Where have all the real problems gone? : An analysis of mathematics teaching material with a focus on problem solving

Research has shown that the mathematics textbooks are the most widely used in Swedish schools, compared to textbooks in other subjects. At the same time, studies have shown that the content of the textbooks do not fulfil the goals presented in the national education steering documents regarding problem solving in math. The purpose of this study is to analyze textbooks and corresponding teacher’s guide in mathematics for the second grade. Starting from a didactic perspective as an approach to problem solving in order to analyze the teaching material, I decided to use the analytical model constructed by Ann Kristin Larsen. In order to conduct the study, the following questions have been used in this study: In what way the problem solving has been presented in the textbooks? Which problem solving strategies are presented in respective teaching material based on didactic perspective? What types of problem solving tasks are presented in respective teaching material? In what way the concept problem solving is presented in the teacher’s guide? In conclusion, the result of the study shows that there are both similarities and differences between the two instructional materials that have been studied in the way they presented problem solving. The study shows that the teaching material is not compatible with Charles and Lester’s (1982) criteria. As for the teacher's guide and the support it provides, the investigation shows that different textbooks give different support and guidance to teachers