Analysis of Geometry Units in the Mathematics Curriculum of Cambodia from the Perspective of Coherence

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the units in the Cambodian mathematics curriculum on geometry from the perspective of coherence. Four of the recently revised mathematics syllabi of primary and secondary education in Cambodia published in 2018, the latest version available during the research period of 2022-2023, have been collected. The document analysis following the procedure of General Topic Trace Mapping (GTTM) was used because it embraces curriculum coherence. The results of the analysis revealed that the Cambodian mathematics curriculum on geometry lacks coherence in terms of the four points: (1) the relations of the subdomains and contents are not well-organised and unnecessarily repetitive; (2) the contents and sub-contents are poorly ordered and are not age-appropriate, due to some contents are addressed as a prerequisite and other contents have a higher level than the student’s grade level; (3) the relations of some contents, sub-contents, and their learning outcomes are not clearly specified, as through a lack of logical or conceptual connections within and across years; and (4) the domains, sub-domains, contents, sub-contents, and learning outcomes are not clearly related nor sequenced. These four points indicate the importance and necessity of improving the coherence of geometry units in Cambodia’s mathematics curriculum. This analysis focused on the content relation aspect among three internal coherence aspects. Further research should be done on the two other aspects of internal coherence, structural and pedagogical, as well as external curriculum coherence. Analysis of all these aspects will contribute to the holistic improvement of the curriculum.