Same math for different students

To offer mathematics to all students, parallel tracks often occur from the middle of secondary school. The main track continues with a full curriculum, while parallel tracks might use a reduced curriculum leaving out e.g. calculus; or they might contain a different kind of mathematics meant to be more relevant to students by including more applications. Alternatively, a single curriculum may be designed for all students no matter which track they may choose if mathematics as a number-language follows the communicative turn that took place in language education in the 1970s by prioritizing its connection to the outside world higher than its inside connection to its grammar. We will consider examples of all three curricula options.

Written as a proposal for a chapter for the ICMI STUDY 24: School Mathematics Curriculum Reforms: Challenges, Changes and Opportunities, key question B2: How are mathematics content and pedagogical approaches in reforms determined for different groups of students.

Reference: ICMI study 24 (2018). School Mathematics Curriculum Reforms: Challenges, Changes and Opportunities. Pre-conference proceedings. Editors: Yoshinori Shimizu and Renuka Vithal.