Loading
MaCo
Catching up in Mathematics after Covid
Aiming to professionalize mathematics teachers and support staff, MaCo developed professional development, instructional, and support materials that focus on the identification, diagnosis, and support of comprehension fundamentals in grades 1-10.
Project data
| Research lines | Professional Competence and Learning of Teachers | ||
| Departments | Knowledge Transfer | ||
| Funding | Ministerium für Schule und Bildung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (9/1/2021–12/31/2023), Ministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur des Landes Schleswig-Holstein (2/15/2022–12/31/2023) | ||
| Period | 9/1/2021–12/31/2023 | ||
| Status | completed | ||
| IPN researchers | Prof. Dr. Susanne Prediger (Project lead), Dr. Svea Hallemann (Project coordinator) | ||
Many children and teenagers were already part of the "at-risk" group in mathematics before 2020, unable to achieve basic comprehension and minimum standards at the end of grades 4 and 9. Fundamentals of understanding and basic competencies form the fundamental building blocks necessary for successful knowledge acquisition in subsequent grades. Mathematics' cumulative structure makes progressing without these basics a hurdle that cascades deficiencies as school progresses. Furthermore, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated school absences as well as online instruction, many students have developed learning deficits in mathematics or their existing deficits have been exacerbated.
MaCo, the project "Catching up in Mathematics after Covid-19", addresses precisely this problem and focuses on underachieving and thus particularly affected children and adolescents in primary and lower secondary school. Its goal is to help children catch up as quickly as possible on their math comprehension basics and basic skills after Covid-19, allowing them to continue learning and move on to the next grade level. Professional support by specifically trained teachers are required to ensure this. Therefore, the MaCo project not only addresses learners and their parents, but also focuses on the support and further training of teachers and support staff as well as laypeople.
Approach
The MaCo project developed modular support programs. Training programs for teachers and support staff were devised and implemented in line with these programs, along with educationally sound materials designed to support them. The freely available materials include teaching materials, diagnostic and remedial concepts, information for parents, and recordings of all the project's seminars. The content was created to be integrated into the regular classroom. Non-professional and semi-professional support staff were also trained to ensure the best possible assistance for students.
Successes
To date, the MaCo project, which involves 14 German states, 11 cooperating universities and two research institutes, has achieved considerable success. This success is also impressively illustrated in the report of the German School Portal of the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung. The project has received over 4,000 registrations for the three online seminar series for teachers (in fall 2021 and spring and fall 2022) and for the qualification series for multipliers. The training, support, and teaching materials, which are freely available as OER on maco.dzlm.de, have been accessed up to 40,000 times so far, and the website receives up to 5,000 hits each month.
