Abstract
This study examines the difficulty level of mathematics textbooks in junior secondary schools in China, the USA, South Korea, Singapore, and Japan. The analysis uses a novel framework which focuses on content breadth, content depth, difficulty level of worked examples, and difficulty level of exercises. Based on the analysis of five selected topics—numbers and calculation, equations, triangles, solids, and statistics—China has the most difficult textbooks, followed by South Korea and Singapore. The US difficulty levels are quite similar to those in Japan, which has the easiest textbooks. In addition, the selected Chinese mathematics textbook seems to value “shapes and geometry” most significantly among the five nations, whereas the selected US textbook seems to emphasize “numbers and calculation.” Furthermore, it is found that the selected Japanese mathematics textbook series involves the least amount of mathematics, and also shows a lack of statistics.
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