Dolores Corcoran, Thérèse Dooley, Sean Close, Ronan Ward
The Mathematics Primary School Curriculm was revised ten years ago. Research has shown that mathematics textbooks play an important role in helping teachers
implement this curriculum.
However, whether it is possible to teach
Mathematics for understanding by
relying on textbooks as the main method of pedagogy is uncertain, particularly in the early years.
Evidence of the use of mathematics
textbooks was obtained from questionnaire surveys about practice, completed by 48
classroom teachers across the four class
levels from Junior
Infants to Second Class.
The questionnaire data showed that
textbooks are used by teachers
in the low er primary years as one of the primary resources in teaching the
curriculum. Teachers are satisfied that textbooks adequately cover the content of the curriculum although opportunities for
formative assessment are limited and the
textbooks generally do not address
the question of differentiation.
The length of the textbooks was identified
by teachers as having a negative impact on teaching. Pressure to complete the textbooks dictated the teaching methods used, the content covered and the sequencing and ordering of activities.
The overall finding of this study indicates
that mathematics textbooks are useful in
supporting teachers to implement the Mathematics Primary School Curriculum with
understanding but with significant
limitations.