Reshaping School Mathematics A Philosophy and Framework for Curriculum (1990) / Chapter Skim
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A Rationale for Change
A Rationale for Change
Pages 1-6
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What is required is a complete redesign of the content of school mathematics and the way it is taught. Changing Conditions We begin our analysis by reflecting on some of the major changes affecting the context of mathematics education: · Changes in the need for mathematics, As the economy adapts to information-age needs, workers in every sector from hotel clerks to secretaries, from automobile mechanics to travel agents must learn to interpret intelligently computer-controlled processes, Most jobs now require analytical rather than merely mechanical skills, so most students need more mathemat
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The changing demographics of the country and the changing demancis of the workplace exert extraordinary burdens on mathematics eclucation, burdens that we
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At the same time, white males-the fraclitional base of mathematically trained workers in the United States-will represent a significantly smaller fraction of new workers (Oaxaca and Reynolds, 1988~. Society's need for an approach to mathematics education that ensures achievement across the clemographic spectrum is both compelling and urgent (Office of Technology Assessment, 1988~.
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Despite turbulence in schools and revolution in the workplace, mathematics education maintains its course, fold lowing a path little changed through the centuries, To the Romans a curriculum was a rutted course that guicled the path of two-wheeled chariots. Toclay's mathematics curriculum - a course of study-follows a deeply rutted path directed more by events of the past than by the changing neecis of the present, Vast numbers of specific learning objectives, each with associated pedagogical strategies, serve as mileposts along the trail mapped by texts from kindergarten until twelfth grade.
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Some of those who become disenchanted with mathematics become teachers; others help decide educational and research policy for the nation. Very few adults in the United States have had the benefit of successful completion of a mathematics curriculum, Transitions to the Future The price of stability is anachronism, Evidence is mounting from many sources that our present curriculum must change course if it is to serve society well in the twenty-first century, Forces for change, which are growing increasingly powerful, are beginning to redirect the mathematics curriculum in several important ways: · The focus of school mathematics is shifting from a clualistic mission minimal mathematics for the majority, advanced mathematics for a few to a singular focus on a significant common core of mathematics for all students.
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The ruts of the old curriculum are being eroded by the waves of change sweeping across the landscape of mathematics eclucation. The following chaff from World Almanac gives speeds of animals in km/hr: 98 antelope 48 bear 48 cat 1 12 cheetah 14 chicken 69 coyote 48 deer 40 elephant 72 elk 67 fox 56 jacka/ 5 1 giraffe 62 greyhound 77 horse 45 human 80 lion 18 pig 56 rabbit 24 turkey 48 warthog 64 zebra · The human speed is listed as 45 km/hr.
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