Innovation in Curriculum: Context in Mathematics Curricula

The past few years have seen the emergence of five mathematics curricula developed with support by the National Science Foundation for the middle grades: Mathematics in Context (MIC) (National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education and Freudenthal Institute 2001), Math Thematics (Billstein and Williamson 1999), Connected Mathematics (CMP) (Lappan et al. 1998), MathScape, a View of the World from a Mathematical Perspective (Education Development Center 1998), and Pathways to Algebra and Geometry (Institute for Research on Learning 1997). One striking similarity that characterizes these middle school curricula, as well as their reform counterparts at the elementary and secondary school levels, is the pervasive use of context. Using a definition suggested by Borasi (1986), context is “the situation in which [a] problem is embedded” (p. 129). Context is usually supplied by the text of the problem, but it can also be contained in pictures, diagrams, or tables. A quick review of any of the curricula mentioned above shows that context is plentiful and varied. This abundance of context is in marked contrast with traditional textbooks, in which context appears only in brief introductions or end-of-section story problems.