Opportunity to learn problem solving in Dutch primary school mathematics textbooks

Abstract

In the Netherlands, mathematics textbooks are a decisive influence on the enacted curriculum. About a decade ago, Dutch primary school mathematics textbooks provided hardly any opportunities to learn problem solving. In this study we investigated whether this provision has changed. In order to do so, we carried out a textbook analysis in which we established to what degree current textbooks provide non-routine problem-solving tasks for which students do not immediately have a particular solution strategy at their disposal. We also analyzed to what degree textbooks provide ‘gray-area’ tasks, which are not really non-routine problems, but are also not straightforwardly solvable. In addition, we inventoried other ways in which present textbooks facilitate the opportunity to learn problem solving. Finally, we researched how inclusive these textbooks are with respect to offering opportunities to learn problem solving for students with varying mathematical abilities. The results of our study show that the opportunities that the currently most widely used Dutch textbooks offer to learn problem solving are very limited, and these opportunities are mainly offered in materials meant for more able students. In this regard, Dutch mainstream textbooks have not changed compared to the situation a decade ago. A textbook that is the Dutch edition of a Singapore mathematics textbook stands out in offering the highest number of problem-solving tasks, and in offering these in the materials meant for all students. However, in the ways this textbook facilitates the opportunity to learn problem solving, sometimes a tension occurs concerning the creative character of genuine problem solving.