• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.215-238
• /
• 2012

One of the keyword in every nation's recent educational policy is key competencies. Considering national competitiveness originating from educational competitiveness, educational policy has been driven to identify key competencies and realize them through school education. Within this context some leading countries have developed competencies-based curriculum and discussed ways to relate key competencies and subject matter areas. However, there have been few researches on how to reflect or integrate key competencies into subject matter areas. Because of this reason, the ways to incorporate and integrate key competencies into three subject areas including mathematics were investigated. The recent trends of curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment of domestic and foreign cases were explored by the subject of one Korean international middle school, one British foreign school in Seoul, one French foreign school in Seoul, and four middle schools in New Zealand. To establish competencies-based school education, there should be intimate connection system among curriculum, teaching and learning, assessment, and teacher education. Through analysis of domestic and foreign cases, some conclusions regarding how these aspects have changed with the emphasis of key competencies were drawn. In this paper, through classroom observations and teacher interviews, the reality of competencies-based mathematics teaching of New Zealand and France was investigated. As a result, summaries and recommendations related to ways to improve subject teaching and teacher education in light of key competencies were presented. In these recommendations, the ways to reconstruct subject-based curriculum, the content-specific teaching and learning, and educational assessment were included.