Geometry in English secondary schools

Abstract

In the past twenty years many countries have implemented new approaches to the teaching of geometry at school level. In England, most schools seem to have changed towards an ‘experimental science’ approach to geometry, whilst a significant number appear to have continued the traditional geometry of Euclid. The new approach uses a great variety of techniques, and thereby loses coherence: it is based largely on practical work and seems to have forsaken the deductive approach entirely.

The paper attempts to quantify the present situation in England and suggests a way of building upon the experimental science approach to provide a unified knowledge of spatial configurations through deductive methods.