Added Value Learning Innovation

Added Value is an Erasmus + Project that has conducted research among four partner countries into current teaching policy and practice, to support teachers of Mathematics and STEM subjects. The project is currently developing and piloting innovative tools among teachers in Poland, The Netherlands, Spain and Ireland. The project operates on the principle that teaching of Mathematics will be enhanced by using methodologies that emerge from the use of playful, fun and imaginative tools. The tools being piloted have utilised Design Thinking in their development, and the initial response to the call for participating schools, particularly in Poland, has revealed a hunger amongst teachers for such an approach. This paper argues that teaching methodologies need to recognise teachers and learners as co-constructors of learning, towards a heutagogical ethos supporting the principle of self-directed learning. The value of play to this ethos will be illustrate the concept that it offers an important tool to foster and support long-lasting positive dispositions to learning and creativity. Such dispositions are vital in developing an intrinsic and enduring motivation to learn among students of all ages, and will encourage creative thinking, not just among students and workers but for the benefit of society as the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century advance.