Researching Curriculum
A third effort to identify mathematics useful in teaching examines the textbooks
and other materials teachers typically use. An analysis of these materials exposes
mathematical knowledge and skill needed for using them well. It can also reveal
mathematical demands of teaching that arise specifically in the work teachers
do with textbooks — such as the mathematical knowledge and skill required
to examine the development of a concept across chapters of text. For instance,
Liping Ma has analyzed curricula for insight into the structure of increasingly
difficult whole number addition and subtraction problems as shown at left. Such
analyses begin to “unpack” the compressed knowledge adults hold of elementary
mathematics.