| 1. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Content Analysis of Mathematics Textbooks and Adapted Lorentz Curves
- 2021
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Ingår i: <em>Proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland</em>. - Dublin. ; , s. 356-363
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we introduce an adaption of the Lorenz curve as a powerful tool for graphicallypresenting content analyses of mathematics textbooks. Three textbooks currently used withyear-one children in Sweden, one Swedish-, one Finnish and one Singaporean-authored, wereanalysed against the eight categories of Foundational Number Sense (FoNS), which is a set ofliterature-derived and instruction-dependent competences that all children need to acquire ifthey are to become successful learners of mathematics. The adapted Lorenz curvehighlighted, inter alia, major differences in the distribution of FoNS-related tasks across thethree textbooks. In general, the Swedish-authored textbook offers repeated cycles of FoNSrelated opportunities, the Finnish-authored textbook offers such opportunities continuously,and the Singaporean-authored textbook typically offers FoNS-related opportunities onlywithin its earlier pages.
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| 2. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Methods for visual and statistical comparison of the distribution of codes from content analyses
- 2019
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Ingår i: NOFA7 Abstracts, Stockholm University, 13 - 15 May 2019. - Stockholm : HSD, Stockholm University. ; , s. 170-170
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The FoNS-project (Foundational Number Sense) in Mathematics education at Stockholm University aims to compare different countries with respect to opportunities for acquiring FoNS in first school year. We do this by analysing textbooks, teachers’ classroom activities and parent engagement with respect to mathematics. This means that the FoNS-project focuses less on the pupils themselves, but more on the mathematical education environment the pupils meet. One part of the FoNS-project is to compare textbooks through content analysis. The generated data are a sequence of codes from each textbook. In the generated data, the authors found that besides comparing frequencies, there is also much to be found in comparing the distribution of the codes for different textbooks. For this purpose we developed a novel method that allows a visual comparison of how the content in each textbook is distributed and we present this method and compare it with other methods found in a literature review. Another challenge is to make statistical inference tests on the generated data.Typically, the generated data set is large and a drawback is that with large data sets even small differences can result in statistically significant but in practice irrelevant differences. The authors will also compare various statistical methods for dealing with this challenge for both the case of comparing frequency and for comparing distribution of the data.
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| 3. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Opportunities for year-one children to acquire foundational number sense : comparing English and Swedish adaptations of the same Singapore textbook
- 2019
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland (MEI7). - Dublin : Institute of Education, Dublin City University. - 9781873769959 ; , s. 251-258
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we compare adaptations of a Singaporean year-one mathematics textbook for use in England and Sweden respectively. The texts were analysed in two different ways against the eight dimensions of Foundational Number Sense (FoNS), a set of core competences that the literature has shown to be necessary for year-one children’s later mathematical learning. The first analysis, based on frequencies, showed that neither adaptation incorporated any opportunities for children to acquire the two FoNS competence relating to estimation and number patterns respectively. They also showed that the English adaptation comprised significantly more tasks than the Swedish, particularly with respect to systematic counting, where the former comprises 26% more tasks than the latter. The second analysis, based on moving averages, showed that across five of the six FoNS categories for which there were data, the temporal location and emphases of FoNS-related learning were comparable, with, in particular, no such opportunities after the mid-point of the school year in either book. However, the English adaptation’s presentation of systematic counting, occurring at various points throughout the school year, was substantially different from the Swedish adaptation, highlighting differences due, we speculate, to interpretations of local didactical traditions.
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| 4. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Parent-initiated activities in support of Swedish year-one children’s learning of mathematics : age-appropriate complements to school?
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Early Years Education. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0966-9760 .- 1469-8463. ; 30:4, s. 831-846
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, motivated in part by evidence that Swedish teachers are sceptical of parents’ abilities to offer appropriate support, we present an exploratory investigation of the activities Swedish parents initiate to facilitate their year-one (first grade) children’s learning of mathematics. Data, derived from 25 semi-structured interviews conducted with parents from three demographically different schools, were subjected to constant comparison analyses and yielded three broad categories of activity. These concerned the use of games in the learning of mathematics, contextualised mathematics activities like cooking and shopping, and decontextualised mathematics activities like systematic counting. Collectively, the results indicate that while parents of year-one children are confident supporting their children’s learning of mathematics, they are also conscious of the need to avoid both undermining schools’ efforts and exacerbating educational inequity. With few exceptions, the activities parents described were age-appropriate and more likely to complement teachers’ actions than not.
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| 5. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Swedish parents’ perspectives on home-school communication and year-one pupils learning of mathematics
- 2021
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Ingår i: Bringing Nordic mathematics education into the future. - Göteborg : Nationellt centrum för matematikutbildning (NCM). ; , s. 201-208
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we explore parents’ perspectives on home-school communication with respect to year-one pupils’ learning of early numeracy. Constant comparison analyses of semi-structured interviews identified three forms of communication. The first, a weekly information letter, was appreciated and typically functioned as a starter for conversations with children about their learning of early numeracy. The second, the development talk, was appreciated as an indicator of a child’s progress, but proved controversial in the presentation of mixed messages to parents and limited with respect to helping parents support future mathematical learning. The third, parent-initiated contact, was discussed in ways that masked parents’ reasons for making contact and prevented, therefore, any insights into their contribution to mathematical learning. Some implications are discussed.
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| 6. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Swedish year one teachers’ perspectives on homework in children’s learning of number : An ongoing controversy
- 2018
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Ingår i: Perspectives on professional development of mathematics teachers. - Göteborg : Svensk förening för MatematikDidaktisk Forskning - SMDF. - 9789198402421 ; , s. 91-100
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper draws on semi-structured interviews undertaken with twenty teachers of year one children in Sweden. Interviews focused on teachers’ construal of their own and their pupils’ parents’ roles in supporting year one children’s learning of early number. Data, which were analysed by means of a constant comparison process, yielded homework as a theme that dichotomised teachers between those who set homework for learning number and those who do not. Of those who set homework, the majority construed it as a means of facilitating number-related fluency, particularly for children in danger of falling behind their peers. Of those who do not, the majority argued that differences in family backgrounds would compromise societal principles of equality of opportunity.
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| 7. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Time series analysis: Moving averages as an approach to analysing textbooks
- 2020
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Ingår i: Proceedings of CERME11. - : Freudenthal Group & Freudenthal Institute. - 9789073346758
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study we introduce time series analysis, specifically moving averages, as a novel strategy for analysing mathematics textbooks. Such analyses show how different topics or mathematical processes are emphasised over different time periods, whether at the level of the lesson, the week, the month or year. In this paper, by way of example, we show how one of the eight categories of foundational number sense (Andrews & Sayers, 2015), namely simple addition and subtraction, is distributed and sequenced across three English, year one, textbooks. The analyses are compared empirically with four other methods found in the literature to show how time series analysis using moving averages helps address the shortcomings of these different approaches.
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| 8. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Two methods for quantifying similarity between textbooks with respect to content distribution
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Research and Method in Education. - 1743-727X .- 1743-7288. ; 46:2, s. 161-174
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Measures of association, which typically require pairwise data, are widespread in many aspects of educational research. However, due to the need to reduce their content to equal numbers of units of analysis, they are rarely found in the analysis of textbooks. In this paper, we present two methods for overcoming this limitation, one through the use of disjoint sections and the other through the use of overlapping moving averages. Both methods preserve the temporal structure of data and enable researchers to calculate a measure of association which, in this case, is the complementary Euclidean average distance, as an indicator of the books’ similarity. We illustrate these approaches by means of a comparative analysis of three commonly-used English and Swedish mathematics textbooks. Analyses were focused on individual tasks, which had all been coded according to the presence or absence of particular characteristics. Both methods produce nearly identical results and are robust with respect to both densely and sparsely occurring characteristics. For both methods, widening the aggregation window results in a slightly increased level of quantified similarity, which is the result of the ‘smoothing effect’. We discuss the relation between the window width and the choice of research question.
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| 9. |
- Petersson, Jöran, et al.
(författare)
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Two novel approaches to the content analysis of school mathematics textbooks
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Research & Method in Education. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1743-7288 .- 1743-727X. ; 44:2, s. 208-222
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The analysis of the content of school textbooks, particularly in a time of cross-cultural borrowing, is a growing field restricted by the tools currently available. In this paper, drawing on the analyses of three English year-one mathematics textbooks, we show how two approaches to the analysis of sequential data not only supplement conventional frequency analyses but highlight trends in the content of such textbooks hidden from frequency analyses alone. The first, moving averages, is conventionally used in science to eliminate noise and demonstrate trends in data. The second, Lorenz curves, is typically found in the social sciences to compare different forms of social phenomena. Both, as we show, extend the range of questions that can be meaningfully asked of textbooks. Finally, we speculate as to how both approaches can be used with other forms of ordered classroom data.
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| 10. |
- Petersson, Jöran, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Analysing English year-one mathematics textbooks through the lens of foundational number sense : A cautionary tale for importers of overseas-authored materials
- 2023
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Ingår i: Oxford Review of Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0305-4985 .- 1465-3915. ; 49:2, s. 262-280
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we present analyses of three textbooks currently used in the teaching of mathematics to year-one children in England. One is an established English-authored textbook, while the others are Singaporean-authored imports promoted by government as solutions to perceptions of systemic failure. Every task in each textbook was coded against a set of eight number-related competences known to support children’s learning in both short and long terms. Such a framework, which is literature-derived and curriculum-independent, enables meaningful comparison of materials deriving from different cultural contexts. Analyses of the proportions of all tasks coded for the different competences showed that none of the three books adequately addresses all eight competences, although the English-authored comes closest. Moving averages, undertaken to show the temporal location of the opportunities presented for children to acquire the eight competences, showed them distributed throughout the school year in the English-authored textbook but only during the first half of the school year in the two Singaporean-authored textbooks. Some implications for the importation of such materials are discussed.
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