Trends in Cognitive Demands Levels of Mathematical Tasks in Turkish Middle School Mathematics Textbooks: Algebra Learning Domain

Abstract

In this study, which reports a small part of a large-scale study, the trends in the cognitive demand levels of the mathematical tasks in the Algebra Learning Domain of a total of 5 mathematics textbooks prepared according to the 4 middle school mathematics curriculum that has been updated since the beginning of the 2000s in Turkey are revealed and the similarities and differences are discussed. In this context, this study is a document review, and the criterion sampling method was used in the selection of textbooks. The analysis of the cognitive demand levels of the mathematical tasks in the examined books was made according to the content analysis and the framework of Stein and Stein (1998) was used in this context. A result of the study revealed that the tasks in the middle school mathematics textbooks written according to the updated mathematics curriculum in Turkey in the 2000s are generally low cognitive demand tasks. In addition, some suggestions were made for further research according to the findings.