Freedom of Design: The Multiple Faces of Subtraction in Dutch Primary School Textbooks
Mathematics textbook series largely determine what teachers teach and consequently, what students learn. In the Netherlands, publishers have hardly any restrictions in developing and publishing textbooks. The Dutch government only prescribes the content t
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Abstract Mathematics textbook series largely determine what teachers teach and consequently, what students learn. In the Netherlands, publishers have hardly any restrictions in developing and publishing textbooks. The Dutch government only prescribes the content to be taught very broadly and does not provide guidelines on how content has to be taught. In this study, the consequences of this freedom of design are investigated by carrying out a textbook analysis on the topic of subtraction up to 100. To examine the relationship between the intended curriculum and the potentially implemented curriculum, we analyzed the mathematical content and performance expectations of two Dutch textbook series. In order to get a closer view of the learning opportunities offered, the learning facilitators of the textbook series were also analyzed. The results of the analysis show that the investigated textbook series vary in their agreement with the intended curriculum with respect to content and performance expectations. The textbook series reflect divergent views on subtraction up to 100 as a mathematical topic. Furthermore, they differ in the incorporated ideas about mathematics education, as shown in the learning facilitators they provide. Consequently, the examined textbook series provide very different opportunities to students to learn subtraction up to 100. Keywords Textbook analysis · Subtraction up to 100 · Mathematical content · Performance expectations · Learning facilitators · Intended curriculum · Potentially implemented curriculum
M. van Zanten (B) Freudenthal Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] M. van den Heuvel-Panhuizen Freudenthal Institute of Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Science & Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands Y. Li, G. Lappan (eds.), Mathematics Curriculum in School Education, Advances in Mathematics Education, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-7560-2_12, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
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M. van Zanten and M. van den Heuvel-Panhuizen
Introduction Textbooks are of great importance in mathematics education. They mediate between the intended curriculum (the statutory goals of education) and the implemented curriculum (the actual teaching in classrooms). Therefore, textbooks are referred to as the potentially implemented curriculum (Valverde et al. 2002). Mathematics textbook series largely determine what teachers teach and, consequently, what students learn (Stein and Smith 2010). Although teachers’ teaching is not always in alignment with the textbook they use (Weiss et al. 2002), the textbook is for many teachers the decisive source to realize their mathematics teaching. In the Netherlands, textbooks have a determining role in daily teaching practice. In recent studies it was found that 94 % of the teachers indicate that a textbook is the main source of their teaching (Meelissen et al. 2012) and at least 80 % of prim
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