Historical comparison and analysis of problems and problem-posing tasks in Chinese secondary school mathematics textbooks

Abstract

In this paper, the problems and problem-posing tasks in six series of secondary school mathematics textbooks were analysed, the distribution of the number, location and types of problems from the perspective of historical comparison, as well as the types of problem-posing tasks and the distribution of problem-posing tasks across content areas were studied. It was found that although the number of problem-posing tasks has increased, the percentage is still quite small with a maximum of 0.4%, and the distribution of problem-posing tasks across content areas is uneven. It was found that a large number of problems had been included in the content text section since 1990s. The distribution of these problems across grade levels and content areas are well balanced, indicating that problem-guided learning has become a new feature of the textbooks. From the perspective of types, these problems provide rich mathematical learning opportunities for students to acquire knowledge (“knowing” and “understanding”) and to go through the thinking process (“to abstract and generalize” “to explore and discover” “to reflect and summarize”). However, the distribution of each type of problems across different grades and content areas are both uneven.