Histrical Trends in Mathematics Education: Developing International Perspective

Abstract

This lecture an outline of the history of mathematics education in Southeast Asian nations and Oceania in the 19th and 20th centuries will be presented. Australia, New Zealand, and all Southeast Asian nations except Thailand, have a colonial heritage which has played a major part in the evolution of their 19th and 20th century school mathematics curricula and practices. Consequently, many of these countries share mathematics education models that closely resemble those of the colonising countries. Thus, for example, the history of mathematics education in Australia reflects major movements within mathematics education in the United Kingdom. Indeed, throughout the 20th century, school mathematics education in Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Singapore had much in common with school mathematics in the United Kingdom.