Comparative Content Analysis of Mathematics Textbooks in first Grade Students of Elementary Schools in Iran, Japan and America

"> The aim of the present research is to analyze, comparatively, the content of mathematics textbooks in the first grade used in Iran, Japan, and the United States, which has three analytic axes, namely: teaching and learning opportunities based on process and content standards of NCTM, assessment and practice opportunities and content treatment according to five grade coding (narrative expressions, mathematical expressions, pictures, shapes, tables and diagrams). The statistical population of this query was the content of mathematics textbooks in the first grade used in Iran (both old version and the recent one), Japan, and the United States (California State). This research was conducted based on comparative content analysis method in which qualitative and quantitative analyses were used for data collection and data analysis, respectively. The results showed that in all content standards, except for measurement standard and statistics, the percentage of standards in the recent version of textbook used in Iran have been reduced practice standards, the recent version of math textbook used in Iran showed a significant increase in the treatment of connection standard as compared to that of its old version. According to the research findings, reasoning and proof standard was not treated in Japanes textbook as well as in the old and recent versions of textbooks used in Iran. Analysis of exercise and evaluation opportunities in the recent version of the Iranian textbook revealed that there was not any use of true-false questions. Therefore, the researcher’s recommendations based on their findings are: ۱) more emphasis on using numeric and algebraic expressions in the treatment of concepts; ۲) increasing, significantly, the treatment of reasoning and proof standard; ۳) using truefalse questions in exercises and ۴) using natural images in conceptualizations and transferring cultural contents.

Keywords:

Teaching mathematics , Learning and teaching opportunities , Evaluation , First grade , textbook