What is the “Hejny method”?

The Hejny method is based on respecting 12 key principles, that make up a comprehensive concept that allows children to discover mathematics on their own and with pleasure. It builds on 40 years of experimental work and puts into practice historical notions that have been occurring throughout the history of mathematics since the time of Ancient Egypt.

Vit Hejny (in the photo on the left) analyzed the reason behind the fact that his pupils did not try to understand problems and preferred to memorize formulas that are only suitable for typical kinds of problems. He searched for non-standard problems which he tested in experiments with pupils, including his son (in the photo on the right). Unfortunately, political circumstances did not allow these findings to expand further.

In 1974, following a dispute with his son’s mathematics teacher, Milan Hejny, a mathematician, decides to become his own child’s teacher in school. With a small team of colleagues, he begins to elaborate on his father’s ideas. These are published as a comprehensive text in 1987. Unlike the traditional teaching of mathematics, which focuses on practicing standard problems, the new method is directed at the construction of a network of mental mathematical schemata. These schemata are formed by each pupil individually, during the process of solving suitable problems and by discussing their solutions with classmates.

In the 1990’s, a team is being formed around professor Hejny at the Faculty of Education at Charles University, and the methods finds its way into university pre-service teacher programs and, thanks to teacher training workshops, into real classrooms. At the initiative of the Fraus publishing house, the team writes a series of mathematics textbooks for the primary school. M. Hejny has established the company H-mat, o.p.s in 2013 to systematically evolve and spread the method. In 2015 the textbooks are adopted by 20% of Czech schools. Currently, textbooks for the lower-secondary level are being created. There are plans for upper-secondary school textbooks and for extending the current support scheme for teachers who teach with the method. Awareness of the method has also spurred investigation into the possibilities of implementing the method in other school subjects.

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