The team that has spent the last three years working on introducing innovations in mathematics service teaching was put in the spotlight during the opening of the TU Delft Teaching Lab on 27 September by Anka Mulder, Vice-President for Education & Operations. Their innovations have proven effective in the working environment. The team is the first group at TU Delft to receive an award for group work in a collective project.
The team has developed a new teaching model and applied it to mathematics service teaching. These are lectures that are attended by all students from all Bachelor's programmes at TU Delft. Mathematics is a core element in all curriculums, and mathematics service teaching is carried out by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science under the direction of Annoesjka Cabo.
The original and innovative new teaching model focuses on three key pillars:
- To activate students to get to grips with the mathematics material from the outset.
- To motivate students, for instance by introducing them to inspiring examples within their own field, usually presented by lecturers from the degree programmes.
- These pillars will ultimately have a positive impact on pass rates.
Improving efficiency is also necessary, especially considering the growing number of students. The material, which is jointly designed and developed, is used by all the lecturers in a course.
In creating and testing the new teaching model, the mathematics service teaching team not only collaborated with lecturers from other programmes but also with educationalists, who have already published their findings and presented them at a conference for fellow specialists. The model utilises such techniques as blended learning.
About the Teaching Lab
On Wednesday 27 September 2017, the Delft Teaching Academy opened its new building: the Teaching Lab. In this lab, teaching staff can meet up, inspire one another, develop new ideas and try them out – for example, by experimenting with new tools and methods in pilot configurations. The Teaching Lab can be used to work on educational innovations for use on campus and online. It also provides all the support that teachers may need, whether teaching-related or technical.