Effects of Quality of Implementation on the Learning Outcomes of Secondary Education Mathematics Curriculum

This article reports on the effects of the quality of implementation of an experimental program on the learning outcomes of individual students. The experimental program involved working in cooperative groups and an instruction to use social and cognitive strategies. The central question was: can between-class differences in the quality of implementation explain effects on the learning outcomes of individual students? The results showed the more the curriculum was implemented according to the intentions, the larger the differences were in learning outcomes between low- and high-achieving students. The high-achieving students profited more from the high quality implementation than did the low-achieving students. Implications for curriculum theory and practice are discussed in the light of various perspectives on curriculum implementation.