Abstract:

Mathematical education is one of the pillars of the educational system of all countries. Mathematical knowledge is essential for a success of each individual in the rapidly evolving digital society. In different countries, we meet different concepts of education. We consider international cooperation in the field of education a unique opportunity to find a common perspective on the future in the spirit of globalization tendencies.

International TIMSS research tracks the level of mathematical literacy in selected countries of the world. The Czech Republic and Indonesia have repeatedly participated in the TIMSS international survey since 1995. Czech pupils were placed in the second half of the final placements of the participating countries. Pupils did not have problem with knowledge-based tasks. Their biggest problem was to solve application tasks with contextual understanding of the text. The main idea was to create a comprehensive set of mathematical tasks for 5th-year pupils in the Czech Republic and Egypt and to compare the results obtained in the individual countries.

This paper presents partial results of the Mathematical Literacy across Borders (MLB) research on mathematical literacy of pupils of the fifth year of primary schools in the Czech Republic and Indonesia. A non-standardised didactic test for pupils of the 5th year of primary schools was created, containing ten mathematical problems with a choice of answers. In choosing tasks, due to the different socio-cultural environments in which pupils grow up in the participating countries, emphasis was placed on the clarity of the context of the tasks. The research results from the two countries are compared. An analysis of the success of individual tasks is done. The test was supplemented by a questionnaire survey to determine the subjective perception of the set of problems solved by pupils. The research survey brought interesting results. Although mathematics is universal in its nature, teaching mathematics, especially in elementary schools, is related to the social and cultural environment of the country.

Keywords:

Mathematical literacy, Didactic test, Primary mathematics.