Conceptualizing and organizing content for teaching and learning in selected Chinese, Japanese and US mathematics textbooks: the case of fraction division

In this study, selected Chinese, Japanese and US mathematics textbooks were examined in terms of their ways of conceptualizing and organizing content for the teaching and learning of fraction division. Three Chinese mathematics textbook series, three Japanese textbook series, and four US textbook series were selected and examined to locate the content instruction of fraction division. Textbook organization of fraction division and other content topics were described. Further analyses were then conducted to specify how the content topic of fraction division was conceptualized and introduced. Specific attention was also given to the textbooks’ uses of content constructs including examples, representations, and exercise problems in order to show their approaches for the teaching and learning of fraction division. The results provide a glimpse of the metaphors of mathematics teaching and learning that have been employed in Chinese, Japanese, and US textbooks. In particular, the results from the textbook analyses demonstrate how conceptual underpinnings were developed while targeting procedures and operations. Implications of the study are then discussed.