In 2008 the "United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" was adopted as a consequence of the "Salamanca Declaration and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education" in the context of the international conference "Special Needs Education: Access and Quality" of the year 1994 and has been binding for Germany since March 26, 2009. The convention calls for the establishment and safeguarding of an inclusive education system at all levels (UNO, 2008, Article 24) for "all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. This should include disabled and gifted children" (UNESCO, 1994, 6).

After the professor and staff had been dealing with heterogeneity and diversity aspects of children with special needs in the context of traditional and inclusive research on giftedness and fostering for a long time, the professorship founded the new department at the Passau Center for Teacher Training and Subject Didactics (ZLF) in 2020 "Heterogeneity, Diversity and Sustainability". Initially led by Prof. Matthias S. Brandl (Didactics of Mathematics), the department went into the management of Dr. Stefanie Winkler (Didactics of Mathematics), who previously held the position of deputy. Both at the professorship itself and in the ZLF department, the Passau Didactics of Mathematics team works in an interdisciplinary manner with colleagues on relevant projects that focus in particular on aspects of inclusion, heterogeneity and diversity.

Exemplary previous research aspects at the professorship:

A) Children who have both a disability and a talent (disabled and gifted) are described as twice exceptional and pose a particular challenge for the teachers. With regard to e.g. hearing-impaired students, special specifics apply, which can be clarified by means of qualitative individual case studies, see e.g. Brandl & Nordheimer (2016).

B) Process-based diagnosis and inclusive fostering of a mathematical giftedness potential, especially in the context of talent-supported development and individualized fostering of mathematical skills in everyday primary school teaching, see e.g. Winkler (2020), Winkler & Brandl (2016).

C) Connection between high sensitivity, (intellectual) hyperexcitability and mathematical giftedness, see e.g. Brandl & Szabo (2019).

D) International cultural heterogeneity and diversity aspects in mathematics education (see e.g. Guncaga, Brandl & Körtesi, 2019)

Selected current work aspects of the ZLF department:

a) Inclusive fostering of talent (Winkler): "In the creative room "Mathewerkstatt", workshops and learning environments invite students, teachers, children and families to try out and multiply the idea of studio lessons. In the spirit of an inclusive fostering of talent. The development of lessons in small groups becomes concrete under the motto “Tracking down something special together”. Students contribute their ideas as tutors or innovation teams and support individual development projects of schools, learning groups, working groups and teachers on site. A course consisting of six psychomotor building blocks teaches methods to build up inner strength and resilience for everyone involved", see also the Mathematics Learning Workshop and "MAP" - The Mathe-Atelier Plus.

b) Early support for increased support needs in the "PASSgenAU" project (Seibert/Aigner)

c) MINT fostering of women (Fraser)

References:

Brandl, M., & Nordheimer, S. (2016). Spezifika der Identifikation mathematischer Begabung bei Hörschädigung.Lernen und Lernstörungen 2016, Themenschwerpunkt Hochbegabung, 5(4), Hogrefe, 233–245. https://doi.org/10.1024/2235-0977/a000152

Brandl, M., & Szabo, A. (2019).Overexcitability, iconoclasm and mathematical creativity & giftedness. In Nolte, M. (Ed.), Including the Highly Gifted and Creative Students – Current Ideas and Future Directions: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Mathematical Creativity and Giftedness (MCG11): 22.08.2019 – 24.08.2019 Universität Hamburg, Germany(pp. 53–58). Conference Proceedings in Mathematics Education, Bd. 5. WTM. https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:6-82189522597

Winkler, S. (2020). Gemeinsam besonders? - Begabungsgestützte Entfaltung und Individualisierung mathematischer Grundkompetenzen. Pädagogische Professionalisierung und Schule, Praxis-Forschung, Bd. 4., LIT. https://www.lit-verlag.de/isbn/978-3-643-14719-6

Winkler, S., & Brandl, M. (2016). Process-Based Analysis of Mathematically Gifted Pupils in a Regular Class at Primary School. In K. Krainer & N. Vondrová (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (pp. 1011–1012). Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education, and ERME. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01287321