Curriculum reform in mathematics and the target oriented curriculum.

The implementation of the Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) has caused much controversy and misunderstanding. This article highlights issues and prevalent ideas in the reform of school mathematics curriculum with reference to curriculum documents of Australia, United Kingdom and United States of America. It also, in its second part, attempts to interpret the ideas set forth in documents related to the TOC initiative in Hong Kong. The exposition begins with an examination of existing curriculum documents of Hong Kong and the concept of a mathematics curriculum they portrayed. It is then followed by a discussion of issues such as the change of goals, the content-process balance, teaching and learning style, and the problems of assessment. Built upon these, some core features of TOC pertinent to the subject mathematics such as the five learning principles are stressed and the concept of task are interpreted. Finally, factors which hinder the implementation of TOC are briefly discussed. Copyright © 1995 The Chinese University of Hong Kong.