The necessity and direction of educational changes in Iran’s school mathematics curriculum from teachers’ viewpoints

Authors

1 PhD candidate in Math Education, Shahid Beheshti University

2 (PhD), Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the necessity and direction of changes in Iran’s school mathematics curriculum from teachers’ viewpoints with the aim of enhancing Iranian students’ performances in solving situated problems. In order to conduct this research, we used some of the released mathematics problems in PISA at 2000 and 2003. For choosing situated mathematics problems, we considered problems which were more aligned with Iranian culture. The selected problems were then translated in Persian and 14 math teachers read them. Then, they were used for the current study. In the next stage, a questionnaire consisting of 6 items was designed and administered along with a series of semi-constructed interviews, with the goal of having more in-depth understanding on Iranian mathematics teachers’ viewpoints about the necessity and direction of a desired change. Findings from this stage of the study showed that from the teachers’ viewpoints, the Iranian students’ performances in solving problems similar to PISA-situated mathematics problems- is not satisfactory. The teachers’ viewpoints were based on their beliefs that (i) the mathematics textbooks do not have enough emphasis on enhancing students’ mathematics literacy which focuses on meaningful contexts and (ii) the external assessments have negative effects on mathematics teaching.  

Keywords

Journal of Educational Innovations
Volume 9, Issue 1
April 2010
Pages 91-120

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics