One of the dramatic changes imposed on educational systems by the global spread of Covid-19 is the radical shift from classroom-based to home-based learning environments. School education, particularly at lower grades, is anchored in teacher-facilitated classroom activities, where students engage concurrently and communally with the content under the direction and with the support of the teacher, and only a relatively small portion of the learning takes place outside class. The abrupt disappearance of the physical classroom at times of social distancing forced rapid development of hybrid learning environments, in which a much larger portion of student activity is home-based, and learning becomes more and more individual, unsynchronized, and un-facilitated by a teacher. Accumulating evidence indicate that policy makers, teachers, students and parents were, and still are, not prepared and not equipped for this radical shift.
The ZEN-Math project (Zooming into Environments for Nurturing Mathematics) seeks to address the evident need in the field for resources and knowledge that could support greater flexibility in mathematical teaching and learning at the elementary level. Specifically, our overarching goal in this project is to draw on the emerging pedagogical model of the ‘flipped classroom’ that is gaining popularity at the tertiary level and, to a lesser extent, at the secondary level, in order to conceptualize and obtain a proof-of concept for the elementary school mathematics flipped classroom (ESM-FC). To this end, we have formed a “think tank” of experts with representatives of various stakeholders in mathematics education, including teachers from various grade levels, teacher educators, resource designers, mathematics education researchers, policy makers, mathematicians, scientists, and parents to elementary school students.
Leaders
Dr. Alon Pinto
Dr. Ronnie Karsenty
Project Coordinator
Dr. Orit Elgavi Hershler
Team:
Racheli Gabay
Keren Tavor
Shlomit Bergman
Roni Stoler
Gal Shahaf
Adi Eraky
Daniel Shalom
Michal Mor
Tomer Gal
Nufar Tobal
Anat Shovali