Intended mathematics curriculum in grade 1: A comparative study

Abstract

Learning mathematics in grade 1 as the formal starting point for learning mathematics in many countries can significantly impact students’ subsequent learnings. One of the most critical factors influencing teacher teaching and student learning is the written intended curriculum materials (official curricula). Despite the importance of this topic, there is little research on how many mathematics topics should be taught in grade 1 and to what depth students should learn these topics until the end of the first grade. In this study, we investigated and compared the grade 1 intended mathematics curriculum of Australia, Iran, Singapore, the Province of Ontario in Canada, and New York State in the USA. Indeed, we sought to examine how curriculum developers and decision-makers in education in these jurisdictions prepared the content of the first-grade mathematics in the curriculum writing materials. To do this, by examining the official curricula for grade 1 of these countries and using a procedure called general topic trace mapping, we found a list of 14 topics. The findings of the current paper showed similarities and differences in the topics intended in the mathematics curriculum of these countries. Ontario, Australia, Singapore, New York, and Iran curricula cover 13, 11, 9, 9, and 7 topics of 14 topics, respectively. We also considered five content strands and examined and compared the progress of each intended curriculum in these strands at the end of grade 1. We found that the learning progression in some content strands is different among countries. The results demonstrate the nuanced complexity of these comparisons and the importance of cross-national comparisons. We concluded this article with suggestions for curriculum developers, textbook writers, and teachers.