A descriptive analysis of mathematics curricular materials from a pedagogical perspective: A case study of fractions

In this article, we present six pedagogical criteria, five of which were gleaned from research related to effective teaching practices, followed by a narrative description of the extent to which the early 1990s editions of three basal mathematics programs applied these criteria in designing instructional sequences. Specifically, the purpose of the descriptive study was to compare lessons that taught adding and subtracting fractions in the fifth-grade books of each of the three basals. The present analysis of traditional basals revealed areas of serious concern: Big ideas were rarely identified, introduced, or integrated; content was introduced too rapidly; teaching demonstrations were often not explicit or straightforward; manipulative activities were open-ended and ineffective; and review was inadequate. Finally, we propose recommendations for using the six curriculum design criteria to evaluate and modify mathematics curricular materials.