March 2000, Vol. 31, Issue 2
A Comparison of Problems That Follow Selected Content Presentations in American and Chinese Mathematics Textbooks
Yepling Li
To illuminate the
cross-national similarities and differences in expectations related to
students' mathematics experiences between the United States and China, I
compared all relevant problems that followed the content presentation of
addition and subtraction of integers in several American and Chinese
mathematics textbooks. A 3-dimensional framework (for mathematical features,
contextual features, and performance requirements) was developed in this
study to analyze these textbook problems. The results show that the
percentage differences in problems' dimensions, mathematical and contextual
features, were smaller than the difference in problems' performance
requirements. Specifically, the differences found in problems' performance
requirements indicate that the American textbooks included more variety in
problem requirements than the Chinese textbooks. The results are relevant to
documented cross-national differences in American and Chinese students'
mathematical performances.
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