A Comparative Study of Teaching Critical Thinking in Japanese and Iranian Third-Grade Mathematics Textbooks

The purpose of the research was to investigate how the authors of third-grade mathematics textbooks in Iran and Japan pay attention to the teaching of critical thinking components. This is a comparative research using "different social systems, different educational outputs" strategy for the selection of the sample. Also, data collection and analysis methods were documentary and integrated content analysis respectively. The first finding indicated that the topics of mathematics education in the primary schools of both countries are almost the same. The second finding shows that special attention has been paid to the use of different methods to solve problems in Japanese math textbooks; so that in most cases pupils are asked not to use only one solution. Another finding reveals the difference between the two countries in terms of the use of practical and concrete issues for children; in a way that in the Japanese math textbook- unlike in Iran -, all the lessons and problems are related to the daily life of the students. Another difference is related to the way of summarizing the topics of each chapter. In the Japanese math textbook, students are taught how to take notes on what they have learned and use them for further learning. Also, at the end of each chapter, questions are designed related to the entire topic, which is similar to the chapter review section in the Iranian math book. However, in the Japanese math book, next to each question, the book guides students to which page to refer to - if they do not know the answer to that question – and read the related material again.