Abstract
This paper aims to show the historical change in the theory of instruction in the new math movement in the U.S.A. by focusing on the history of the Madison Project, one of the curriculum development projects in the new math movement. Three conclusions can be made. First, in its early period, the Madison Project advocated a theory of instruction designed to encourage children to play a more active role in lessons, influenced by the discovery learning method of the University of Illinois Committee on School Mathematics (UICSM). Second, in the mid-1960s, the Madison Project adopted Piagetian psychological theories, and began viewing lessons as a process in which children gradually develop their cognitive structure through their activities. Third, on the basis of this more process-oriented perspective, the Madison Project in the early 1970s proposed the concept of children having a cognitive structure different from that of adults, which they developed through their activities. These results show that the Madison Project did not merely inherit the discovery learning method of the UICSM but also developed its own process-oriented viewpoint on learning. It was the Madison Project that acted as a turning point in the history of the theory of instruction in the new math movement dating back to the UICSM.
