Characterizing Swedish school algebra – initial findings from analyses of steering documents, textbooks and teachers’ discourses
Paper in proceeding, 2018

The paper reports the first results of an ongoing research project aiming at characterizing Swedish school algebra (grades 1-9). Both diachronic and synchronic studies are conducted to identify the specific teaching tradition developed in Sweden and different theoretical approaches are applied in the overall project in order to obtain a rich picture of the Swedish case. The results reported here are based on the analyses of mathematics curriculum, textbooks and focus group interviews with teachers in seven schools. The initial results indicate that, since 1980s, algebra is vaguely addressed in the steering documents and the progression of algebraic thinking is elusive in teachers' discourses. Moreover, certain important ideas, such as generalized arithmetic, are largely missing in the curriculum and mathematics textbooks for grades 1-6. We discuss the implications of the initial findings for our project.

Author

Kirsti Hemmi

Uppsala University

Åbo Akademi

Kajsa Bråting

Uppsala University

Yvonne Liljekvist

Karlstad University

Johan Prytz

Uppsala University

Lars Madej

Uppsala University

Johanna Pejlare

University of Gothenburg

Chalmers, Mathematical Sciences, Algebra and geometry

Kristina Palm Kaplan

Uppsala University

Nordic Research in Mathematics Education: Papers of NORMA 17 - The Eighth Nordic Conference on Mathematics Education Stockholm, May 30 - June 2, 2017

1651-3274 (ISSN) 1651-3274 (eISSN)

299-308

The Eighth Nordic Conference on Mathematics Education NORMA 17
Stockholm, Sweden,

Subject Categories

Didactics

Other Mathematics

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5/11/2021