Pre-service teachers’ assessments of the cognitive demand levels and pedagogical compliance of textbook activities
Muhammet Doruk 1 * , Gül Mine Bayram Gün 2
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1 Department of Primary Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, Uşak University, Usak, TÜRKİYE2 Department of Primary Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, Hakkari University, Hakkari, TÜRKİYE* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate cognitive demand level and compliance with pedagogical criteria of activities included in the official 5th grade mathematics textbooks. In this context, the last three official 5th grade mathematics textbooks published by the national publisher in Türkiye were examined. A research group consisting of 18 third-year pre-service mathematics teachers was formed, and the participants received the necessary training before the analysis. The study employed a document analysis design and was carried out over a 14-week period. Descriptive and content analyses were applied to the qualitative data, while descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data. The results revealed that the number of activities in the textbooks has increased over time; however, their distribution across units was not balanced. Approximately half of the activities were found to be at lower levels of cognitive demand, and several pedagogical criteria were not adequately met. Moreover, the findings indicated a fluctuating pattern in the textbooks’ features across the examined years. Based on these findings, several recommendations were proposed for the development of future mathematics textbooks.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

PEDAGOGICAL RES, Volume 11, Issue 1, January 2026, Article No: em0257

https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/18095

Publication date: 13 Mar 2026

Article Views: 20

Article Downloads: 9

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