Intended, Taught, and Tested: A Curriculum Alignment Analysis of the Mathematical Modelling Component of Nigeria's Further Mathematics Curriculum

Abstract

Curriculum reform can fail not because any single component is broken, but because the intended curriculum, the taught curriculum, and the tested curriculum drift out of alignment with one another. This paper applies curriculum alignment theory (Cohen, 1987; Porter, 2002) to the Mathematical Modelling component introduced into Nigeria's Further Mathematics Curriculum (FMC) in 2011, mapping all 17 prescribed topics across Senior Secondary I-III against two independent data sources: a documentary content analysis of the Further Mathematics textbooks in use, and a proforma analysis of West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) papers for 2014 and 2015. Findings show reasonable alignment between the intended and taught curriculum, with textbooks adequately treating 13 of the 17 prescribed topics (76.5%), but almost total misalignment between the intended/taught curriculum and the tested curriculum: across four examination administrations (WAEC 2014, WAEC 2015, NECO 2014, NECO 2015), only one, NECO 2015, included any Mathematical Modelling items at all, amounting to three items in total. Drawing on washback theory (Alderson & Wall, 1993), the paper argues that this near-total absence of examination alignment removes the principal external incentive that typically sustains attention to new curriculum content in Nigerian secondary schools, regardless of how well that content is otherwise resourced or textbook-supported. The paper recommends coordinated action between curriculum developers and examination bodies as a precondition for durable implementation of newly introduced mathematics content, both for the Mathematical Modelling component specifically and for Nigeria's 2025 NERDC curriculum reform more broadly.

Keywords: Curriculum alignment, washback, Mathematical Modelling, Further Mathematics Curriculum, Examination Bodies.