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A model of textbook use

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 A MODEL OF TEXTBOOK USE
Sebastian Rezat
Institut für Didaktik der Mathematik, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany

The aim of this paper is twofold. On the one hand it is intended to develop a model of
the activity ‘textbook use’ that is of particular interest for research in mathematics
education. On the other hand it is supposed to make a contribution to activity theory
striving for “transcending the boundary between theory and practice” (Engeström,
1990) by applying activity theory to a particular activity. It appears that in the case
of textbook use the triad ‘subject – mediating artefact – object’ as the nucleus of the
human activity system does not entirely represent the activity ‘textbook use’. This will
raise issues according to the model of the human activity system as suggested by
Engeström (1999b).

INTRODUCTION
As Even and Schwarz (2002) point out, “the focus of research in mathematics
education has extended from the individual student's cognition and knowledge to
contextual, socio-cultural and situated aspects of mathematics learning and knowing.
From a socio-cultural perspective not merely the “practices and culture of the
classroom community” (Even & Schwarz, 2002) are of particular interest, but the
study of artefacts of the mathematics classroom and their use.
Howson (1995), who states that „despite the obvious powers of the new technology it
must be accepted that its role in the vast majority of the world’s classrooms pales into
insignificance when compared with that of textbooks and other written materials”
underpins the particular interest in the textbook and its use for research in
mathematics education. In fact the textbook is associated with most of the activities
related to teaching and learning mathematics.
While textbooks and the comprehension of mathematical text (cf e.g. Österholm,
2004) have received some attention in research on mathematics education, several
authors point out a dearth of research into the use of texts (Gilbert, 1989; Love &
Pimm, 1996). One reason may be the difficulty of obtaining data on the use of
textbooks (cf Love & Pimm, 1996). Another reason may be the lack of a theoretical
framework for textbook use. An appropriate theoretical framework might in fact be
regarded as a prerequisite to collect data on the use of textbooks.
Therefore, the first aim of this paper is to develop a model of the activity ‘textbook
use in teaching and learning mathematics’.
From an activity-theoretical perspective this activity is striking because it is
connected to a particular artefact by definition. If activity theory aims at being “a
pathbreaker in studies that help humans gain control over their own artefacts”
(Engeström, 1999a) it should be capable to provide a model for the activity ‘textbook
2006. In Novotná, J., Moraová, H., Krátká, M. & Stehlíková, N. (Eds.). Proceedings 30th Conference of the
International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Vol. 4, pp. 409-416. Prague: PME. 4 - 409
Rezat
use’. It appears that in the case of textbook use the triad ‘subject – mediating artefact
– object’ as the nucleus of the human activity system does not entirely represent the
activity ‘textbook use’. This will raise issues according to the model of the human
activity system as suggested by Engeström (1999b).

RATIONALE FOR A MODEL OF TEXTBOOK USE BASED ON ACTIVITY

THEORY
Activity theory analyses “object-oriented, collective, and culturally mediated human
activity” (Engeström et al., 1999). The use of a textbook is an activity that is situated
in the context of institutional teaching and learning. Within that context the use of
textbooks is object-oriented and collective. The educational system itself is a
historically and culturally formed system.
The emphasis of activity theory is placed on “mediation of human action by cultural
artefacts” (Engeström et al., 1999). As well as the educational system the textbook is
a historically and culturally formed mediating artefact. The textbook is influenced by
the educational system and by traditional concepts of teaching and learning.
Both, the historical development and the literature on textbooks are characterized by
controversies. It seems that the textbook and its use are best described as a set of
dichotomies. The following questions may give an impression of some important
dichotomies:
• Is the textbook a pedagogical means or a marketed product?
Mathematics textbooks as well as textbooks in general are developed to
serve a pedagogical purpose. Nevertheless, “publishing is a business and
must please its primary customers – teachers – to remain viable” (Chambliss
& Calfee, 1998). Therefore the textbook is not merely a pedagogical means
but also a marketed product. “The economics of publishing also imposes
constraints” (Love & Pimm, 1996) on the development of textbooks as a
pedagogical means.
• Is the textbook an instrument for learning or the object of learning?
The textbook mediates knowledge. In this respect it is designed to be an
instrument for teaching and learning. However, Engeström (1999b) argues,
that the main aim of teaching has been to reproduce the text in the textbook.
Therefore he concludes that the text must be regarded as the object of
learning. Then again, some authors even call for considering textbooks as
the object of learning in order to develop a critical attitude towards mass-
media (cf Keitel et al., 1980; Stein, 1995).
• Is the textbook addressing the teacher or the student?
On the one hand mathematics textbooks pretend to be addressed to the
student. Consequently, teacher’s guides are offered in addition to textbooks
(Keitel et al., 1980). On the other hand, most authors agree that mathematics
textbooks are addressing both, the teacher and the learner (Griesel & Postel,
1983; Keitel et al., 1980; Love & Pimm, 1996; Stein, 1995). This dichotomy
is associated to the issue of the nature of the knowledge that represented in

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 Rezat
textbooks, i.e. the dichotomy between a mathematical and a didactical nature
of the knowledge.
• Is the textbook supposed to be mediated by the teacher or is its intention to
substitute the teacher?
Most authors agree that the textbook are not in general conceived to replace
a teacher, but are written to be mediated by the teacher (cf e.g. Griesel &
Postel, 1983; Love & Pimm, 1996; Newton, 1990). But nevertheless there is
a tendency to create teacher-proof textbooks (cf Keitel et al., 1980).
These dichotomies already demonstrate that a model of textbook use must be capable
of incorporating dichotomies. According to Engeström (1990) “activity systems are
characterized by inner contradictions”. Therefore, activity theory appears to be
especially suited to be a basis for a model of textbook use.

TEXTBOOK USE FROM AN ACTIVITY-THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE

The fundamental interacting components of the activity system are the subject, the
object and the mediating artefact. Vygotsky (1978) was the first to introduce the
triangle with these components as vertices as a simplified model of mediated action.

mediating artefact

subject object

Fig. 1: Vygotsky’s simplified model of mediated action

A first approach to describe the use of mathematics textbooks by students according
to this model might be the following triangular representation:

textbook

student mathematical knowledge

Fig. 2: 2-d-representation of the use of textbook by students (1)

The activity described in this model is part of the learning activity as a whole. Within
this activity the textbook serves as an instrument to acquire mathematical knowledge.
However, this model disregards the widespread agreement that textbook use is
usually mediated by the teacher (cf Griesel & Postel, 1983; Love & Pimm, 1996;
Pepin & Haggarty, 2001).
Newton (1990) claims that “text use is usually perceived as a relationship between
the teacher, the student and the text”. Keeping in mind that the teacher is regarded as

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the mediator of the text, Newton suggests a different model of textbook use that is
displayed in Fig. 3.

teacher

student textbook

Fig. 3: 2-d-representation of textbook use with the teacher as mediator of the text
From an activity-theoretical perspective this model of textbook use has two
remarkable implications:
(1) In this model the role of the textbook has changed. It is no longer an
instrument but the object of the activity.
(2) From an activity-theoretical perspective the teacher adopts the position of the
mediating artefact. This means, that either this model is no representation of
an instrument mediated activity in the activity-theoretical sense of the term or
that the idea of mediation can not be reduced to artefacts. These two
alternatives try to explain the position of the teacher within the triangular
structure of the activity system. Another way of dealing with the mediating
role of the teacher is to expand the triangle in Fig. 2 to a quadrilateral. The
new vertex stands for the mediation of the use of the artefact by a person or
another artefact.
In the case of textbook use the triangular nucleus of the activity system will expand
to the following quadrilateral:

textbook
teacher

student mathematical knowledge

Fig. 4: 2-d-representation of the use of textbook by students (2)

From the student’s perspective this seems to be an appropriate model for textbook
use. In this quadrilateral structure the student is the user of the textbook and the
teacher is mediating the use of the textbook. But in this model it is not yet taken into
consideration that the teacher himself is a user of the textbook. In fact, it was inherent
in one of the major dichotomies, that the textbooks are even addressing teachers.
Compared to the student the teacher uses the textbook in a different way. For him it is
not merely an instrument to acquire knowledge. Different studies substantiate that
mathematics teachers use textbooks as a means to prepare their lessons (cf Bromme
& Hömberg, 1981; Hopf, 1980; Stodolsky, 1989; Valverde et al., 2002; Woodward &

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Elliott, 1990). Hence, for the teacher the textbook mediates didactical aspects of the
presented knowledge.
The use of the textbook by the teacher may be either modelled as a separate activity
system or it may be included in the model of textbook use depicted in Fig. 4. As a
result, the complexity of the model of the activity ‘textbooks use’ will increase in a
way that is best represented in the three dimensional shape of a tetrahedron.

textbook

teacher
student

mathematical knowledge/
didactical aspects of the
mathematical knowledge

Fig. 5: 3-d-representation of the model of textbook use

This model includes another major dichotomy of the textbook, namely the dichotomy
with regard to the nature of the knowledge represented in textbooks. But this time it
appears at one of the vertices. This conforms with Engeström (1999b) who describes
dichotomies to be characteristic for all vertices of the activity model.
With regard to the two major subjects that are using textbooks – the teacher and the
student – Fig. 5 in fact represents a more comprehensive model of textbook use. The
tetrahedron represents the use of textbooks in class. Each of the triangular faces of
the tetrahedron reveals another aspect of textbook use.
(1) student – teacher – textbook
The student is the acting subject in this triangle and the textbook is the object
of his activity. The teacher mediates the use of the textbook.
(2) student – textbook – mathematical knowledge
The student in this triangle uses the textbook on his own initiative without
mediation by the teacher. The object of his activity is mathematical knowledge
in general. The textbook is regarded as the instrument to access the
mathematical knowledge. It mediates between the mathematical knowledge
and the student.
(3) teacher – textbook – mathematical knowledge (didactical aspects)
This triangle describes the teacher’s use of the textbook. While the teacher acts
as a mediator of textbook use in the whole activity system he is the subject of

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Rezat
the activity in this subsystem. The object of his activity are the didactical
aspects of the knowledge represented in the textbook.
(4) student – teacher – mathematical knowledge
The traditional didactical triangle or as Chevallard calls it ‘the didactical
system in the narrow sense’ (cf Chevallard, 1991), that also appears in the
tetrahedron-model of textbook use does not even include the textbook, but still
must be considered as a subsystem of the activity ‘textbook use’. It can be seen
as the complement of triangle (3). The teacher implements the knowledge that
is represented in the textbook without using the textbook overtly in the lesson.
He acts as a mediator of the knowledge. Several studies substantiate this way
of using textbooks (cf Hopf, 1980; Stodolsky, 1989; Valverde et al., 2002;
Woodward & Elliott, 1990).

CONCLUSION
Two conclusions of the preceding section may be drawn. On the one hand it was
shown, that activity theory can be applied to create a suitable model for the activity
‘textbook use’. The suggested model includes all the major aspects of textbook use
with regard to the two primary users. But as presented above it just focuses on the
nucleus of the activity system, i.e. the triad subject – mediating artefact – object. This
must be integrated into the whole activity system (cf Engeström, 1999b).
Furthermore, the fundamental dichotomies in connection with the textbook need to be
incorporated.
On the other hand the triad ‘subject – mediating artefact – object’ turned out to be
unsatisfactory to describe the activity ‘textbook use’ entirely. This was due to the
fact, that the use of the artefact itself was mediated by another subject. In addition,
this mediating subject plays a double role, because it is not merely a mediator, but
also a user of the artefact. This lead to an extension of the nucleus of the activity
system at best modelled and represented as a tetrahedron. This modification is
accompanied by a change of the focus of the nucleus of the activity system.
Originally, the main focus of the triangular nucleus of the activity system is the
subject (cf Engeström et al., 1999). Likewise, the tetrahedron was created coming
from the subject. But the final model is not a description of the use of the artefact by
merely one subject, it rather represents the use of an artefact by two subjects.
Consequently the tetrahedron-model can be interpreted as the activity that surrounds
a particular artefact. In this way the artefact is put in the centre of the activity system.
Put differently, an activity-theoretical model of an activity that is linked to a
particular artefact automatically situates the artefact in the centre of the activity
system. If activity theory is intended “to be a pathbreaker in studies that help humans
gain control over their own artefacts” (Engeström, 1999a) this might be a new
worthwhile perspective. Further implications for activity theory of this change of
focus need to be discussed.

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