Maths through Music and Creative Movement

The last decade there is a great growth in the STEM job market that emphasizes the need of promoting interest and excellence in STEM education. Studies have proved that the students lack creativity and so our need of integration the Arts in STEM has arisen. More creative and innovative approaches towards teaching are becoming increasingly important to reverse an unfavorable school climate, a lack of learner centeredness and inadequate awareness of how to teach disadvantage students. Our vision was well prepared teachers ready for competence-orientated teaching to apply more project-based and cooperative teaching and learning. M2-cm project was for helping teachers overturn the typical approach of teaching math, shifting from traditional approach of teaching to an art-integrated approach. We wanted to help students not only becoming more active learners but also gain critical thinking through the integration of Arts. Math phobia that interferes with math performance is to overcome. Children will find math a creative subject. Learning math is more almost like learning music or art than it is to learn history or biology (Mahapatra, P.K, 2020). Continual support for teachers via a digital platform was the approach in teaching.

Before the application, the consortium implemented a need analysis and realized that there is a great need for the teachers to understand the value of integrating music and creative movement in the field of Math in order to become positive to the STEAM approach. For the educators to fully understand the relationship of music and creative movement with Math, a theoretical knowledge of the concept of these was gained through a detailed explanation in a teachers guide. Further, to adequate the knowledge and skills needed to understand the relevance of music with math and be able to apply new practices and create their own activities based on the knowledge gained. This was achieved through the repository and the online course. The m2-cm coursevo platform offers the opportunity to create activity spaces that enables participating teachers to access the project results including the Teacher Guide and the Repository, upload their own materials and descriptions of learning activities using music and creative movement to teach mathematics, search and find materials offered by their peers, reuse, remix and further share them. A community of teachers was established that will continue to exist and evolve even after the end of project period

A community building process followed a step-by-step approach starting with the members of the project consortium and gradually expanded to include more teachers from the participating countries and beyond. By providing Teachers Guide to the teachers who directly involve in the project and also to other teachers who were informed through the dissemination activities of the project and from the listing in guide on the projects website, teachers were given the opportunity to enrich their knowledge on the STEAM approach and enhance them to become more positive into applying the alternative methods proposed throughout the project period. Focus groups in all partner countries were established for better continuous follow up of m2-cm project. July 2022: (Cyprus) Training for Trainers. In this Training only staff and trainers from the consortium will participate (2 or more from each organization and 1 from TUC). October 2022: Online Networking and e-learning platform was implemented. February 2023: (Sweden) Teachers and Students training (2 teachers + more than 5 students from each country). May/June 2023: Multiplier events in each country and continuation/follow up in April 2024. October 2023: (Crete) Teachers and (2 teachers + more than 5 students from each country). January 2024: (Sweden) Final Conference. 5 Transnational Meetings were held; 1st was kickoff online November 2021, 2nd in Cyprus July 2022, 3rd in Sweden January 2023, 4th in Crete October 2023, 5th in Sweden January 2024. Project Management Meetings were held continuously on project platform coursevo (recorded and with minutes) and meeting dates/hours were fixed via Doodle. Our common project web is https://www.m2-cm.tuc.gr and example of partner web is https://artinedviksjofors.se/m2-cm/ and https://www.amusedcy.com/m2-cm

Teachers guide, Repository of Activities and useful sources for children and Online Networking, Training, documentaries etc. are shared on https://artinedviksjofors.se/m2-cm/achievements-m2-cm/ and https://www.m2-cm.tuc.gr/en/results/pr2-repository-of-activities-and-other-useful-sources-for-the-teachers and file:///C:/Users/helehr1.OVANAKER/Downloads/Corrected%20videos%20into.pdf PPR1 – Teachers' Guide: Need Analysis (Focus Groups of teachers) Research that showed relevance and importance of music and movement in Maths in the field of STEAM approach General knowledge of Music and Movement that correlate with Maths Multicultural approach through historical facts and other theories (Pythagoras, Plato etc) The tasks were: Collection of results Design and Development of Teachers' Guide Piloting and assessments Finalization and Translation Extra tools provided: Step by step guide on how to make a song to match classroom needs Examples of Maths songs around the world or created by consortium Same activities for Creative movement PPR2 – Repository of Activities –Tasks done: Research and need analysis (teachers named specific challenges they face on maths concepts) Collection of Children songs (5 traditional songs of the country and 3 kids song from migrant countries) Development of music and creative movement activities Listing of Activities Evaluation and Finalization PPR3 – Online Networking and Training Teachers across Europe together exchanged ideas and practices Teachers were educated in an asynchronous environment Online support during the project + 1 year form music and dance experts Teachers can upload on the platform their own examples after the training Through the platform there will be access to other PPRs PPR3 – Online Networking and Training Tasks Collection of 30 OER (10 each partner) Development of the content of e-learning platform Design and development of online modules Technical development of the e-course Evaluation of the modules by a group of teachers, and music and dance experts Finalization of the online training