The biggest thing that I’ve noticed different about Indian education in math is the vertical alignment between courses. Here I’m teaching 6, 7, 8, 9th grade, with 9th grade covering the equivalent of both Algebra 1 and Geometry in the States.
First, let me say that there are national and state schools here that share a national curriculum. NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) is the organization that makes the curriculum decisions and publishes the text books to be used. There are not private companies selling books nation wide that are “adopted” to state curricula like back home. (I hate the Prentice Hall Algebra 1 book SO MUCH…it doesn’t come close to covering all of the NC topics.)
Back to the point: this central organization has done a fantastic job of getting students exposed to every type of math topic EVERY YEAR. I’m amazed that a sixth grade student here starts to learn that when a line cuts through parallel lines the angles are related to one another. They then see it again in 7th grade, and again in 8th, so that once they start to use the properties in geometric proofs in 9th grade, they know it both by sight and by name. Talk about making Geometry easier! I’m teaching Geometry this spring for the first time and know that students often struggle between number crunching and spacial understanding. My time here is going to make me better at getting them to understand.
Anyway, I’ll be bringing back copies of these textbooks and making some recommendations to both my local math team, board, and maybe talking with the North Carolina Department of Instruction about what I’ve learned here. I know they’re working hard to do what’s best for our students, but hearing a new perspective never hurts.
