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International Journal of E-ISSN : 2454-8006
Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering (ijasre)
DOI: 10.31695/IJASRE.2020.33766 Volume 6, Issue 3
March - 2020
Review of Literature on Teaching and Learning Geometry and
Measurement: A Case of Ghanaian Standards Based Mathematics
Curriculum
1 1 1 2
Samuel Baah-Duodu Vivian Osei-Buabeng , Ennin Francis Cornelius , John Ekow Hegan and
,
3
Prof. M.J Nabie
1Department of Mathematics/ICT, Agogo Presbyterian Women‟s College of Education Agogo, A/A Ghana
2Department of Mathematics/ICT Methodist College of Education Akyem Oda, Ghana
3Department of Mathematics Education, University of Education Winneba, Ghana
_______________________________________________________________________________________
ABSTRACT
This study aimed at providing a theoretical background for the development of the Geometry and Measurement Strands in the
New Ghanaian Standards-Based Curriculum. As such it should be of aid to inform the supervisory committee of the Ghana
Education Service, National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), National Teacher Education Curriculum
Framework (NTECF) and Ministry of Education, considering the Mathematics section of the current Ghana Curriculum Review
project. This report concentrated on progressions in the two strands both within the area of higher-level thinking (what we will
refer to as ‘pedagogy’) and within the area of content (‘knowledge’). While much has been written on the theoretical
progressions, concerns showed that there is little to be found on progressions that could be of direct assistance to the facilitator
(classroom teacher). The main emphasis of the theoretical writing on progressions in geometry tends to be on the increasing
sophistication of overall ‘understanding’ of geometry (how do learners do geometry?); in contrast to the curriculum descriptions
of geometry, it tends to focus much more on the content of knowledge/ability (what do learners do in geometry?). Findings also
revealed that the ‘Count Me into Measurement program’ is the Learning Framework in Measurement, which aims to describe the
stages learners progress through in developing an understanding of measurement. The Learning Framework describes three key
stages: Identification of the attribute (direct comparison/partitioning/conservation); Informal measurement (counting
units/relating number of units to quantity/comparison of measurements); and Unit structure (replicating a single unit/relating size
of units to the number required). Learners are perceived as passing through the same three stages in their understanding of each
of length, area, volume/capacity and mass, though not at the same time, as increasing the number of dimensions measured leads
to the increasing complexity of the concept.
Key Words: Standards Based, Curriculum, Measurement, Geometry.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
1. INTRODUCTION
In the year 2019, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) in collaboration with the
Ministry of Education rolled out the new standards-based curriculum for Ghanaian basic schools, which is a
demonstration of placing learning at the heart of every classroom and ensuring that every learner receives
quality education [1]. Provision of accessible quality education for all is non-negotiable if we are to meet the
human capital needs of our country, required for accelerated sustainable national development. It is for this
reason that the new curriculum sets out clearly the learning areas that need to be taught, how they should be
taught and how they should be assessed. It provides a set of core competencies and standards that learners
are to know, understand and demonstrate as they progress through the curriculum from one content standard
to the other and from one phase to the next. The curriculum and its related teachers‟ manual promote the use
of inclusive and gender responsive pedagogy within the context of learning-centred teaching methods so that
every learner can participate in every learning process and enjoy learning. The curriculum encourages the
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Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY-NC
International Journal of Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering (ijasre), Vol 6 (3), March -2020
use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for teaching and learning – ICTs as teaching
and learning materials.
The new curriculum has at its heart the acquisition of skills in the 4Rs of Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and
cReativity by all learners. It is expected that at any point of exit from a formal education, all learners should
be equipped with these foundational skills for life, which are also prerequisites for Ghana becoming a
learning nation. The graduates from the school system should become functional citizens in the 4Rs and
lifelong learners. They should be digital literates, critical thinkers and problem solvers. The education they
receive through the study of the learning areas in the curriculum should enable them to collaborate and
communicate well with others and be innovative. The graduates from Ghana‟s schools should be leaders
with a high sense of national and global identity. The curriculum therefore provides a good opportunity in its
design to develop individuals with the right skills and attitudes to lead the transformation of Ghana into an
industrialised learning nation.
For this reason, the Ministry of Education expects that learners, as a result of the new knowledge, skills and
values they have acquired through the new curriculum, will show a new sense of identity as creative, honest
and responsible citizens. These are the core values that underpin the identification and selection of the
learning areas for this curriculum. These core values serve as fundamental building blocks for developing
into learners the spirit of teamwork, respect, resilience and the commitment to achieving excellence. The
Ministry endorses a quality learning experience as an entitlement for each of Ghana‟s school-going girl and
boy; the curriculum has rightly focused on learning and learning progression. The Ministry has also
endorsed accountability as a critical domain for effective workings of standards-based curriculum.
More importantly the role of the teacher is to make this curriculum work for the intended purpose - to
inculcate in learners the core competencies and values and to make learning happen; improve learning
outcomes – and the support that teachers need is duly recognised and endorsed. The Ministry of Education
supports and continue to support the implementation of the curriculum to include capacity development of
all teachers in the new curriculum because teachers matter in the development and delivery of the standards-
based curriculum.
Mathematics forms an integral part of our everyday lives. It is a universal truth that development is hinged
on Mathematics. It is the backbone of social, economic, political and physical development of a country. It
is a never-ending creative process which serves to promote discovery and understanding. It consists of a
body of knowledge which attempts to explain and interpret phenomena and experiences. Mathematics has
changed our lives, and is vital to Ghana‟s future development.
To provide quality Mathematics education, teachers must facilitate learning in the Mathematics classroom.
This will provide the foundations for discovering and understanding the world around us and lay the grounds
for Mathematics and Mathematics related studies at higher levels of education. Learners should be
encouraged to understand how Mathematics can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things
will behave and analyse causes and origins of things in our environment. The Mathematics curriculum has
considered the desired outcomes of education for learners at the basic level. Mathematics is also concerned
with the development of attitudes and is important for all citizens to be mathematically and technologically
literate for sustainable development. Mathematics therefore ought to be taught using hands-on and minds-on
approaches which learners will find as fun and adopt as a culture.
Ghana believes that an effective Mathematics education needed for sustainable development should be
inquiry-based (NaCCA, Ministry of Education 2019) [2]. Thus Mathematics education must provide learners
with opportunities to expand, change, enhance and modify the ways in which they view the world. It should
be pivoted on learner-centred Mathematics teaching and learning approaches that engage learners physically
and cognitively in the knowledge-acquiring process in a rich and rigorous inquiry-driven environment.
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DOI: 10.31695/IJASRE.2020.33766
International Journal of Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering (ijasre), Vol 6 (3), March -2020
Mathematics learning is an active contextualised process of constructing knowledge based on learners‟
experiences rather than acquiring it. Learners are information constructors who operate as researchers.
Teachers serve as facilitators by providing the enabling environment that promotes the construction of
learners‟ own knowledge based on their previous experiences. This makes learning more relevant to learners
and leads to the development of critical thinkers and problem solvers. The curriculum is aimed at developing
individuals to become mathematically literate, good problem solvers who are capable to think creatively and
have both the confidence and competence to participate fully in the Ghanaian society as responsible local
and global citizens. The core competencies for Mathematics describe a body of skills that teachers in
Mathematics at all levels should seek to develop in their learners. They are ways in which teachers and
learners in Mathematics engage with the subject matter as they learn the subject. The competencies
presented here describe a connected body of core skills that are acquired throughout the processes of
teaching and learning.
Geometry is one of the longest established branches of mathematics. It has an extensive range of
applications and repository of historical and cultural background. Geometry has been accorded a central
place in mathematical education in Western culture for a considerable period of time. One of the major
achievements of classical geometry was the systematic collection by Euclid of the geometrical knowledge of
the ancient Greeks. This has, until comparatively recently, formed the basis for much of the geometry taught
in schools.
During a period of educational reforms in mathematics in the 1950s and 1960s some new syllabuses
(sometimes called „the new maths‟) were developed where the emphasis was on formal structures which
were predominantly algebraic. At the same time, the range of approaches to geometry was broadened from
its traditional Euclidean base (which was reduced in depth) to include the use of transformations, vectors,
matrices and some topology.
In recent years many countries have been reviewing the aims, content and approach of their geometry
curricula. The 1995 study by the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction (ICMI) [Mammana
and Villani, 1998] revealed that no clear consensus was emerging about the outcome of these reviews, [3].
The small scale research study into the geometry curricula of a number of countries commissioned in 2000
by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) for England confirmed this.
Against this background this study considered the rationale for a geometry curriculum, its possible content
and issues concerned with its effective teaching. Our report sets out a number of recommendations on issues
where the working group reached a consensus view. There are some matters on which the working group did
not address nor reach a conclusion, and which others may wish to pursue further. In order to help identify
major issues raised, the report structured around a number of agreed Key Principles and recommendations.
These are presented together with explanations, supporting arguments and, where available, evidence.
Within the standard based curriculum, measurement and geometry are merged together as a strand which is
internationally accepted; The National Numeracy Strategy (DfEE, 1998) in the United Kingdom, which is
also widely used internationally, and several other countries and regions including Hungary, Italy, Alberta
(Canada), and British Columbia (Canada), group the two together in a strand called Space, Shape and
Measures or similar [4], [5]. While we are used to considering measurement as a category of its own,
grouping it with geometry in this way does resolve several issues with regard to certain topics. For example,
when measuring area, clearly the geometric properties of shapes should be brought to bear. Angle,
similarly, does not fit fully within either measurement or geometry; when referring to angle as a property of
a shape we place it within geometry, but when measuring with a protractor, clearly measurement is more
appropriate. Time, money and estimation are also topics that are often included within the scope of the
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DOI: 10.31695/IJASRE.2020.33766
International Journal of Advances in Scientific Research and Engineering (ijasre), Vol 6 (3), March -2020
measurement strand, but which could be seen as more logically positioned within the number strand
(estimation is currently placed within number in the Ghanaian curriculum) as their use is largely focussed
around number rather than measurement.
The strand Geometry and Measurement in the Ghanaian standards based curriculum consists of;
Lines and Shapes
Position Transformation
Measurements
Geometrical Reasoning
For the purposes of this review however, geometry and measurement is treated separately, with the
recommendation that consideration be given to ending their status as separate strands if not now in future for
curriculum review.
The TIMSS (Trends in Mathematics and Science Study) 2003 framework is intended to describe “important
content for learners to have learned in mathematics and science” (Mullis et al., 2003, p. i), [6]. Within the
Geometry strand the objectives are grouped into five categories:
Lines and angles
Two- and three-dimensional shapes
Congruence and similarity
Locations and spatial relationships
Symmetry and transformations
2. THEORETICAL AND CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES OF CONCEPT FORMATION
Mathematics education researchers have addressed the issue of mathematics concept formation from
different perspectives according to Skemp‟s (1987) and Burn‟s (1992) explanation of concept formation in
Mathematics. Skemp (1987) emphasizes the need to provide children with known experiences in the process
of mathematical concept formation [7]. Burns (1992) stresses the importance of children‟s experience in the
real world in the learning of mathematical concepts, [8]. He explains further that children attain equilibrium
when their understanding is based on reality rather than perception and that there is a continuous interaction
between mental conceptual structures and environment at the state of equilibrium. The implication here
therefore is that children‟s previous experiences play a vital role in the successful formation of mathematical
concepts. Burns (1992) further suggests three other factors that influence learners‟ mathematics learning,
these being maturity, physical experience and social interaction, and the “process of equilibrium coordinates
these three factors” (p.28), [9].
A look at the literature by Skemp and Burns show that even though both of them mentioned the need for
previous knowledge in the process of concept formation, the former‟s explanation of prior knowledge did
not make the issue of culture explicit. Concept formation therefore seems to concentrate on factors that are
internal to the learner (learner‟s cognition, maturation etc) with no emphasis on the culture (Piaget, 1953,
1954; Inhelder & Piaget, 1958), [10-13]. This approach to concept formation seems to influence the
Ghanaian system very much. The tendency is that in the process of mathematics concept formation the
communicator of the concept may emphasize the innate ability of the learner and neglect social and cultural
factors, which equally play vital roles in the process of concept formation (Vygotsky, 1987),[14].
A look at a lesson observation on the teaching of perimeter as reported by Mereku (2004) succinctly
describes a typical situation in curriculum delivery in the Ghanaian classroom, [15]. In this lesson Mereku
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DOI: 10.31695/IJASRE.2020.33766
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