Many Visions, Many Aims

Which goals and standards guide mathematics education across the world? This first report of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) explores this question by examining the rich data collected in the TIMSS Curriculum Analysis. This study includes an exhaustive, page-by-page inventory of mathematics content and other pedagogical characteristics collected from hundreds of textbooks and curriculum guides from almost 50 countries. These data document many important features of these countries' mathematics education curricula. The book examines important features of curriculum policy across the TIMSS countries, especially the role of textbooks and curriculum guides. It also portrays similarities and differences in mathematics curricula in the succession of objectives across grades. Additionally, it details characteristics of the mathematics curriculum as embodied in textbooks and curriculum guides intended for select grades. This book should be of interest to anyone concerned with mathematics education standards, curriculum policy, cross-national educational comparisons, and mathematics pedagogy.