Mathematics Curriculum Of Grades 11th And 12th From The Perspective Of Stakeholders In The Sultanate Of Oman
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Date
2010-04
Authors
Said Al Hadidi, Mohammed Rashid
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the stakeholders' views toward
mathematics curriculum of grades 11 and 12 in the Sultanate of Oman. The study
examined supervisors, teachers, undergraduate students of higher education level and
of private sector toward the content relevant of mathematics curriculum in grades 11
and 12, and supervisors and teachers' views toward quality of instructional strategies
and assessment practices suggested in teacher guide and textbooks of applied
mathematics in secondary school in Oman. The study utilized triangulation approach
using two questionnaires that were designed to data collect regarding content
relevance, instructional strategies, and assessment practices. The techniques
collection data involved interviews, and document analysis administered to
participants during the second semester of the 2007/2008 academic year in Oman.
The questionnaire about content relevance involved 12 main areas in grade 11 and 12
with six areas in each grade. Whereas the questionnaire for instructional strategies
involved 18 items, and 11 items on assessment practices. A series of analyses of
descriptive statistics, such as, frequency distributions, mean scores, and standard
deviations were calculated on the quantitative data using the Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences SPSS version 13.0. The interview transcripts were transcribed
and categorized for each grade according to contents, instructional strategies, and
assessment practices. The results of the quantitative data indicated that all areas of
curriculum content for grade 11 and grade 12 were relevant for both higher education
and private sector. Overall Percentage of grade 11 were between 67%- 91% for
higher education, between 57% – 84% for private sector, and overall percentage for
grade 12 were between 66%- 92% for higher education, and between 57% – 85% for
private sector. Whereas the qualitative data indicated that all areas for grades 11 and
12 were relevant to higher education, but three areas of grade 11, and two areas of
grade 12 were not relevant to private sector. The result of instructional strategies
indicated that 16 out of 18 items of grade 11 were considered good quality strategies,
where the overall mean scores were between 2.51- 3.12 of 4 point scale, and 15 of 18
items for grade 12 were considered good quality, with the overall mean scores were
between 2.55–3.15 on 4 point scale. The result for assessment practices indicated that
all 11 items of grade 11 and 12 were considered as good quality practices, where the
overall mean scores were between 2.53– 3.24 on 4 point scale for grade 11, and
between 2.50– 3.22 on 4 point scale for grade 12. Based on the results, the researcher
suggests some recommendations for the success of education development
particularly in terms of applied mathematics curriculum. The main recommendation
is to reorganize the content of current applied mathematics curriculum into two types
of curriculum: First is the curriculum of applied mathematics, while the second is the
curriculum of economics and administration sciences which include Transaction in
Financial Markets, Introduction to Economics, Entrepreneurship (Small Business),
Production and Marketing in Business Organization, Permutations and
Combinations, Payments and Insurance, Human Resources Management,
Accounting in Business Organization, Finance in Business, and Tourism and
Investments.
Description
Keywords
Mathematics curriculum of grades 11 and 12 , in the Sultanate of Oman