Insights into the Teaching of Gradient from an Exploratory Study of Mathematics Textbooks from Germany, Singapore, and South Korea
Ban Heng Choy 1 * , Mi Yeon Lee 2, Angel Mizzi 3
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1 National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, SINGAPORE2 Arizona State University, USA3 University of Duisburg-Essen, GERMANY* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Textbooks, which form the staples of a teacher’s set of resources, play a critical role in deciding what and how mathematics is taught in classrooms. However, textbooks do not always present concepts in ways that enhance understanding by students, nor are they always comprehensive in the treatment of a topic. In this exploratory study, we analyse three mathematics textbooks from Germany, Singapore, and South Korea to examine how gradient, an important but not well-understood concept, is presented. For each of the textbooks, we characterise the introductory chapter on gradient in terms of contextual (educational factors), content, and instructional variables in relation to the curriculum emphases across the three countries. In addition, we represent these findings using visual representations, which we called textbook signatures. We share insights from our analyses, raise questions, and suggest implications for future research in textbook analyses and ways to represent the findings from such analyses.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, 2020, Volume 15, Issue 3, Article No: em0592

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/8273

Publication date: 14 May 2020

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Article Downloads: 1184

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