Analysis of Mathematics Textbook Activities by Cognitive Levels and TIMSS Cognitive Domains

Textbook activities play a central role in determining the cognitive opportunities offered to students and in translating curriculum expectations into classroom practice. This study aimed to evaluate the activities in Grade 5 and Grade 6 mathematics textbooks in terms of cognitive demand levels and TIMSS cognitive domains. Cognitive demand was classified as Memorization and Procedures Without Connections at the low level, and Procedures With Connections and Doing Mathematics at the high level. TIMSS cognitive domains were categorized as Knowledge, Application, and Reasoning. Using document analysis, 257 activities, including 124 Grade 5 and 133 Grade 6 activities, were examined. The findings showed that high-level cognitive demand activities constituted 60.5% of Grade 5 activities and 88.7% of Grade 6 activities. Procedures With Connections was the most frequent category at both grade levels, accounting for 54.8% of Grade 5 activities and 78.9% of Grade 6 activities. Doing Mathematics activities were less frequent, representing 5.6% of Grade 5 activities and 9.8% of Grade 6 activities. In Grade 5, high-level demand was particularly prominent in Algebraic Thinking with Operations and Geometric Shapes, whereas Numbers and Quantities included a higher proportion of low-level activities. In Grade 6, high-level demand was dominant across all learning areas, and no activity was classified as Memorization. Regarding TIMSS cognitive domains, Reasoning was the most frequent domain in both Grade 5 (41.1%) and Grade 6 (85.0%). Overall, the findings indicate that the textbooks provide substantial opportunities for conceptual understanding and mathematical reasoning, although activities requiring open-ended and non-algorithmic mathematical inquiry remain comparatively limited.