Mathematics textbooks for developing critical thinking of junior elementary school students

Respecting the fact that the development of critical thinking of students is one of the most important tasks of mathematics teaching, the authors analyzed only one aspect of the issue - the role of the textbook in creating opportunities for its development. This role is even more important since the textbook is the primary source for the selection of the contents in the teaching process of mathematics, and critical thinking can be developed, in the authors' opinion, only on specific contents. That is why we organized a research aimed at establishing how many tasks in mathematics textbooks require the process of critical thinking and stimulate its development, how the tasks are arranged regarding specific skills of critical thinking (formulating a problem, reformulating it, evaluation, sensitivity to problems) Using the technique of the analysis of the contents of 53 textbooks, approved for use in junior elementary schools in the Republic of Serbia in 2012/13 academic year we found out that only 9.23% of the total number of the tasks offered opportunities for developing critical thinking of students. Among them the largest number offers opportunities for developing the ability of evaluation, followed by the abilities of reformulating the problem and formulating a problem, while a minimal number of tasks enable the development of sensitivity to problems.