CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Evaluation, according to Okoro (2000), is the appraisal of the worth of a thing and the making of appropriate decision on the basis of such appraisal. He said that evaluating mathematical curriculum involves the collection of information judging the worth of and assessing the effectiveness and quality of programmes. Mathematical education is established for some purposes and it is the functions of programmer evaluation to determine the extent to which this purposes of the programme are being achieved.
According to Oguniyi (1984), education evaluation is carried out from time to time for the following purposes: to determine the relative effectiveness of the programme in terms of students behavioral output; to make reliable decision about educational planning; to ascertain the worth of time, energy and resources invested in a programme, skills, attitudes and societal values; to help teachers determine the effectiveness of their teaching techniques and learning materials; to motivate students to learn more as they discover their progress or lack of progress in given tasks; to encourage students to develop a sense of discipline and systematic study habits etc.
The two main types of evaluation are: Formative and Summative Evaluation.
Formative evaluation are done to find out whether after a learning experience, students are able to do what they were previously unable to do. Its ultimate goal is usually to help students perform well at the end of a programme.
Summative evaluation often attempts to determine the extent the broad objectives of a programme have been achieved. Summative evaluation is judgmental in nature and often carries threat with it in that student may have no knowledge of the evaluator and failure has a reaching effect on the students.
According to Brubacher (1969), curriculum is the ground which pupils and teachers cover in order to reach the goal of education. In other words, it can be regarded as a total experience with which the school deals with educating young people. That is, all the experiences curricular and co-curricular which children pass through to become what is known as educated person.
According to Hass (1980), curriculum is the experiences that individual learners have in a programme of education whose purpose is to achieve broad goals and related specific objectives which is planned in terms of a frame work of theory and research or past or present professional practice.
Core is used to describe a portion of the curriculum, usually those courses prescribe for all. The identification of the required portion of the school programme is a crucial issue in curriculum planning. Whatever is chosen to be included will normally be required of all students regardless of their background characteristics. Essentially, core-curriculum is meant to develop unified students based upon common needs of the learners and organized without restriction by subject-matter.