Proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education · Volume 1
Hiroki Otani, Ishikawa Masaaki
Otsuma Women's University
⬇ Download PDFThis study investigates how the meaning of explaining becomes semantically contaminated through its curricular use in Japanese primary school mathematics. Focusing on the Japanese word setsumei, the analysis examines mathematics textbooks from Grades 1 to 6 as an operational curriculum. Drawing on the notion of semantic contamination, explanation tasks were analysed in terms of objects of explaining and types of expected responses (that, how, why). The results show that, while the word setsumei remains unchanged, its normative meaning is reorganised through repeated use: procedural and justificatory forms of explaining are foregrounded from the outset, whereas other everyday possibilities are backgrounded. These findings highlight how curricular language shapes what counts as explanation in school mathematics.
explanationsemantic contaminationcurriculummathematics textbooks