Blog Post Due 22nd 

The Ever-Changing Role of Mathematics Textbooks 

In respond to how might a text position students in relation to their experience of the world, the authors gives an example of when to use words with high or low modality. They explained that the TMM textbook authors choose to use high modality words (e.g. must) when referring reader’s past mathematics experiences and use low modality words (e.g. probably or might) when referring reader’s’ real-life experiences. They then posed question whether the model reader would think that his real-life experience mattes less that their mathematical experience. If I understand the point correctly, I would disagree with the article. If I were the textbook author, I would actually write the same way. When I structure my chapters and sections, I would make assumptions that one mathematical concept should be the prerequisite of another. When introducing anything new, I would also expect that the reader knows the pervious knowledge by following along with my textbook chapters. To make analogy, this is similar to the situation where students have to finish grade 10 math in order to enroll in grade 11 math class. Studying math is a continuous learning process where one thing builds upon another. However, I do resonate with the article that math textbooks depersonalized with their readers. I guess that is part of the reason why the majority of society agrees that math is a dry and boring subject. When I think back to the courses I have taken in university, I won’t give credits to the textbooks. By year three, I stopped buying textbooks unless it was necessary. If the authors can connect the readers by using first person pronoun and also second person pronoun, it will be like that the author and the reader is having a conversation about mathematics. I would prefer a textbook as such. I would say that textbook is playing a limited role in our schools in recent years. The learning is directed to a digital world where all resources are available, not only textbooks but also tons of worksheets, tutorial videos etc. Even without a textbook, one can still ace the course. Maybe it is convenient for some math teachers still use certain textbooks because they are familiar to the textbook structure, the way the content is delivered, and the questions at the back of each chapter.