A Comparative Analysis of Fractions in Chinese and Pakistani Primary School Mathematics Textbooks

Abstract

Fractions are a vital content area in school mathematics and are often one of the critical difficulties for schoolchildren to learn during primary school. The study looked at how fractions are treated differently in primary school mathematics textbooks in China and Pakistan, particularly in the early stages of their teaching, which have not been studied. This study proposes a framework for intercultural comparison of textbooks. The results show a higher number of fraction queries in Pakistan than Chinese books, which emphasize the basic definition of fractions to support schoolchildren in developing advanced levels of cognitive abilities. Meanwhile, many graphical representations of fractions are proposed in Chinese to elucidate concepts. Both Pakistani and Chinese textbooks focus on the representation of fractions, together with several symbolic representations of questions. However, the visual content in Chinese math books is relatively high. Besides, the questions raised in Chinese textbooks connected with real-life circumstances, while those in Pakistani textbooks have less relevance to real life. This paper discusses the significance of this research and puts forward some proposals for future research.