Financial mathematical tasks in a middle school mathematics textbook series: A content analysis

This content analysis examined the distribution of financial mathematical tasks (FMTs), mathematical tasks that contain financial terminology and require financially related solutions, across the National Standards in K-12 Personal Finance Education categories (JumpStart Coalition, 2007), the thinking skills as identified by A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing (Anderson et al., 2001), and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards (NCTM, 2000). Two hundred seventy-eight FMTs, recording units for this study, were taken from a selected portion in each lesson within the three grade level textbooks of the middle school mathematics textbook series, Math Connects Concepts, Skills, and Problem Solving Course 1, 2, and 3 (Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009).;Three research questions, with corresponding coding forms, were developed for this study. After the coding forms were evaluated, the researcher trained coders, held trial codings, and conducted a pilot test to determine reliability, address validity concerns, and determine her credentials as the sole coder. As a result of the evaluations, trial codings, and pilot test, the coding forms were refined. The data analysis yielded frequency counts and percentages. None of the FMTs focused on planning a budget. The FMTs poorly addressed Create, the highest order thinking skill. The FMTs did not support the NCTM standard Representation adequately.;The findings indicate that the FMTs did not uniformly address the personal finance categories, the selected thinking skills, and the selected NCTM standards investigated in this research study. The potential is limited for middle school students to experience FMTs that contain: a balanced array of personal finance concepts and skills, challenging higher order thinking requirements, and an equal balance of the NCTM standards investigated in this research study. Among the recommendations advocated are: stabilizing the alignment of the FMTs to the personal finance categories, thinking skills, and NCTM standards, directing future research to continue investigating FMTs, focusing on worthwhile financial mathematical tasks, and investigating the potential for mathematics textbooks to be a vehicle for financial literacy education.