In the Japanese text, fractions were not introduced until the third grade. The topics
in the third grade text were parallel to those in the US and Kuwaiti textbooks, as they
were able to cover all the topics that had been addressed in the Kuwaiti and US texts in
the first 2 years. Real-world problems were used to introduce the concept of fractions,
but they did not occupy separate lessons as in the Kuwaiti or US texts. Multiplying and
dividing fractions were not addressed in the Japanese texts examined; they were not
introduced until the sixth grade.
The US text emphasized some topics that were not in the other textbooks, such as
estimation. This topic was presented in the fifth grade in a lesson of its own and was
referenced in another lesson on estimating the sum and difference of two fractions. Problem
solving strategies were presented each year, from the first to the fifth grade. They were
presented in a separate lesson intended to teach students how to use different strategies,
such as modeling and working on simpler problems.