The Mathematics Curriculum

This collection was produced by the Schools Council Project: The Mathematics Curriculum - A Critical Review. The Project was initiated by the Mathematics Committee of the Schools Council as a result of letters having been received from teachers asking for guidance on the vast amount of new mathematical literature which had been produced for schools during the 1960s. The Project was set up in 1973 and was based at the Shell Centre for Mathematical Education at Nottingham University.

The fundamental aim of the Project was to help teachers to perform their own critical appraisal of the then current mathematics syllabuses and teaching apparatus for secondary school students in the 11 to 16 age range, with the objective of making, for them, optimal choices.

Although the Project was not intended to be an exercise in curriculum development, it was almost inevitable and certainly desirable that a review of existing syllabuses should lead to a consideration of the possibility of a synthesis of 'modern' and 'traditional'. The authors believed that such a synthesis was possible and, indeed, sorely needed. So, although they did not attempt to spell out an optimum syllabus, they tried to identify the important ideas and skills which should be represented at school, and to show how so-called modern and traditional topics were related.

It was hoped that one of the lessons which would emerge was that the two could be integrated in a unified presentation of mathematics and its applications. The project leaders also felt that the debate surrounding numeracy might lead to syllabus revision and if so, it must be informed by sound mathematical and pedagogical considerations, to which end these books were devoted.

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