Nonmanut Pongsakdi: A comparative analysis of arithmetic word problems in selected Finnish mathematics textbooks from the 1994 and 2004 curricula

Aika: To 31.10. 13.40-14.05

Paikka: F103 Futura

Esittäjän affiliaaatio: University of Turku

Muut tekijät: Riikka Palkki; Erno Lehtinen
University of Turku

Abstrakti:

Recent findings of the OECD’s PISA 2022 have shown an alarming concern towards Finnish students’ performance in mathematical literacy. While Finnish students had their peak performance in mathematical literacy in 2006, unfortunately, it has been on a downward trajectory since PISA 2009 when the 2004 and later mathematics curricula were in use. One possible explanation could be the changes in mathematics textbooks commonly used in Finnish schools during those decades.

This study is a part of Moppi project which aims at comparing mathematics textbooks developed according to the 1994, 2004 and 2014 curricula. One area of the project’s interest is to examine the characteristics of arithmetic word problems, and how they were introduced in these mathematics textbooks. In this study, we presented a classification framework of arithmetic word problems including seven coding schemes: problem types, number types, required operations, irrelevant information, demand for realistic consideration, implicit information, and repetitiveness of word problem sequences. More than 2,700 word problems were systematically selected for analyses throughout three different series of 1st grade to 6th grade most commonly used mathematics textbooks. Preliminary results based on the classification framework were discussed.