Development Process And Its Enlightenment In Chinese Contemporary Mathematics Curriculum In Junior And Senior Middle School

Entering 21st century, the new basic education curriculum reform is implemented inour country, and curriculum researches are unprecedentedly prosperous. Compared withthe general curriculum theory research, mathematics curriculum theory research is still atan initial stage. Insufficiency of mathematics curriculum theory research makes Chinesemathematics education field helpless in facing the problems which was put forward bypractice of the basic education mathematics curriculum reform. Andditionally debatesabout the mathematics curriculum reform had also been made out of personal experience,which lacked of rational thinking and theory direction, and so frequently fallen into cyclicring. In fact, many problems which are raised in the practice of the new mathematicscurriculum reform of basic education had appeared in all previous curriculum reforms.Carefully examining and studying these problems from the historical perspective areimportant to construct Chinese mathematics curriculum theory. The thesis of developmentprocess and its enlightenment in Chinese contemporary mathematics curriculum in juniorand senior middle school is under a research field of the history of Chinese mathematicseducation. This dissertation is of great significance in discovering characteristics ofChinese mathematics education, constructing mathematics education theory with Chinesecharacteristics and solving problems occurred in basic education mathematics curriculumreform.Historical research method, literature method, comparison method, text analyticmethod, interview method and other methods are mainly adopted to study and discussproblems.This research planed to study the problem: Which experience and enlightenment canwe learn from the development of Chinese contemporary mathematics curriculum in juniorand senior middle school? This problem is decomposed into three sub-problems: What isdevelopment process of Chinese contemporary mathematics curriculum in junior andsenior middle school? Which characteristics do the development history of the Chinesecontemporary mathematics curriculum in junior and senior middle school has? Whichenlightenment can we learn from the development history of the Chinese contemporarymathematics curriculum in junior and senior middle school for the present mathematicscurriculum reform? Answers of these three sub-problems are conclusions of thisdissertation.This dissertation takes the development and evolution of mathematics syllabus (mathematics curriculum standard), materials of mathematics instruction as main line, anddivides the development of Chinese contemporary mathematics curriculum in junior andsenior middle school into three stages: the stage of development way of mathematicscurriculum (1949-1957), the stage of exploring the system of Chinese mathematicscurriculum (1958-1991), the stage of establishing the system of Chinese mathematicscurriculum(1992-2000). For each stage, the dissertation analyzes the development processof mathematics curriculum in junior and senior middle school from three aspects ofbackgrounds, events and its influence.This dissertation makes a longitudinal comparison with representative mathematicssyllabus, main materials of mathematics instruction in the contemporary era (1949-2000).According to aspects of curriculum objectives/instructing objectives, content of curriculum,selection of curriculum, arrangement of curriculum and other aspects, characteristics ofmathematics curriculum development during the era are summarized as follows:The objective system of mathematics curriculum in junior and senior middle school isdeveloped from only containing ordinary objectives to combine ordinary objectives andspecific objectives. It has basically formed a multifaceted, multi-level, combining withmacroscopic and microscopic, relatively perfect objectives structure system. The way topresent objectives experienced the process from abstract, fuzzy to specific, operable. Thenumbers of knowledge area and knowledge unit of mathematics curriculum in junior andsenior middle school appeared a changing trend of sinusoid. Selections of mathematicscurriculum in junior and senior middle school experienced "one syllabus, one textbook→many syllabuses, many textbooks→one syllabus, one textbook→many syllabuses,many textbooks" cyclic development. The overall arrangement of junior and senior middleschool mathematics curriculum contents experienced "polyclinic→mixed→polyclinic→mixed" cyclic development. Influenced by the geometric content of the Soviet Union, themanner of approaching plane geometry contents used the proving geometric system andbecame the main manner of approaching geometric content in 50 years. In various periods,all the algebra contents adopt an approach of "Number→Formula→equation→Function". It also appeared some new attempts on algebraic arrangement such asNumber→Equation→Formula→Function.Based on the study mentioned above, this dissertation puts forward the followingsuggestions for the present mathematics curriculum reform in China.The Statements of mathematics curriculum objectives should inherit the tradition ofemphasizing "results", emphasizing both " objectives of results" and "objectives ofprocess"; Statements of mathematics curriculum objectives should be specific and definitude, it also need to combine objectives of stage of schooling, objectives of grade,objectives of knowledge area, objectives of knowledge unit and objectives ofknowledge-point together; Selection of mathematics curriculum contents should suitablydeal with the relationship between stability and development; Approaching of mathematicscurriculum contents should appropriately connect with theory and practice; Modernizationof mathematics curriculum contents should adapt to the students' acceptability andteachers' instruction level; Selections of mathematics curriculum should pay an attention toregional differences, classify to setting curriculum, compile regional textbooks, and dealwith the relationship between the ideal and the reality suitably; Synthesis of mathcurriculum content should be guided by the main line, the contents of knowledge areashould be relatively concentrated , but not too dispersed; Arrangement of geometriccontent should take into account of tradition and be better to adopt the way of combinationof the experimental geometry and proving geometry.The author makes innovation in this dissertation : Takes the syllabus and materials ofinstruction as clues to systematically sort the development history of the contemporaryChinese mathematics curriculum, adds and corrects some gaps in existed researches;Reveals the development characteristics of the contemporary mathematics curriculum injunior and senior middle school through the quantitative and qualitative comparison andstudy of curricula and textbooks; Through drawing lessons from history, put forward somesuggestions for solving some problems faced in the present mathematics curriculum reformin our country. However, in the process of the study, the historical materials' collection(especially textbooks) is not comprehensive, studies of the characteristics of textbooks arenot enough. Some of the conclusions need to be extracted theoretically.