Date of Award

1-1-2001

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Education

Department

-

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

The comparative analysis research on the Mathematics curriculum for the matriculation program and Malaysian Higher School Certificate was conducted with the primary aim of determining whether content coverage and learning experiences provided in the Mathematics curriculum for the matriculation program is sufficient to prepare mathematically competent students for further studies at institutions of higher learning. The research methodology employed in this study was that of content analysis. Samples for the study were the Mathematics syllabus QMO 15, QS025, QS035 and Mathematics Modules QMO 15 and QS025 for the matriculation program, developed by the Ministry of Education Malaysia. These materials were compared to the Mathematics T and Advance Mathematics T syllabus together with the pure mathematics textbook published by Pelangi Sdn. Bhd., for the Higher School Certificate Examination. Two coding schemes were developed as instruments to collect data pertaining to curricular goals and objectives, the scope of content coverage and learning experiences offered in both of the post secondary education curriculum. The first instrument noted the goal and objectives manifested in the syllabi. Types of mathematical abilities and forms of mathematical knowledge were analysed from the objective statements. The mathematical content titles were then coded into six mathematical categories namely algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, mechanics and statistics. The second instrument recorded the number of examples posed in the teaching and teaming materials and coded mathematical abilities from items in exercises into ability categories namely computation, graphing, forming expressions or equations, proofing and problem solving. Data collected from the first instrument was listed and compared to observe the similarities and differences of the types mathematical abilities and knowledge between the two curriculum. The breadth of content coverage of Mathematics for the matriculation program as compared to STPM Mathematics were matched based on the number of content titles and subtitles for both curriculum. The number of examples presented in the curriculum materials were interpreted as the depth of mathematical content, obtained from the second instrument. The frequency of every learning experience category was computed to observe the learning experience categorical distribution for each curriculum. These distributions were compared to observe the differences in categorical emphases. Results from this study showed that the statement of goal for matriculation Mathematics is overly general and unfocussed. The matriculation Mathematics program not only aims to prepare students for science and technology courses al institutions of higher learning, but also for the social sciences. The content coverage for applied mathematics is too f narrow to fulfill the specific needs in courses such as engineering, medicine, etc. STPM Mathematics has a wider scope of coverage as compared to matriculation mathematics. However, matriculation mathematics compensates the lack of breadth in content coverage with depth. The matriculation mathematics program offers more computational learning experiences as compared to STPM mathematics. In general, the teaching and learning materials of STPM mathematics contain more items in exercises as compared to the teaching and learning materials for matriculation mathematics. STPM mathematics, places special emphasis on the ability of forming expressions and equations.

Initial

snms

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A) -- Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, 2001.

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