Examination of the levels of Cogitive Demand Required by Probability Tasks in Middle Grades Mathematics Textbooks
Abstract
We analyze probability content within middle grades (6, 7, and 8) mathematics
textbooks from a historical perspective. Two series, one popular and the other
alternative, from four recent eras of mathematics education (New Math, Back to
Basics, Problem Solving, and Standards) were analyzed using the Mathematical Tasks Framework (Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver, 2000). Standards-era textbook
series devoted significantly more attention to probability than other series; more than
half of all tasks analyzed were located in Standards-era textbooks. More than 85% of
tasks for six series required low levels of cognitive demand, whereas the majority of
tasks in the alternative series from the Standards era required high levels of cognitive demand. Recommendations for future research are offered.
Citation
Statistics Education Research Journal, 6(2), 4-27. November, 2007.
Rights
OpenAccess.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.