was the most positive / negative feedback for multipliers?
All the multipliers were pleased by the participants’ final presentations in which
they presented what they learned during the course. That was the evidence
they are able to apply different teaching approaches than they used to.
Multipliers also felt very glad when they could see that participants got
involved in the activities in the courses, they were eager to try new methods,
and after all, they could enjoy feeling of their own satisfaction. A positive step
forward was when participants let multipliers question their teaching
approaches, and then they themselves were able to think of many creative
ideas of improvement, based on their self-reflection. This also was a strong
impulse which inspired many of the course participants to further develop their
own professional knowledge and skills.
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