Mathematical competence is one of the most important competences in life. Ways to get to it and how to upgrade it are different. Everything starts in pre-school, continues in primary school, secondary school, university and it never ends, as we learn all our lives. Mathematical knowledge is mostly obtained in schools. The success of obtaining this can be proven in life situations like understanding the world, taking responsibility and making decisions, and in various mathematics or science competitions, where our knowledge is comparable to that of children from other European and world countries.
School systems differ in the field of mathematics, which is also reflected in the international survey TIMSS. The knowledge survey presents the achievements of pupils of the fourth and eighth grades of four European countries: Slovenia, Latvia, Poland and Finland. Differences in the students' achievements are the result of various factors. In the theoretical part, Slovenia, Latvia, Poland and Finland and their school systems are going to be presented. Then in the empirical part, the similarities and differences of the mathematics curriculum of the compared countries is going to presented using the comparative method. The curriculum analysis is going to cover the scope and structure of curriculum, the organization of content sections, the record of teaching objectives and standards as well as minimum standards of knowledge. The study is also going to include the scope of mathematical content in the education of future primary teachers. The understanding of the research findings is going to be connected to the theoretical part, which is going to explore the characteristics of the aforementioned countries and the similarities as well as the differences in their school systems.
Through the theoretical part, the results of the research are going to show where our country stands on the European scale, and whether we could improve our school system and increase the mathematical competence among pupils of Slovenian primary schools.
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