Préface des éditeurs

The collaboration that led to this book, among other products, originated in 2008 when the contributors developed the Fibonacci Project. During its period of implementation (2009-2013), 21 European countries were involved at the start and 30 at the end, with some 63 cooperating centres or institutions taking part. This book tells the story of the events leading to the birth of the project, what was involved in its implementation, its outcomes, and the challenges that remain ahead.

Fibonacci was ambitious, possibly overambitious, in attempting to tackle the decline in science and mathematics education in European primary, middle and secondary schools shown by many indicators, since the 1990s. Because modern science was born in Europe and had recovered remarkably from the disasters of the second world war, and because European schools had been of high repute in the not-so-distant past, there was no reason to accept such decline, especially when the economic future of the region was at stake and all citizens need some understanding of scientific ideas and the nature of science. For the first time, Fibonacci tried to bring together two different areas of science learning: mathematics, with its long pedagogical tradition, and natural science. This was attempted under the common banner of inquiry learning, which although not a new approach was nevertheless unknown in most classrooms. Defining, designing and testing the implementation of this common approach was not easy. But it was worth the effort, since many students discovered the joy of doing science and many teachers developed their confidence in their ability to practice inquiry, to do experiments in the classroom, and to collaborate with others, including distinguished scientists as well as education researchers.

The Fibonacci Project was evaluated throughout its three years and the results are presented in this book, with examples taken from all over Europe. A fair criticism is that this assessment lacks sufficient quality criteria, or that it is excessively based on teachers’ self-reporting, rather than on more objective measures. This is true and should be improved in future projects. Yet, for any attempted change in science education worldwide, there is always a considerable gap between a ‘pure’ set of ideal learning patterns, and what can be put in place in the reality of the classroom, whatever the support in place to improve teaching. Such a pessimistic perception of reality could deter efforts to improve how science and mathematics are taught. However, the Fibonacci Project initiators, its scientific committee, and the leaders within the sixty centres we progressively established, did not accept the alternative to do nothing where perfection is not possible. Their modest hope is to have paved some pathways to improvement, and to have done their best to make them available to others.

We address this book to policy-makers concerned with and about education, to education authorities, scientists and industrialists, and indeed to school systems actors in general. We hope the Fibonacci Project, although far from being free of criticism, will demonstrate to them that in Europe powerful forces for changing science mathematics and science education exist through the simple means of collaborations among stakeholders within and outside classrooms.

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