Award for a maths educator
Dr Swetlana Nordheimer has been awarded the ‘HU Preis für gute Lehre’ for her lecture ‘Algebra/Number Theory and its Didactics, with a Focus on Sign Languages’
Dr Swetlana Nordheimer’s curiosity about sign languages was sparked by the television programmes she watched as a child. “In Kazakhstan, sign language was simply part of everyday life, just like Russian or Kazakh. We children were fascinated by it and tried to imitate those who used it,” she recalls. Today, she is learning sign languages herself and conducting research into sign language mathematics. It is a matter close to her heart that this language should be given greater prominence in teaching and research, thereby opening up worlds to many people in schools and universities that would otherwise remain closed to them. Her commitment in this field has now been recognised with the Humboldt Prize for Excellence in Teaching in the category ‘Equitable Teaching and Learning’. The prize was formally presented to her at the “Humboldt Day for Teaching” on 24 June in the Senate Hall of Humboldt-Universität’s main building.
60 students gain an insight into sign language mathematics
Her award-winning lecture and tutorial, ‘Algebra/Number Theory and its Didactics with Regard to Sign Languages’, at the Department of Mathematics at Humboldt University was aimed at teacher training students for grammar schools and secondary schools. “It focused on the subject-specific didactics of algebra and number theory, as these have traditionally been established primarily for learners who do not use sign languages,” explains Nordheimer. “In addition, I incorporated new insights from the theory and practice of special educational needs as well as STEM teaching methodologies into sign languages.” Through the teaching materials in German Sign Language (DGS), the approximately 60 students gained an insight into the practice of sign language teaching and current developments in subject-specific didactics research in sign languages. For example, the students also contributed their own new three-dimensional geometric visualisations. They were also encouraged to incorporate their own native sign languages into the exercise formats. “As these were initial attempts to integrate sign languages into subject-specific didactics, the content was not examined; students were free to decide for themselves how intensively they wished to engage with aspects of sign language didactics,” she emphasises. The students’ nominations include comments such as this: “Everyone was included. She showed the same patience with everyone’s questions; she provided more support to weaker students and gave stronger ones more of a challenge.”
From Novosibirsk to Berlin
As a child, Swetlana Nordheimer was fascinated not only by Russian Sign Language but also by mathematics. As the daughter of an outstanding maths teacher, she was introduced to the world of numbers at an early age, took part in maths Olympiads and attended a specialist school for physics and maths for two years in Akademgorodok, the Russian science city in Novosibirsk. “There, we young people were treated as equals by the researchers,” she recalls. The topic of supporting gifted pupils is now also one of her research focuses. She is involved in the HU’s Mathematical Students’ Society, the Bonn Maths Club and the Berlin Maths Working Group. In 2022, she was involved in developing the first maths Advent calendar in German Sign Language. Some of the exercises developed for this have been incorporated into maths teaching materials in sign languages.
Respect for sign language
Nordheimer interrupted her own mathematics degree at the University of Novosibirsk after the first semester: her family, of German origin, decided to emigrate to Germany in the mid-1990s. Her subsequent career path is closely linked to Humboldt-Universität. It was here that she studied mathematics and special needs education for the blind and deaf, training to become a teacher, and began to combine the theoretical foundations of subject didactics with special needs education for the deaf. “Unfortunately, back then, in the early 2000s, I couldn’t really study German Sign Language at Humboldt-Universität, but I learnt to respect the language even then,” she recalls. Partly through her later contact with Olga Pollex and Tino Sell – who studied mathematics and sign language education at Humboldt University and with whom she now collaborates – she decided to focus on sign language mathematics and, in particular, sign language geometry.
Nordheimer associates Humboldt-Universität with excellence in teaching and research, as well as the appreciation she experienced as a student and later as a research assistant at the Departments of Education Studies, Mathematics and Rehabilitation Sciences. At the Department of Mathematics, she completed her PhD under the supervision of mathematics education specialists Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schulz and Prof. Dr Andreas Filler, focusing on the interconnections between geometry, algebra and stochastics. “It was also Andreas Filler who gave me the opportunity to combine his tried-and-tested lecture format with new sign language content in the summer term of 2025.”
Students attend conference in sign languages
“None of this would have been possible without the support of Prof. Dr Christian Rathmann and Gabriele Unterhitzenberger from the Department of Deaf Studies and Sign Language Interpreting at HU. I learnt a great deal from them and attended courses there on the linguistics of sign languages.” Nordheimer and her students were invited to the final conference of the EU project ‘STEM Education in Sign Languages’, STEMSiL, on which the early-career researcher collaborated and which was led by Prof. Dr Rathmann. “The students were able to watch and listen to academic presentations on sign language teaching research and contributions from the practical side of STEM teaching in sign languages,” explains Nordheimer. At the conference, the future maths teachers were also able to meet and get to know trainee sign language interpreters. “This is very important for teacher training students in terms of their own future teaching, as they will then be working alongside interpreters.”
Nordheimer herself taught for a time at various schools, including the Ellen-Key-Schule in Berlin – where she resat her German Abitur – and the Margarethe-von-Witzleben-Schule, which specialises in special educational needs with a focus on ‘Hearing and Communication’. “There, I worked alongside sign language interpreters in maths lessons.” She knows from her own experience that there is still much work to be done in this area, both in research and in the training of teachers and interpreters.
Swetlana Nordheimer would like to continue learning sign languages, to keep campaigning for greater equity in education and academia through sign languages, and looks forward to academic exchange. You can contact her at Swetlana.Nordheimer@hu-berlin.de.
Humboldt-Universität Preis für gute Lehre
The “Humboldt-Universität Preis für gute Lehre” is presented annually to recognise successful and innovative lecturers and teaching concepts that have been implemented as part of regular teaching at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Changing themes draw attention to different aspects of good teaching and thus encourage a wide-ranging discussion. All members of HU are eligible to submit nominations. The student body and departments may also nominate candidates. In the 2025/2026 academic year, the theme of the teaching prize is ‘Equitable Teaching and Learning’.
Contact:
Dr. Swetlana Nordheimer
Department of Mathematics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
+49 30 2093-45362
swetlana.nordheimer(at)hu-berlin.de
www.mathematik.hu-berlin.de
Author: Ljiljana Nikolic / HU Berlin