Concepts introduced in Norwegian textbooks before, during and after the New Math period

Hilde Opsal (1) , Bjørn Smestad (1)

1 Volda University College

For a nuanced discussion on the legacy of New Math, detailed knowledge of the content of mathematics before, during and after New Math is needed. In this article, we mirror a study of Icelandic textbooks, studying at what ages certain New Math-connected concepts were introduced in 14 Norwegian textbook series for age 7-15 published in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. As was the case with Iceland, set-theoretical concepts appeared with New Math and were mostly gone by the 80s, while axioms of the number field and the study of number were to a large extent present throughout the period studied. These were introduced at an earlier age in the 70s. We find that some New Math-related concepts were introduced in textbooks before New Math entered on a full scale, unlike Iceland. Like Iceland, many other concepts were introduced in the 70s and stayed in textbooks.

Mots clés: New Math; textbooks in mathematics; mathematical concept

Domaines: Mathématiques [math]

Hilde Opsal, Bjørn Smestad. Concepts introduced in Norwegian textbooks before, during and after the New Math period. Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12), Feb 2022, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. ⟨hal-03748582⟩