iTEM

iTEM – Innovative Teaching Education in Mathematics

Hadassah Academic College is a partner in the iTEM Project funded by the Erasmus+ program. iTEM stands for Innovative Teaching Education in Mathematics. Its main objective is to improve the teaching, learning, and understanding of 1st-year Mathematics among Engineering and Computer Science students in Europe, Israel, Kosovo, and Uzbekistan.

The majority of the students preparing for an engineering or computer science degree do not appreciate the importance and the role mathematics plays in solving real-life problems and applications and lack motivation to spend time and efforts mastering it. Key to iTEM's approach is to strive, whenever possible, to drive the mathematic theory from a real-life problem. In other words, students will be introduced to a real-life problem, and then, through the solution to the problem, will either develop or introduced to mathematical concepts and theory.

iTEM is also focused on further developing teachers' abilities to deliver knowledge to students more effectively and more interactively using modern educational strategies & tools such as Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Project-Oriented Problem-Based Learning (POPBL).
Another important guiding principle of the iTEM project is replication: the ability of other HEIs to easily adopt the methodologies that are used in iTEM. It will provide open access to ICT tools (e.g. automated testing, automated exercises) and educational material (e.g. video lectures, offline manuals, lecture notes) that will be developed during the project. The open access of the iTEM deliverables will support the life-long learning policy that all the engaged regions support as priority.

iTEM aims & objectives

Improve mathematics skills of 1st year Computer Science and Electrical Engineering students
Motivate students to learn mathematics
Engage students in mathematics studies
Build students confidence in their ability to acquire mathematics skills
Reduce failure rate in mathematics courses and during 1st year of academic studies as a result of failure in mathematics courses
Improve teaching and teaching deliverable tools along mathematics lecture sessions
Promote inter-disciplinary teaching
Build digital literacy of teachers & students
Promote a personalised education

Members of the academic staff in Hadassah College who take part in the project:

Prof. Michael Berman
Dr Laure Barthel-Livné
Dr Devorah Cohen
Dr Nissim Harel
Dr Ronit Katz
Dr Eran London
Dr Freda Tatiana Rybnikova
Dr Arieh Yakir

Our partners in the project

In Israel:
• Holon Institute of Technology (HIT)(Israel)
• Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS)(Israel)
Outside Israel:
• Hellenic Mediterranean University (HMU)(Greece)
• Aalborg University (AAU)(Denmark)
• Czech Technical University in Prague (CVUT) (Czech Republic)
• Ss Cyril and Methodius University (UKIM)(North Macedonia)
• Private University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics, and Technology (UMIT) (Austria)
• The National University of Uzbekistan (NUUz)(Uzbekistan)
• Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT)(Uzbekistan)
• Karshi Engineering-Economic Institute (KEEI)(Uzbekistan)
• University of Mitrovica ‘Isa Boletini’ (UMIB)(Kosovo)
• Universum College (UC)(Kosovo)
• University of Pristina (UP)(Kosovo)
• Karlstad University (KSU)(Sweden)
• The Universidad de La Laguna (ULL)(Spain)

Meetings and training events

Kick off meeting: 14-15 February 2019, Chania, Greece
First progress meeting: 18-19 June 2019, Prague, Czech Republic
Training event: iTEM school in PBL and POPBL teaching techniques:28-29 October 2019, Copenhagen, Denmark
Second progress meeting: 30 October 2019, Copenhagen, Denmark

For more details about the project.