Assessment Tests in the Mathematics Teaching Guides in Spain. Analysis of the Content Blocks and the Treatment of Arithmetic Word Problems

Irene Lacruz-Pérez,Julio Tarín-Ibáñez,Raúl Tárraga-Mínguez

doi:10.3390/educsci11060305

Abstract

The teaching guides that complement textbooks have key importance in the assessment of competence in problem solving, because these materials contain the assessment tools that teachers frequently use to quantify the achievements of their students. In this paper, we set two aims: to analyze which curriculum contents are given priority in the assessment tests of the teaching guides; and to check to what extent these tests assess the steps of the mathematical problem solving process. For this, an analysis of the initial and final assessment tests of six Spanish publishers was conducted. The results show that the distribution of mathematical tasks by type of content does not fully conform to the theoretical framework proposed by TIMSS. In addition, only one of the six publishers considered the problem-solving process as evaluable.

Highlights

We address the analysis of the assessment tests presented in the didactic guides of the Spanish mathematics textbooks in two specific aspects: (1) the distribution of the items by type of curriculum contents that the assessment tests include, and (2) the treatment given to the assessment of the problem-solving process
The aims of this study were to analyze which content blocks are given priority in the assessment tests of the mathematics didactic guides; and to analyze how these guides assess the different steps of the PS process
The results of the distribution of the items by content blocks have shown that the first block of content, referring to mathematical processes, methods, and attitudes, does not seem to be a priority learning objective in the Spanish publishing scene

Summary

Introduction

From the pioneering studies carried out by the sociologist and pedagogue MW Apple in the 1980s to the present, research has highlighted that textbooks are usually the quintessential teaching material in most educational systems in advanced countries [1,2,3]. In this way, publishers play an important role in the process of interpreting, redefining, and selecting the official curriculum, becoming one important mediator when defining the real curriculum at school [4]. Mathematics textbooks determine largely what teachers teach and, an important part of what students learn, because, in many cases, their role is even more decisive than the prescriptions of the official curriculum [9,10,11]

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Methods

Conclusion