Curtis C. McKnight - Böcker

Which goals and standards guide mathematics education across the world? This first report of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) explores this question by examining the rich data collected in the TIMSS Curriculum Analysis. This study includes an exhaustive, page-by-page inventory of mathematics content and other pedagogical characteristics collected from hundreds of textbooks and curriculum guides from almost 50 countries. These data document many important features of these countries' mathematics education curricula. The book examines important features of curriculum policy across the TIMSS countries, especially the role of textbooks and curriculum guides. It also portrays similarities and differences in mathematics curricula in the succession of objectives across grades. Additionally, it details characteristics of the mathematics curriculum as embodied in textbooks and curriculum guides intended for select grades. This book should be of interest to anyone concerned with mathematics education standards, curriculum policy, cross-national educational comparisons, and mathematics pedagogy.

Which goals and standards guide mathematics education across the world? This first report of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) explores this question by examining the rich data collected in the TIMSS Curriculum Analysis. This study includes an exhaustive, page-by-page inventory of mathematics content and other pedagogical characteristics collected from hundreds of textbooks and curriculum guides from almost 50 countries. These data document many important features of these countries' mathematics education curricula. The book examines important features of curriculum policy across the TIMSS countries, especially the role of textbooks and curriculum guides. It also portrays similarities and differences in mathematics curricula in the succession of objectives across grades. Additionally, it details characteristics of the mathematics curriculum as embodied in textbooks and curriculum guides intended for select grades. This book should be of interest to anyone concerned with mathematics education standards, curriculum policy, cross-national educational comparisons, and mathematics pedagogy.

The report summarizes data from the TIMSS curriculum analysis and integrates it with teacher questionnaire data from the US, Japan, and Germany on science and mathematics topic coverage and instructional practices. The authors provide evidence of the unfocused nature of US mathematics and science curricular intentions, textbooks, and teacher practices. They offer the premise that producers of US textbooks and curriculum guides have attempted to answer calls for curricular reform by adding new content to already existing materials instead of devoting time to restructuring the materials. The authors also suggest that US teachers, inundated with a myriad of competing visions, are attempting to cover all the topics they confront in their resource documents and to meet all the instructional demands placed on them by those with a stake in education.

The report summarizes data from the TIMSS curriculum analysis and integrates it with teacher questionnaire data from the US, Japan, and Germany on science and mathematics topic coverage and instructional practices. The authors provide evidence of the unfocused nature of US mathematics and science curricular intentions, textbooks, and teacher practices. They offer the premise that producers of US textbooks and curriculum guides have attempted to answer calls for curricular reform by adding new content to already existing materials instead of devoting time to restructuring the materials. The authors also suggest that US teachers, inundated with a myriad of competing visions, are attempting to cover all the topics they confront in their resource documents and to meet all the instructional demands placed on them by those with a stake in education.