TOWARD A BALANCED REPRESENTATION OF CONTINUOUS AND DISCRETE MATHEMATICS IN THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Abstract

The article examines the problem of balancing the continuous and discrete components of school mathematics education. Based on an analysis of Ukrainian and international educational curricula, the necessity of strengthening the discrete component of the mathematics curriculum is substantiated. It is proposed to consider this component through three cross-cutting content strands: graph theory, combinatorics, and algorithms, discrete processes, and coding. The paper demonstrates the possibilities of their gradual implementation in Grades 5–11 to foster students’ logical, structural, and algorithmic thinking, and provides examples of instructional tasks.