Quality assessment of mathematics textbooks: Identifying and addressing content mistakes

Source abstract

This study examined the quality of government-issued mathematics textbooks by systematically identifying and analyzing content mistakes that may affect mathematical understanding and instructional effectiveness. Using a qualitative descriptive design with a document analysis approach, 16 secondary school mathematics textbooks were analyzed across five error categories: conceptual, procedural, representational, didactic, and technical errors. The findings revealed that all analyzed textbooks contained errors, with technical errors being the most frequent, while conceptual, procedural, and representational errors posed the greatest instructional risk. To extend existing textbook evaluation approaches, this study integrates error-type classification with an instructional severity analysis, distinguishing between major and minor errors based on their potential impact on learning. The results highlight that textbook quality issues are not limited to editorial inaccuracies but also include substantive mathematical and pedagogical weaknesses. This study contributes a severity-informed framework that can support more targeted textbook revisions, quality assurance, and instructional decision-making in mathematics education.