8 Mathematics Curriculum Design: A Constructivist's Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-426
Author(s):  
Abolfazl Rafiepour ◽  
Danyal Farsani

In this paper, six mathematics curriculum changes in Iran will be reviewed, spanning from 1900 until the present time. At first, change forces, barriers, and the main features of each curriculum reform will be represented. The first five curriculum changes are described briefly and the sixth and most recent curriculum reform will be elaborated. In this paper, we call the last reform as contemporary school mathematics curriculum change. This recent (contemporary) curriculum reform will be explained in more detail, followed by a discussion of the effect of globalization and research finding in the field of mathematics and mathematics education (in the Iranian mathematics curriculum). In total, three key ideas are distinguished as an effect of globalization which is “New Math”, “International Comparative Studies”, and “Computational Thinking”. Finally, the paper comments on the necessity of paying more attention to information and communication technology as part of globalization; in particular, recall policy-makers to consider “Computational Thinking” as an important component of future curriculum design.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 2-23
Author(s):  
Gilberto Januario ◽  
Ana Lúcia Manrique

From the 1990s, teachers have been provided with a considerable number of materials produced and distributed by different governments to develop a mathematics curriculum to perform as curriculum implementers and promote the mathematical reform of different teaching systems. These resources have been researching tools. However, the types of use that teachers make of them are still little explored. In this article, we present the results of a study that aimed to understand the relationship between teacher-curriculum materials in the area of mathematics education, which takes discussions about teaching competencies of curriculum design as theoretical contributions. The research analysed a research report, and meta-analysis was the methodology adopted. The results indicate that affordances and constraints qualify the materials and potentiate the agency and its displacement, both for teachers and for materials, thus imparting different interactions between these two agents of curriculum development in mathematics.


ZDM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (6) ◽  
pp. 1221-1232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit Pepin

AbstractThe argument of this theoretical paper is that the existence and availability of suitable digital curriculum resources, accelerated by the recent pandemic, have required a revision of the pedagogical landscape in terms of ways in which students can be empowered to (co-)design their own curriculum trajectories. For this purpose, I argue, students need to be supported in considering many connections, to arrive at coherent trajectories. Based on complexity thinking and curriculum design with digital resources, I propose the concept of connectivity as a crucial principle for creating coherent curriculum trajectories. If students are to become the co-designers of their own curriculum, they need a frame that raises their awareness about the many connections to be made and that supports their capability for actually realizing them. Drawing strongly on my own work and related work by others, I analyse and illustrate the connections made by students, teachers and curriculum designers in their design of mathematics tasks, lessons and learning trajectories with digital resources. Results show that connections can be made at several levels, namely, at a social level, at a material level, at programme level, and at a didactical level. Leaning on systems thinking, connections can be systematically considered, which is likely to help students to enhance the coherence of their designs. I contend that a student-designed ‘connected curriculum trajectory’ is likely to become the focus of future research activities in innovative learning environments: this endeavor would connect aspects of curriculum, mathematical content, learning strategies of students, and the use of new technologies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kusaka

The paper firstly clarified the characteristic of competencies being discussed in African countries by comparing them with competencies being discussed in developed countries. It has become clear that both countries are very similar. In other words, against the background of rapidly increasing internationalization and globalization, the competencies required to live in the society of the future are the same across borders, regardless of whether in a developed country or a developing country. Secondly, using Mozambique as a case study, how the competencies are actualized and what kind of challenges they face are discussed by analyzing primary mathematics curriculum, textbooks and in classes. An emphasis was placed on the ability to use social, cultural and technological tools used in an interactive manner in the competencies that were contained in the 2015 curriculum. However, most of the contents of the new textbook focus on “basic competencies” centered on basic knowledge and skills. Furthermore, there were many classes where teachers presented questions listed in the textbook as they are. Hence, it became apparent that the nurturing of practical competencies listed in the curriculum was largely reliant on the abilities of the teacher.


Author(s):  
Paul Betts

Students must make sense of the mathematics they are learning, if they are to understand it. When students are encountering a mathematics topic primarily through that topic’s mathematical forms—its symbols, terminology, definitions, operations, and algorithms—the richness, potency, and completeness of their understanding will depend on their prior, pre-formal experiences with that topic. Foundational experiences activities enable students to construct images, patterns, and ideas—in a word, memories—that will enable them to see the sensibility of the topic’s mathematical forms when they learn them. We invite participants to explore some examples of instructional activities designed to provide foundational experiences for multiplication. What are the qualities that we should invest in foundational experience activities? How can such activities be positioned within curriculum design, with the goal of increasing the quality of students’ understandings of mathematics topics, in pursuit of success for all participants in school math?


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia Clinton ◽  
Candace Walkington

Two common interest-enhancement approaches in mathematics curriculum design are illustrations and personalization of problems to students’ interests. The objective of these experiments is to test a variety of illustrations and personalization approaches. In the illustrations experiment, students (N = 265) were randomly assigned to lessons with story problems containing decorative illustrations, contextual illustrations, diagrammatic illustrations, misleading illustrations, or no illustrations (only text; control). Students’ problem-solving performance and attitudes were not affected by illustration condition, but learning was better in the control compared to contextual illustrations. In the personalization experiment, students (N = 223) were randomly assigned to story problems that were either personalized based on: a survey of their interests, their choice of interest topics, a randomly-assigned interest topic, or the original non-personalized story problem (control). The findings indicated there were benefits for choice personalization both for performance in the problem set as well as on a later learning assessment.


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