Research Findings' Impact on the Representation of Proportional Reasoning in Swedish Mathematics Textbooks

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of research findings on the representation of proportional reasoning in two commonly used Swedish mathematics textbook series for grades 7-9. A research-based framework that identifies five learning goals for understanding of proportional reasoning was used to analyse the textbooks. The results brought to surface a gap between research findings of important issues to address and the actual design of mathematics textbooks. Both textbook series make use of an effective range of representations. Besides that, the analysis shows low impact from research findings concerning the importance of given opportunities to compare and contrast additive and multiplicative situations, identify multiplicative structures and proportional thinking, make use of meaningful symbolic representations, and connect and relate fraction knowledge. The main conclusion is that there are possibilities for improvement in textbook design in relation to understanding proportional reasoning.