Are first graders' arithmetic skills related to the quality of mathematics textbooks?: A study on students’ use of arithmetic principles
Journal article › Research › Peer reviewed
Publication data
| By | Henning Sievert, Ann-Katrin van den Ham, Aiso Heinze |
| Original language | English |
| Published in | Learning and Instruction, 71, Article 101401 |
| Pages | 14 |
| Editor (Publisher) | Elsevier |
| ISSN | 0959-4752, 1873-3263 |
| DOI/Link | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2020.101401 |
| Publication status | Published – 02.2021 |
| Keywords | Textbook quality, Mathematics, Arithmetic principles, Adaptive expertise, Mathematics textbooks, Textbook effects, Primary school |
Over the past two decades educational research has become increasingly interested in the development of children's adaptive expertise in arithmetic. Even though there are several studies investigating the impact of different teaching approaches, knowledge concerning effects of learning resources is relatively low. Using data of a three-year longitudinal study with 1404 students from 82 classes, we examined learning opportunities presented by textbooks regarding adaptive expertise in multi-digit addition and subtraction, and in a subsequent multilevel analysis, the effect of the resulting textbook quality on third-graders' adaptive expertise. The results show discrepancies in the textbooks' quality concerning learning opportunities for adaptive expertise and a substantial effect of textbook quality on students' adaptive expertise after three years of schooling. An additional cross-level interaction suggests that the effect of textbook quality increases with children's prior arithmetic knowledge.
