Instrument for evaluating historical resources in mathematics textbooks

Abstract

The article describes an instrument consisting of 46 indicators organised under 10 dimensions to assess the presence and educational utility of historical resources in secondary education mathematics textbooks. The instrument was constructed on the basis of previous research on the didactic use of the history of mathematics, existing instruments on the analysis of mathematics textbooks, and mathematics teachers’ assessments of the suitability of the indicators. The instrument can be used as a stand-alone tool or integrated into other procedures addressing textbook analysis more broadly. Its application is illustrated with a sample comparison of two secondary level mathematics textbooks. The instrument has proven to be a useful tool for comparing the historical resources in different publishers’ textbooks, for it enables secondary school mathematics teachers to base their choice of resources on an appraisal of the indicators most relevant to classroom teaching.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Trade under project EDU2017-84276-R; and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033 under project PID2019-105677RB-100.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Modelo de Análisis de Recursos Históricos (MARH)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de España: [Grant Number EDU2017-84276-R]; Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation: [Grant Number PID2019-105677RB-100].