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Soviet Secondary School Mathematics and Science Programs

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Book cover The Status of Soviet Civil Science

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Abstract

The decision to industrialize the Soviet Union in the late 1920s marked the beginning of a relentless drive to improve mathematics and science programs in secondary schools. This 40-year effort was highlighted by several major achievements: (1) New curricula were developed and implemented on a massive scale; (2) The Soviets created an outstanding and extensive literature on methods of teaching; (3) They based this literature on their own remarkable research in the psychology of learning and teaching; (4) The Soviets developed a vast and steady supply of specialized teachers with superior training; (5) Beginning in the mid-1930s Soviet research mathematicians and scientists at universities and the USSR Academy of Sciences collaborated to build an extraordinary enrichment literature and large-scale extracurricular programs designed primarily to discover and train young talent.

Portions of this paper are based on my paper, “The Soviet Challenge in Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education,” chapter 5 in the book Science Education in Global Perspective: Lessons from Five Continents, edited by Margrete Siebert Klein and F. James Rutherford, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Selected Symposium 100, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985, pp. 175–206.

Readers seeking more detailed comparisons of U.S. and Soviet school mathematics and science may refer to the following articles in Educational Leadership: Izaak Wirszup, “The Soviet Challenge” (February 1981); “On Mathematics in the U.S.S.R.: A Conversation with Izaak Wirszup” (February 1981); Izaak Wirszup, “Education and National Survival: Confronting the Mathematics and Science Crisis in American Schools” (December 1983/January 1984).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, The University of Chicago, USA

    Izaak Wirszup

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  1. Izaak Wirszup
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Advanced Study Institutes Programme, Scientific Affairs Division, NATO, Brussels, Belgium

    Craig Sinclair (Director) (Director)

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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht

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Wirszup, I. (1987). Soviet Secondary School Mathematics and Science Programs. In: Sinclair, C. (eds) The Status of Soviet Civil Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3647-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3647-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8132-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3647-8

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