III Encontro Internacional

ARITHMETICAL REASONING AND CALCULATORY COMPETENCEManuel J. S. LoureiroEngineering Faculty, ULHT, Lisbon, PortugalESE Almeida Garrett, Lisboa, PortugalKey words: performance in mathematics, school manualsIn international standards, the performance in mathematics of Portuguese students who complete the 1st EB cycle (Primary/Elementary School) ranks 18th position (TIMSS, 2011) and the performance in mathematics of Portuguese students who complete EB (Middle School) ranks 31th position (PISA, 2012). Given the importance of training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the high amount of investments made in education in recent years a natural question is raised: What prevents Portugal from improving these positions, especially the 31th position, which has persisted since the evaluation in 2003? We studied one of the factors that can help explain this - the organization of school math manuals.