Wolfram Meyerhöfer

Wolfram Meyerhöfer (* 1970 in Woldegk , Neubrandenburg district , GDR ) is a German math teacher .

education and profession

Meyerhöfer studied from 1990 to 1995 teaching mathematics and physics at the University of Education Potsdam that the time is converted to the University of Potsdam. After a legal clerkship at a comprehensive school , he continued his studies at the chair for didactics of mathematics at the University of Potsdam and received his doctorate in May 2004.

After visiting professorships at the Free University of Berlin and the Acadia University in Philadelphia , he has been teaching since 2009 as a professor in the didactics of mathematics department at the University of Paderborn . His research areas include the concept of unprocessed material hurdles (nbsH) or special difficulties in arithmetic (bSR) as an alternative to the concept of arithmetic weakness / dyscalculia, acquisition of numbers in childhood, mathematical illiteracy, the habitus of mathematics teachers and tests.

Objective hermeneutics

Meyerhöfer uses the method of objective hermeneutics to, mathematics - tests to criticize and suggest improvements. He describes a text, in the case of mathematics a word problem , in the sense of 'objective hermeneutics' as 'objective' if it is based on certain social rules , more precisely on certain 'language rules'. This type of objectivity makes it possible to deduce from the task (from the 'manifest sense') the understanding of the subject (on the 'latent sense'), i.e. the student, and thus test his or her cognitive performance.

Only the objective structure of meaning, that is, latent and manifest meaning as they go together, tell something about the competencies measured with a task.

From this perspective, the results of previous tests were only of limited validity.

Statements in the mass media

Meyerhöfer said in an interview with the magazine Wirtschaftswoche in February 2013 and the online weekly newspaper Spektrum - Die Woche von Spektrum.de in October 2013 that dyscalculia was a constructed phenomenon and that the poor maths lessons in students were due to poor math lessons.

He became known in 2013 with his criticism of the PISA study . He criticized the fact that the results did not say anything, because they only measure 'correct results'. This trivial approach does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about how the teaching can be improved. You have to take into account which solutions students use.

In 2020, he commented on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . Meyerhöfer assumed that the public's perception of the pandemic was distorted and that the measures prescribed by politicians were disproportionate, as they were based on a layman's interpretation of the statistical data.

Memberships in advisory boards

Wolfram Meyerhöfer is a member of the scientific advisory boards of the German Association of Philologists and the Journal for Interpretative School and Teaching Research as well as the advisory boards of the Society for Education and Knowledge and the Education Foundation .

Local politics

As a knowledgeable citizen of the Potsdam city council, the ANDERE , he is committed to the reconstruction of the garrison church . In the year of mathematics 2008 he organized actions against the construction of a new tram bridge in Potsdam and spoke in this context of the "use and misuse of mathematics in political space". The city administration rejected the "allegations and manipulation allegations". The tram bridge was completed in 2009 and was already a renovation case in 2020.

Publications

• What do tests test? Objective hermeneutic analyzes using the example of TIMSS and PISA. Dissertation. Potsdam 2003. Digital, accessed September 2014.
• Tests in the test: the PISA example. Leverkusen (Budrich) 2005.
• PISA & Co: criticism of a program. Edited with Thomas Jahnke. Hildesheim (Franzbecker) 2007.
• Also a crisis in mathematical education, FAZ.net 2020. Digital, accessed in April 2020.

Web links

• Publications Wolfram Meyerhöfer. In: uni-paderborn.de. (List of text publications, editorships and lectures). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Maths didactic about Pisa: "No more testing" , taz.de, November 29, 2013 [Woldegk, however, never belonged to Western Pomerania, as that source says!]
2. ↑ Career on math.uni-potsdam.de ( Memento from December 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
3. ↑ Prof. Dr. Wolfram Meyerhöfer - University of Paderborn ( Memento from December 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Prof. Dr. Wolfram Meyerhöfer - Meyerhöfer Working Group Chairman - Professor , uni-paderborn.de
5. ↑ p. 200 , PDF file, p. 202
6. ^ Department of Mathematics Education: Prof. Dr. Wolfram Meyerhöfer , uni-paderborn.de
7. ↑ See dissertation, Chapter 2: On the methodology and practice of objective hermeneutics, pp. 44–53.
8. ↑ Jürgen Rees: Education “Every child can learn to count” , wiwo.de, February 9, 2013
9. ↑ Jens Wernicke: DYSCALCULIA: "There is no such thing as a weakness in arithmetic" , Spektrum - Die Woche, 42nd KW 2013, weekly newspaper from Spektrum.de , October 10, 2013
10. ^ Corona pandemic: Also a crisis in mathematics education , faz.net , April 2, 2020
11. ↑ Wolfram Meyerhöfer - Advisory Board. In: uni-paderborn.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020 . 
12. ^ Editors and Advisory Board - Journal for Interpretative School and Teaching Research. In: budrich-journals.de. Retrieved April 14, 2020 . 
13. ↑ Board of Directors. Society for Education and Knowledge , accessed April 14, 2020 . 
14. ↑ Advisory Board. Education Foundation , accessed on April 14, 2020 . 
15. ↑ Use and abuse of mathematics in the political arena: An action in the year of mathematics, February 25, 2008 , 2013. fraktion-die-andere.de
16. ↑ Potsdam Tram Bridge Mathematics: The other is planning actions for the groundbreaking ceremony , pnn.de , February 27, 2008
17. ↑ 096 | Unjustified allegations and allegations of manipulation , potsdam.de
18. ↑ Water damage has to be repaired from 2020 Broken after ten years: Potsdam tram bridge is redevelopment case , maz-online.de, August 21, 2019