Facilitating Students’ Development of Mathematical Competencies by Means of Textbook Design: A Danish Case Study
For decades, a global trend in mathematics curriculum development has placed greater emphasis on learning goals that seek to capture different kinds o.
- Pub. date: June 15, 2025
- Online Pub. date: June 05, 2025
- Pages: 127-135
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Abstract:
For decades, a global trend in mathematics curriculum development has placed greater emphasis on learning goals that seek to capture different kinds of processes that students should master. For Danish primary and secondary mathematics education, these ambitions are expressed in terms of a set of mathematical competencies, in line with the so-called KOM framework. However, it has proved challenging to implement the competencies in mathematics classrooms and actual teaching practice. Matematrix is a series of Danish mathematics textbooks for grades K-9 designed to support mathematics teachers in facing this challenge. Following a short introduction to the KOM framework, I – as one of the designers and authors of the textbooks – present a key element in this endeavour: A three-dimensional model of content and objectives combining mathematical competencies, mathematical core concepts and grade levels. I then describe the use of this model in the specific case of Matematrix at three different levels of textbook design: The structure of the general content of the books, the focal points for each chapter, and the development of different kinds of tasks for the students to work with.
Keywords: Mathematical competencies, task design, textbook design, three-dimensional content model.
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