This paper examines the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Agenda for Action and the significant revisions made to mathematics curriculum standards between 1989 and 2000. It traces the evolution of the five process standards—problem solving, communications, reasoning, connections, and the newly added representation—as well as the reorganization of content standards from ten areas into five. The paper highlights major shifts in instructional philosophy, including a reduced emphasis on rote computation mastery, a greater focus on algebraic thinking, and a broader integration of communication skills and cross-disciplinary connections. Together, these changes reflect NCTM's effort to align mathematics education with the demands of a technology- and information-driven society.
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Over time, new generations of students come equipped with unique and different background knowledge. In the 1980s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) launched a new Agenda for Action. American students had moved from a largely agricultural-based society to one focused on science, technology, and information. NCTM provides the blueprints from which mathematics curriculum is built across the country. In order to meet the needs of a changing society, NCTM felt an urgent need to update the mathematics standards to fit the students of the 1980s, and they have continued to update those standards for today's students (Krulik, 2003, p. 21).
Many updates were made to the Agenda for Action in 2000. In the 1989 version, four standards — called process standards — were presented and applied across all grade levels, K–12: problem solving, communications, reasoning, and connections. When updated in 2000, a fifth standard, representation, was added. This new process standard suggested that students should develop reasoning skills, strategies for solving problems, an understanding of relationships between different types of mathematics, and an understanding of the relationships between mathematics and other disciplines (Krulik, 2003, p. 22).
Several additional changes were made. Communication skills, which had long been overlooked in mathematics instruction, were now being emphasized through writing, listening, and other forms of mathematical communication (Krulik, 2003, pp. 22–23). Connections were also brought into focus, treating the mathematical discipline as a single unified body rather than numerous smaller, isolated parts (Krulik, 2003, p. 23). Together, these process standards signaled a large shift in grade placement and content levels (Krulik, 2003, p. 24).
In order to address specific grade levels, the process standards were broken down by grade spans. The middle school grades were represented by standards 5–8, as these are the grades commonly associated with middle school. When process standards were presented specifically by grade level in this way, they were called content standards, and these were also updated in 2000.
The 1989 content standards included ten areas: number and number relationships, number systems and theory, computation and estimation, patterns and functions, algebra, statistics, probability, geometry, and measurement. In 2000, those ten areas were retained in substance but reorganized into five broader categories: number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis (Krulik, 2003, p. 21).
"Reduced rote computation, expanded algebra emphasis"
NCTM's Agenda for Action was much needed at the time it was created. As years have passed and society has shifted from industry and farming to technology and information, the curriculum standards have evolved accordingly. The updates presented in 2000 provided students with a way to think differently about mathematics, an approach that will likely serve them better as they navigate an increasingly complex world.
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