Mathematics curriculum for intellectual disabilities schools in Indonesia and abroad: Literature review

Abstract

Education for children with special needs, especially with mild intellectual disabilities, has not received much attention from researchers and practitioners. The education of intellectual disabilities children also has the same right to develop according to the needs of the times as regular children's education in general. The changing and evolving needs of the times should also be followed by changes in the curriculum used, considering that one of the learning goals in special schools for intellectual disabilities children is to make the children who can live independently. In special schools for intellectual disabilities children in Indonesia, mathematics learning is combined with other lessons to discuss specific themes in everyday life. Based on an extensive literature search on the mathematics curriculum in special schools for intellectual disabilities children, this paper aims to review the literature involving two things: (1) mathematics education curriculum in special schools for intellectual disabilities children in Indonesia, and (2) mathematics curriculum in special education in Australia and Singapore. A view is also provided. This paper concludes that: (1) learning in special schools for intellectual disabilities children in Indonesia uses thematic learning where mathematics learning is focused on its usefulness in everyday life, (2) numeracy is the focus of education in Australia, not least for intellectual disabilities children, and learning Mathematics for mild intellectual disabilities children in Singapore includes the concepts of numbers, spaces, arithmetic procedures, problem solving and measurement.