Intended Treatment of Fractions and Fraction Operations in Mathematics Curricula from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan

In spite of extensive research efforts, teaching and learning fractions remain challenging throughout the world. Although students’ mathematics learning is influenced by many factors, one important factor is the learning opportunities afforded by their textbooks. Therefore, we examined how textbooks from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan—three high-achieving countries prominent in comparative studies—introduced and developed fraction concepts and fraction arithmetic. We used the content analysis method (National Research Council, On evaluating curricular effectiveness: Judging the quality of K-12 mathematics evaluations, 2004) to analyze the problems presented in the textbooks. Our analysis revealed that there were many similarities among the textbooks from these three countries, including the overall flow of the topics related to fraction concepts and fraction arithmetic. However, significant differences included how various fraction subconstructs were integrated in the textbooks and how fraction multiplication and division were discussed. These similarities and differences among high-achieving countries suggest fruitful directions for future research in the area of fraction teaching and learning.