Elementary school curriculum for mathematics in the light of international comparisons

Barbara Japelj Pavešić, mag. Nina Žvan and dr. Zvonko Perat

Summary:  In the article, we present the results of national analysis of the main Slovene mathematics curricular document, Curriculum for mathematics for 9 year elementary school. The aim of analysis was to help improve the national curriculum when studying factors which would explain the mathematics achievement gap between Slovene students and students in other countries found as a result of international comparative studies. Results were compared to the best graded American curricula found to be used in states (i.e. Massachusetts) which are scoring very high (similar to Asia) on international scales of students mathematics achievement. Analysis shows that Slovene curriculum contains parts which need to be improved because of ambiguities in written text, non consistent introduction of math contents through grades and too low expectations of student knowledge.