Comparing Mathematics Textbooks from Taiwan and Indonesia in Exponents and Logarithms

Abstract

Textbooks provide three critical features for teachers: the sequence of the material presented, suggested content to be taught, and a list of activities and instructional ideas for engaging students. For students, textbooks can be the primary vehicles of knowledge acquisition, often replacing teacher discussion and input as the primary source of information in the upper grades. Exponents and logarithms are important mathematical concepts and central to many collegiate mathematics courses, including calculus, differential equations and complex analysis. This research presents an analysis of the differences in mathematics textbooks from Taiwan and Indonesia in teaching exponents and logarithms. The specific textbooks examined were Nan-Yi (NY) from Taiwan and Buku Pegangan Siswa Kurikulum 2013 (BPSMK) from Indonesia. Using content analysis, the textbooks were compared based on three dimensions, including: 1) chapter arrangement and presentation methods, 2) scope of content areas and 3) type of problems. Results indicated that (a) the two textbooks differ in topic sequence and the way of introducing exponents and logarithms as well as the activities in the chapter, (b) the content areas is explained more deeply in NY than BPSMK, even though there are fewer subsections in NY than BPSMK, and (c) the type of problems showed that BPSMK is more contextual than NY. This examination revealed that each country has a different way of designing their textbooks depending on what their expectations are of the students and also how the textbooks can empower the teachers and students in learning activities. Keywords: mathematics textbooks, content analysis, exponents and logarithms

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Author Information
Siska Nopa Tambunan, National Chiayi University, Taiwan
Ru-Fen Yao, National Chiayi University, Taiwan

• Category: Humanities - Teaching and Learning

Posted by James Alexander Gordon

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