A Study of the Reform of Mathematics Education for the Upper Secondary School in Japan

The COM curriculum provides first a core of mathematics for all students, and then offers opportunities for students to enter different streams of mathematics studies. The flexible curriculum (COM) is certainly welcome as it focuses on a transition from concrete to conceptual mathematics and on sequentially learning the power of mathematical language and symbols from simple to complex. This approach emphasizes the use of computers in mathematics education in the upper secondary grades. In Mathematics A, one unit is developed to computer operation, flow charts and programming, and computation using the computer. In mathematics B, a chapter addresses algorithms and the computer where students learn the functions of computers, as well as programs of various algorithms. Mathematics C allots a chapter for numerical computation in which approximating solutions for equations, numerical integration, mensuration by parts, and approximation of integrals. But, unfortunately, they do not have any plan for the cooperation study.