First out with major investment in maths coaches on the Internet

The maths coaches will be recruited from the joint programme “Civil engineer and Teacher” at KTH and Stockholm University. In the future there will also be students from the mathematics teacher programme at SU participating in the project. The teacher students will be educated via an introduction to Windows Live Messenger, online problem solving and coaching. The coaches will sit together and answer questions and be of assistance to each other if problems arise.

"The Maths coach project is very important; if you get stuck with a problem, it is stimulating to be able to get help straight away, while you are already studying. I also believe that there is a payoff, in so much as that there’s a relatively small age difference between the people asking the questions and the coaches. The coach can identify with the students and their level of knowledge," says Vice-President of KTH, Professor Eva Malmström Jonsson.

The project Maths coach on the Internet secretly started up last spring with six secondary schools in the Spånga-Tensta part of town. Following a successful pilot project, all of the students in Stockholm will now be given the possibility of chatting with maths coaches from KTH and Stockholm University.

"The overall purpose of the project is to contribute to increasing students’ possibilities of fulfilling their objectives when learning mathematics. The project’s other purpose is that future maths teachers will become better at providing supervision via the Internet. The coaches should not be regarded as a replacement for the students’ ordinary teachers, but rather as a supplement to them. They are also providing excellent support for parents who do not have the possibility of helping their children with their homework, says Lotta Edholm, School Commissioner in Stockholms stad.

Maths coach on the Internet is a collaborative effort between Stockholms stad, Microsoft, KTH and Stockholm University. The project is supported by the LIKA project, a cooperation on digital competence in teacher educations with four Stockholm-based universities. At the same time as the project starts up, KTH is gathering research material.

"This is the world’s simplest model: It doesn’t really matter where you are and in principle, all students have access to MSN. It is based on the existence of knowledge in one area and a need for support and help in another. In this way the method can be a bridge-builder across distances. The model could be applied for many different subjects at school, says Eva Pethrus, Manager of Innovativa Skolprogrammet (The Innovative School Programme) at Microsoft.

For more information about Maths coaches, please contact:

Eva Malmström Jonsson, vice-President at KTH, 0704 - 287 225.
Stefan Knutsson, project leader of the Maths coaches, 08 - 790 61 29 or stkn@kth.se.
Lotta Edholm (FP), School Commissioner, via press-contact spokesperson Simon Rothstein Frankander 0768 - 251 604.
Eva Pethrus, Manager of Innovativa Skolprogrammet at Microsoft, 0734 - 082 840.
Mait Adegård, administrator of the Department of Education, Stockholm stad, 0761 - 233 008.

Peter Larsson