A study of math textbooks used in Finnish elementary schools analyzed from various perspectives

Abstract

This study explores textbooks used by Finnish elementary schools, employing connections and document analysis on research on Finnish textbooks in Taiwan. Study is carried out on the English version of Laskutaito, a set of elementary school math textbooks published by WSOY, consisting of 12 volumes for grades 1-6, thirteen master’s theses, and five studies from journals on Finnish textbooks. The study indicates that mathematical tasks are mostly non-contextual when categorized by problem representations, cognitions and knowledge of problem solving. Besides, mathematical representations mainly require procedural knowledge and meaningless connections. In addition, when investigated from the perspective of connections, it is found that Finnish textbooks contain five features: diversity of mathematical intra-connections, hidden layout of mathematical concepts, presentation of real-world mathematics, knowing the world through textbook and reinforcing logic reasoning and mathematical perception. As a whole, the mathematics textbooks used in Finnish elementary schools contain seventy to eighty percent non-contextual tasks, while emphasizing the development of mathematical thinking and reasoning. As only thirty percent of tasks are contextual, they are rich in international views and authentic world information.