Distance mathematics education in Flanders, Germany, and the Netherlands during the COVID 19 lockdown—the student perspective

Abstract

In March 2020, many schools worldwide were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This closure confronted mathematics teachers with the challenging transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT). How did students experience ERT, and how did these experiences relate to context variables and to their teachers’ beliefs and practices? In particular, what didactic approaches and formative assessment practices did secondary mathematics students experience, and which beliefs did they hold concerning digital mathematics education? How were these student experiences and beliefs related to student context variables (gender, need to support family, personal home equipment), teacher beliefs, delivery modes, and student appreciation of mathematics? To investigate these issues, we set out online questionnaires for mathematics teachers and their students in Flanders—the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium—, Germany, and the Netherlands. Data consisted of completed questionnaires by 323 mathematics teachers and 2126 of their students. Results show that even though students preferred regular face-to-face teaching, they were content with the quality of their teachers’ distance mathematics teaching. Students reported that they were taught new topics often, but did not experience teachers initiating peer feedback. High student appreciation of mathematics, good home environment, and more synchronous delivery of ERT were related to ERT experiences and more positive beliefs concerning digital mathematics education. These findings have implications for ERT teaching strategies in future, as well as for hybrid teaching practices.

What Went Well, What Went Badly? Teachers’ and Students’ Perspectives on Remote Mathematics Teaching During Pandemic School Closure

“…Guidelines with respect to privacy and data management were respected. The results of the teacher responses to the closed questionnaire items are described in Drijvers et al (2021); the results of the student responses to the closed questionnaire items are presented in Thurm et al (2023).…”

“…Although initial experiences with emergency remote mathematics teaching (ERMT) have been reported from the teachers' perspective (Aldon et al 2021;Drijvers et al 2021) and, to a more limited extent, from the students' perspective (Thurm et al 2023), little is known about the relationships between the students' and the teachers' perspectives. It is this gap that we aim to address in this paper.…”

Análisis realizado por Profesores en Formación en un Entorno Tecnológico Emergente en Educación Matemática

“…La educación matemática a distancia en tiempos de pandemia sorteó resultados variables en distintos países. En comparaciones entre países como Bélgica, Alemania y Holanda (Drijvers et al, 2021;Thurm et al, 2023), Italia, Estados Unidos y Alemania (Krause et al, 2021), España y Alemania (Barlovits et al, 2021), se notan enormes diferencias en la forma que se desarrollaron las clases a distancia, derivadas principalmente de directrices como políticas educativas, normativas de salud y de emergencia, de organización institucional, entre otros. Asimismo, trabajos como los de Vale y Graven (2023) evidencian las distintas etapas en la pandemia COVID-19 y los vínculos con la tecnología que se tuvo disponible para asegurar la continuidad de la educación matemática en zonas, por ejemplo, de Sudáfrica.…”

Will we ever teach mathematics again in the way we used to before the pandemic?

“…The perspective of students was explored in a few studies as well. Thurm et al ( 2022 ) (in this issue) examined students’ experiences with ERT in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. In detail, they analysed how these experiences related to their teachers’ beliefs and practices, what didactical approaches and formative assessment practices secondary mathematics students experienced, and which beliefs they held concerning digital mathematics education.…”