Understanding mathematics textbooks through reader-oriented theory Aaron Weinberg & Emilie Wiesner Published online: 10 August 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract Textbooks have the potential to be powerful tools to help students develop an understanding of mathematics. However, many students are unable to use their textbooks effectively as learning tools. This paper presents a framework that can be used to analyze factors that impact the ways students read textbooks. It adapts ideas from reader-oriented theory and applies them to the domain of mathematics textbooks. In reader-oriented theory, the reader is viewed as actively constructing meaning from a text through the reading process; this endeavor is shaped and constrained by the intentions of the author, the beliefs of the reader, and the qualities the text requires the reader to possess. This paper also discusses how reading mathematics textbooks is further constrained by the authority and closed structure of these textbooks. After describing the framework, the paper discusses recommendations for future avenues of research and pedagogy, highlighting the importance of teachers' roles in mediating their students' use of textbooks. Keywords Mathematics education . Content area reading . Reader-oriented theory . Textbooks Textbooks are a major enterprise in the teaching of mathematics. Research in several countries has shown that textbooks act as vehicles through which students interact with mathematics (Haggarty & Pepin, 2002), are a resource for teachers (Reys, Reys, & Chavez, 2004), and have been an avenue to investigate curricular reform (Ball & Cohen, 1996). Researchers (e.g., Bierhoff, 1996) have also suggested that differences in textbooks may affect student learning outcomes. In the USA, this focus on textbooks has led to the development of several National Science Foundation-supported curricula and fostered research on textbooks and their role in the classroom at the K-12 level (K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Center, 2005). The reform calculus movement in the early 1990s drew attention to the role and design of undergraduate textbooks in the USA. However, researchers have given relatively little Educ Stud Math (2011) 76:49–63 DOI 10.1007/s10649-010-9264-3 A. Weinberg (*) : E. Wiesner Ithaca College, 953 Danby Rd, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA e-mail: aweinberg@ithaca.edu