A Study on the Possibility of Using Newspapers as Teaching Materials in Mathematics Class

An Estimated Analysis of the Comprehension of the Text of Newspaper Articles Using Textbooks

Abstract

　Newspaper articles are used for teaching mathematics because they contain graphs showing changes in quantities. It is quite possible to use newspaper articles as teaching materials in mathematics courses. However, the fact that this is not always possible suggests that there are some difficulties in understanding the text of the newspaper articles. In this paper, we focus on verbs and nouns that appear in textbooks and use them to estimate the degree which those in newspaper articles can be utilized. The results of the analysis show that the utilization rate of verbs plus nouns was at most about 37% and at least about 15% among the sixth grade in elementary school while that of verbs alone was at most 71% and at least 37%. The maximum utilization rate of nouns alone was 56% in the sixth grade and at least 28% . Results indicate that it may be difficult to handle newspapers in the lower and middle grades and that there may be a possibility in the upper grades if newspapers are to be used as teaching materials.