Assessment of Junior High School Mathematics Curriculum Materials

Curriculum materials are major resource for teachers’ planning and practice. Teachers, as curriculum implementers, should engage and show initiative in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of these materials. The present study used a participant-oriented approach that considered teachers’ views and attempted to assess the discipline-oriented, learner-oriented, and resource-oriented dimensions of the Junior High School Mathematics curriculum materials. Ninety mathematics teachers from Junior High School during the School Year 2017 – 2018 participated in the study. They were asked to analyze and assess the content of the curriculum materials using the questionnaire developed by the researcher and validated by a group of five experts in Curriculum and Mathematics Education. Then, semi-structured interview was conducted to validate answers and gain breadth in the responses. Results revealed the strengths of the K to 12 Junior High School Mathematics curriculum materials: It has clear objectives; is comprehensive and accurate; gives depth in mathematical inquiry and reasoning; and is balanced. Moreover, its content is engaging, timely and is supporting students’ diversity, and utilizes assessment appropriate for the 21^st century. Furthermore, it reflects an efficient pedagogy, needs flexible, indigenized, localized, and varied resources, and requires professional development for teachers. However, the weaknesses of the curriculum materials appeared to be on the presence of errors and the content topics across other grade levels which were not well-arranged. Based on the assessment results, it is recommended to use the findings in improving the curriculum materials whenever and wherever plausible.