Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to report findings related to curriculum implementation of two types of mathematics textbooks that have different organizations of mathematical content and to discuss implications of these findings. Research has established that students learn what they are given the opportunity to learn (for mathematics, see Floden, 2002; Hiebert, 1999; Hiebert & Grouws, 2007). Ultimately teachers are the decision-makers with regard to specific content taught, but they rely heavily on curricular materials, especially textbooks, to inform such decisions. Thus it is important to determine how teachers use textbooks in the classroom. Findings reported in this paper are based on data collected as part of an NSF-funded research project: Comparing Options in Secondary School Mathematics: Investigating Curriculum (COSMIC). The COSMIC project involves a three-year longitudinal comparative study of integrated mathematics curricula and subject-specific mathematics curricula on student learning at the high school level. One group of students (n ≈ 1300) studied from an integrated content approach (e.g., Core-Plus Mathematics) and the other students (n ≈ 1300) from a subject-specific content approach (students followed an Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II sequence). Curriculum implementation was characterized using multiple measures including classroom observations and teacher surveys which are the measures discussed in this paper. See the project website (cosmic.missouri.edu) for additional study details.