A comparative study of Australia-Waldorf and Turkish secondary mathematics curriculum

The aim of the study was to investigate the similarities and differences between the Australian Steiner Mathematics High School Curriculum Framework (ASHMC) and Turkish National High School Mathematics Curriculum (TNHMC) in terms of aims/learning objectives, content, teaching-learning process and measurement-evaluation process. Based on document analysis, ASHMC, developed in 2011 and updated in 2014 by Steiner Education Australia (SEA), and TNHMC developed by the National Board of Education and started to implement in 2018-2019 academic year, were the main data sources of the study. The data gathered from the official written curricula, namely ASHMC and TNHMC, were analysed by making use of the descriptive analysis. According to the findings, ASHMC was organized more comprehensively and mathematics-specific than TNHMC in terms of aims and competencies. Considering the learning objectives, the results indicated that both of the curricula were dominated with the cognitive domain and rarely included in psychomotor domain. For affective domain, although ASHMC has affective domain objectives, in TNHMC, no reference was found. Considering the teaching-learning process, the findings revealed that ASHMC was more focused on student-centered activities than TNHMC. Regarding the measurement and evaluation, the results indicated that neither mathematics-specific assessment instruments nor examples were suggested in the both curricula. It is expected that the results of the study might provide different perspectives for stakeholders in terms of the curriculum approach embedded in Waldorf Pedagogy as well as the high school mathematics curriculum.