The Engasia Project

This project ran from 2014 to 2017 and was funded by The British Academy.

In international comparisons for mathematics like PISA and TIMSS, Asia outperforms England considerably. For geometry, this difference is even greater. With a new maths curriculum coming into play in England in 2014, this project compared geometry education in England, Japan and Hong Kong and to find out how an interactive electronic book could improve geometry teaching. Based on specific characteristics of the participating countries two digital resources (electronic books) were designed. They were then implemented in classrooms in those countries. The methodology included a more qualitative approach based on lesson observations and a quasi-experimental element. The results of this were disseminated in several publications, public workshops and a dedicated weblog. The project resulted in a close collaborative network between England, Japan and Hong Kong.

Phases of the project
There were three research phases in the methodology for this project:
o Identifying the challenges to be resolved by ICT by getting a clear picture of the contextual factors in the three participating countries.
o Designing two interactive 20 page electronic textbooks on mutually agreed topic of 2D geometry for 12-16 year olds toward addressing these challenges.
o Examining the effect of the electronic textbooks by implementing the digital resources in one HK, JP and ENG classroom per annum. The methodology consisted of a combination of: (i) lesson observations along the lines of the TIMSS 1999 video study and Lesson Study (Stigler & Hiebert, 1999) and (ii) a quasi-experimental approach.