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Abstract
Reflection plays a vital role in fostering students’ metacognition, conceptual understanding, and problem-solving abilities. However, little is known about the extent to which mathematics textbooks create opportunities for students to engage in reflective thinking. This study investigates two widely used junior secondary mathematics textbook series in China to examine how and to what degree they promote reflection. Drawing on a multidimensional analytical framework, the study categorizes reflective opportunities along three dimensions: reflective content, reflective stage, and reflective behavior. Through systematic content analysis, 390 reflective prompts were identified and coded. Results reveal that knowledge-focused reflections are predominant (54.3%), with most prompts positioned during (69.3%) or after tasks (25.9%), and few encouraging pre-task reflection (4.8%). Behaviorally, statement-type prompts dominate (38.0%), while deeper analytical forms such as comparison, generalization, and explanation are relatively scarce. These findings suggest that while Chinese mathematics textbooks provide some opportunities for reflection, such opportunities remain unevenly distributed and limited in depth. The study underscores the need for textbook design to better support metacognitive and strategic reflection throughout the learning process.
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Type: Research Article
EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 22, Issue 4, April 2026, Article No: em2819
https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/18296
Publication date: 02 Apr 2026
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