‘Maths shouldn't be scary, it should be fun and arouse curiosity.’ Gerhard Dorn from the Institute of Theoretical Physics is on a mission. The physicist and mathematician wants to change maths education at universities.
His own experience as a teacher and student representative opened his eyes to a widespread issue. His work as a private tutor and intensive discussions with students finally motivated him to investigate the fear of maths in more detail. Together with his project partner Michael Fuchs, Gerhard Dorn took advantage of TU Graz's membership of the university network Unite! to set up and realise his project at a European level and also obtained funding from the Unite! seed fund. With the help of a trans-European online survey of students from all Unite! universities, he was able to show in the ‘Freshman math skills and anxiety evaluation’ project that maths anxiety is an issue throughout Europe. Over 3,500 students took part in the survey. The follow-up project ‘How do we teach maths in Europe?’ now focuses on developing innovative teaching and learning methods for maths lessons.
Dorn finds the exchange of experience and best practice models at other universities exciting. In teaching, these range from physical maths learning spaces at Aalto University, where students come together 24/7 to learn together, to a virtual escape room game as an introduction to university mathematics at Politecnico di Torino.
Europe-wide cooperation
In general, Dorn values collaboration in the European university alliance Unite! and has already taken part in several Unite! events. He expands his network or creates awareness for innovative teaching methods as a speaker there. ‘Unite! is a valuable network for engaging in direct dialogue with colleagues and developing ideas and best practice models together,’ says Dorn. ‘Even after my Unite! projects have ended, I would like to continue shaping the future of maths education together with teaching colleagues in Europe.’
Committed teacher and founder
The 37-year-old is currently working on his physics PhD thesis on quantum currents and has co-founded a start-up that focuses on playful learning of maths content. He also supports an impressive list of projects and initiatives at TU Graz, including the PLANCKS physics competition and the theatre project of the Graz Student Union. In 2020, he designed his own online maths course (MOOC) on Bayesian probability theory with a playful pixel-art approach.
