An analysis of cognitive demands of mathematical tasks in Korea and Japan elementary school textbooks in proportional reasoning

The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze the cognitive demand of the mathematical tasks suggested in the elementary school textbooks in Korea and Japan. In particular, it aimed to reveal the overall picture of the level of cognitive demand of the mathematical tasks in the strand of proportional reasoning in the textbooks. We adopted the framework for mathematical task analysis suggested by Stein & Smith(1998) and analyzed the mathematical tasks accordingly. The findings from the analysis showed that 38.9 percent of the mathematical tasks were at high level and the rest at low level in terms of cognitive demand in Korea. In Japan 18.7 percent of the mathematical tasks were at high level and the rest at low level in terms of cognitive demand. Most of the mathematical tasks in the textbooks were algorithmic and focused on producing correct answers by using procedures in both countries.