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Until the 1960s, maths was studied as an academic subject in a desire to have more mathematicians. The current trend, however, has moved away from viewing maths as a purely intellectual endeavour and towards developing a more mathematically competent workforce and citizenry. This trend has seen a large increase in the number of maths schemes being produced by the major educational publishers, which attempt to make maths easier and more approachable by using language instead of symbols. So why do so many children still fail at maths? The author contends that to understand this, teachers need to analyze and evaluate the maths textbooks they are currently using. The author shows the reader how to systematically analyze and evaluate these textbooks. This interrogation of classroom resources, should have important implications for teaching strategies and for textbook design and use.
List of contents
Chapter 1 Mathematical Myths; Chapter 2 Juggling Pots and Texts; Chapter 3 Sociology, Education and the Production of 'Ability'; Chapter 4 The Analysis of School Texts: Some Empirical Antecedents; Chapter 5 Towards a Language of Description: Some Theoretical Antecedents; Chapter 6 Constructive Description and Social Activity Theory; Chapter 7 An Introduction to the Empirical Text; Chapter 8 The Textualizing of Algebra; Chapter 9 Genres of Production; Chapter 10 Setting and the Public Domain; Chapter 11 Interpellating the Teacher; Chapter 12 Disturbing and Re-establishing Equilibrium;
About the author
Paul Dowling
Summary
The author argues that the reason why children still 'fail' at maths at school - despite the shift to 'easier' and more 'approachable' maths teaching since the 1960s - is because of the textbooks in use.
