The structures of German mathematics textbooks

Abstract

From a socio-cultural perspective it is argued that the modality of artefacts has, structuring effects on the activities in which the artefact is involved. The mathematics textbook is an artefact that has a major influence on the activity of learning mathematics. Against this setting, the structures of the units in German mathematics textbooks for different grades and ability levels have been analysed. Firstly, the different structural elements have been examined with regard to: characteristics in terms of content; linguistic characteristics; visual characteristics; their pedagogical functions within the learning process; and situative conditions. Secondly, the orders of the structural elements within the units of the different textbooks have been compared. The findings reveal that the structure of the units is very similar in different mathematics textbooks. The units are not only composed of analogous structural elements, but these elements are also arranged in almost the same sequence. In order to develop a deeper understanding of these findings the structure of the units has been compared to the influential learning theories of J. F. Herbart and H. Roth. On this basis it is argued that the structure of the units seems to reflect the phases of idealised learning processes in general. The issue is raised if this is an appropriate structure in order to provide opportunities to learn mathematics.