APPLICATIONS IN THE SECONDARY-SCHOOL MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM - A GENERATION OF CHANGE

In the 1960s, the ideal curriculum, as seen from recommendations in jo urnals and reports, and the implemented curriculum, as viewed front te xtbooks, referred very little to applications of mathematics outside t he subject. Yet today the teaching of real-world applications of mathe matics is seen as a necessary-component of a good mathematics educatio n. A number of factors are responsible for this change: changing enrol lment trends; changing theories toward how students learn and what the y can learn; the arrivals of computers and calculators in schools; the public perception of performance of students on standardized tests: a nd recommendations of business and industry-regarding what they would like to see in the people they hire. The change is manifested in vario us ways beyond the inclusion of problems that relate mathematics to th e world outside the classroom. The most widely of the newer curricula develops important application ideas from basic principles over many y ears. Newer influences on the thinking of mathematics educators come f rom advances in applied mathematics that have resulted in major change s in the workplace and a corresponding desire that no students be excl uded from significant applied mathematics, As a result, some of the mo re recent curricula include entire courses based on units, each with a particular application theme, with the expectation that students will work both individually and in groups.