Comparison of secondary school curricula with PISA content: The case of Singapore, South Korea and Türkiye

This study examined secondary school curriculum programmes in comparison with the content of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In this context the science and mathematics curriculum programmes of South Korea and Singapore, which achieved high scores in PISA, were compared with the relevant programmes in Turkey in terms of objectives, content, teaching-learning processes, and assessment dimensions. Conducted as a qualitative research study, the research employed document analysis. The curricula of the three countries, PISA reports, and relevant academic literature were systematically examined. The findings revealed that while the curricula of the countries shared similarities in terms of fundamental themes, they also differed in terms of teaching approaches and diversity of implementation. While Singapore and South Korea programmes stand out with their teaching approach based on applied learning, related to daily life and targeting higher-order cognitive skills, Türkiye's programmes, although strong in terms of subject coverage, contain limitations in terms of applied activities and contextual learning opportunities. Consequently, it was concluded that the curricula of countries achieving high success in PISA are structured in a skills-based manner and support higher-order thinking skills; that Türkiye's reorganisation of its curricula in this direction would be an important step towards increasing international success. This study offers recommendations for aligning mathematics and science curricula in Türkiye with current educational approaches.