The Virtual Curriculum: New Ontologies for a Mobile Mathematics

Abstract

This chapter describes and comments on the large qualitative differences between curriculum intentions and outcomes, within and across countries. It is not a meta-analysis of research on international comparisons; rather the focus is the rela- tionship between what a government intends to happen in its society’s mathematics classrooms and what actually does. Is there a mismatch? In most countries there is. Why? This leads us into the dynamics of school systems, in a steady state and when change is intended—and, finally, to what might be done to bring classroom outcomes closer to policy intentions. Two areas are discussed in more detail: prob- lem solving and modeling, and the roles of computer technology in mathematics classrooms.