THE APPLICATION OF THE COMPETENT APPROACH IN THE MATHEMATICS SCHOOLBOOK (SECONDARY LEVEL, STAGE1).THE APPLICATION OF THE COMPETENT APPROACH IN THE MATHEMATICS SCHOOLBOOK (SECONDARY LEVEL, STAGE1)

Abstract

In this article, we discuss the theoretical and methodological frame of the Mathematics manual for secondary level, stage 1. We outline the specifics of competence approach applied in the manual. We argue that competence approach can be applied alongside action-, person-, and culture-oriented approaches in Mathematics classroom. We overview the principles of material selection which can allow the authors to secure the application of competence approach in mathematics manuals for primary schools. Among such are establishing the correlation between intellectual and practical activities of the students; providing quasi-real problems for solving; creating the conditions for gradual acquiring of modelling skills; securing equal involvement of students with different skills and talents into meeting cognitive and empirical challenges; collaborating and networking; and recognizing historical and cultural specifics of the nation. We discuss the requirements to content and the structure of Mathematics manuals for primary school and emphasize the importance of accounting to four areas for increasing the efficiency of Mathematics lessons. These are motivation and information provision, testing and practicing, logical thinking, and reflective judgement. We also describe the core component of a competence-oriented manual — competence-orienting task, which should be included in the section of the manual devoted to the development of logical thinking. We describe content and structural specifics of competence-orienting tasks, such as stimulus, formulation of the problem, secondary sources of information, and instrument of judgment. We provide an example of competence-orienting task from the manual that we authored. We conclude by explaining how the ideas of competent approach were applied in Mathematics manual for Belarusian schools by Murav’eva and Urban and suggest new promising paths of work in the area of schoolbooks’ design which correspond to new competence-oriented program of mathematical education in Belarus.