Utforsking og problemløsning i matematikklærebøker for ungdomstrinnet

The theme of this master's thesis is exploration and problem solving, which is one of six core elements in the curriculum. The purpose of the study is to investigate how new textbooks include the core element of exploration and problem solving in the tasks students encounter in the books. The study's problem is: In what way do textbooks in mathematics at the lower secondary level, written for the National Curriculum (LK20), facilitate exploration and problem solving? To answer this question, I found it expedient to undertake the study of the textbooks based on the following two research questions: 1. To what extent does the tasks lay guidelines for the students with regard to collaboration and communication? 2. What are the structural characteristics of the problem solving tasks in new mathematics textbooks for the lower secondary level? In this study, I have carried out a content analysis of the textbooks Matematikk 8-10, Maximum 8-10 and Matemagisk 8-10 for the lower secondary level. Building on relevant theory related to the curriculum, social constructivist view of learning, exploration and problem solving, and previous research, I have chosen to examine the labelled as problem solving tasks. The data basis for the analysis consists of a total of 299 tasks from the in total nine books. The analysis tool applied in the analysis is inspired by Borasis’ (1986) presentation of structural characteristics of problem solving tasks and Xenofontos’ (2019) analysis of Cypriot textbooks. The categories examined are collaboration, communication, context, formulation, number of solutions, method and the kind of task. The results show that the textbooks to varying degrees facilitate exploration and problem solving. Matematikk contributes to a certain extent to making the tasks relevant to the students, but many tasks with direct formulation, only one solution and predetermined use of method reduces the students' opportunities to engage in exploration and problem solving and is partly reminiscent of traditional teaching with focus on algorithms. Maximum and Matemagisk largely reflect the curriculum's core element of exploration and problem solving. The teaching materials facilitate collaboration and communication, at the same time as the tasks give the students the freedom to explore and the opportunity to develop appropriate methods, which the theory describes as central to teaching characterized by exploration and problem solving