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Curriculum Innovation And The Teaching Of Probability In South Australia Colonial Echo, Mature Development Or Muddling Through?

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Curriculum Innovation And The Teaching Of Probability In South Australia Colonial Echo, Mature Development Or Muddling Through?

Author: John Truran

Publication Year: 1994

Abstract

Some writers have argued that mathematics curriculum change in Australia has been a mimicking of overseas trends until recent times when a more mature approach been developed. This claim is examined for the teaching of probability in South Australian schools from 1960 to the present. This recency and probability's distinctive requirements mean that the forces underlying its introduction are likely to be more accessible to the researcher than those for less radical changes. It is argued that neither a "colonial echo" nor a "coming to maturity" model are adequate to describe what happened. The forces for change have often been idiosyncratic, poorly integrated and poorly justified. They have been concerned more with content than with research findings or pedagogical difficulties. "Muddling through" may well be the best way to describe the process of change.

Type: Research Paper

John Truran
Curriculum Innovation And The Teaching Of Probability In South Australia Colonial Echo, Mature Development Or Muddling Through?

Short Communications & Round Tables

The following documents are essential to read and complete when considering submitting a short communication or round table to the MERGA conference (available in the Submission section of this website).

MERGA Paper Template – to be used to write the abstracts which are then submitted to the MERGA conference website
MERGA Publication Agreement – to be submitted on the MERGA conference website at the time of the abstract submission

Submissions not exceeding one page are required for short communications and round tables. The submissions must be prepared using the conference template, and can include essential references. They will be reviewed by the Editorial Team and, if accepted, will be published in the conference proceedings as one-page abstracts (not as papers). Presenters are invited to prepare a paper for distribution at the conference, but these papers will not be included in the proceedings.

Short communications are suitable for reports on research in mathematics education that do not fully meet the requirements for published papers. These might include works in preliminary stages, reports of pilot projects, initial reviews of literature, ideas or suggestions for future study, and briefer discussions of particular issues. Short communications allow new researchers to obtain feedback on projects in a constructive and supportive environment, and foster the building of links between researchers with similar interests.

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MERGA Paper Template – to be used to write the papers which are then submitted to the MERGA conference website
MERGA Publication Agreement – to be submitted on the MERGA conference website at the time of the paper submission

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a statement of the problem/issue and a discussion of its significance;
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conclusions and implications for mathematics education derived from the study.

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MERGA Paper Template (to be used to write the papers which are then submitted to the MERGA conference website)
MERGA Publication Agreement (to be submitted on the MERGA conference website at the time of the paper submission)

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