Do students need to learn how to use their mathematics textbooks? The case of reading comprehension

Abstract

The main question discussed in this paper is whether students need to learn how to read mathematical texts. I describe and analyze the results from different types of studies about mathematical texts; studies about properties of mathematical texts, about the reading of mathematical tasks, and about the reading of mathematical expository texts. These studies show that students seem to develop special reading strategies for mathematical texts that are not desirable. It has not been possible to find clear evidence for the need of a specific ”mathematical reading ability”. However, there is still a need to focus more on reading in mathematics teaching since students seem to develop the non-desirable reading strategies.