The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has determined that students in grade levels one through twelve need a mathematics education which focuses on five goals. These goals are:
(1) that they learn to value mathematics, (2) that they become confident in their ability to do mathematics, (3) that they become mathematical problem solvers, (4) that they learn to communicate mathematically, and (5) that they learn to reason mathematically. (copies).
Ideally a mathematics curriculum should enable a student to meet all five of these goals. The student and teacher editions of a mathematics textbook form the outline and basis of a mathematics curriculum. The ability of a textbook to meet the goals of the NCTM is critical to the capability of a mathematics curriculum to meet these same goals.
The first goal of the NCTM for students to learn to value mathematics is based on the premise that students should be able to place mathematics in context. A student should be exposed to a multitude of experiences which use mathematical concepts and constructs across disciplines, in contemporary life and society. Students should gain an awareness of the historical conditions which fostered the development of mathematics and the impact of mathematics on our society and culture.
The NCTM's second goal, of having students become confident in their own ability to use mathematics, means that students will be able to apply the concepts that they have practiced in the classroom to real world situations and problems. Students should learn that many everyday situations require the use and understanding of mathematics. Students should develop an understanding that completing projects such as grocery shopping, figuring a discount, building a birdhouse, and drawing a pattern are all based on and use mathematical concepts.
That the student should become a mathematical problem solver, is the third stated goal of a mathematics...