A Study On Criteria Construction Of Textbook Evaluation From The Perspective Of Activitv Theory

Lacking of teachers' subjectivity is a prominent problem among the research and practice of textbook evaluation.As concerns their subject position,teachers'professional abilities and personal willingness are not affirmed.It reflects deep-rooted ontic thinking paradigm and element analysis method.Since the 20th century,mankind's thinking,includes pedagogical thinking,has undergone profound changes,in which shift from the traditional ontic thinking of the "origin" or"primitive" of the world to the emphasis on practical thinking of "subject" and its practice.Reflecting on the changes of thinking paradigm and actively weaving it into the research is a fundamental work for grasping the characteristics and trends of current textbook evaluation.Given that the study taking elementary mathematics textbook as a specific example,it attempts to interpret the connotative meaning of textbook evaluation from the perspective of activity theory,and then explore the practical form of teachers' activity and construct the textbook evaluation criteria.After defining the activity theory as a main analytic perspective,the fourth chapter chooses the key leader,the main research center,and the important journal as clues to clarify the historical context,the methodological shifts,and criticism of activity theory.And on this basis,the chapter further reveals the meaning of the activity,and the unique connotation of the textbook evaluation activity,which constitutes the theoretical basis of the thesis.From the view of activity system model,the criteria problem is essentially a matter of means.Teacher has access to the 'goal' and 'object' through 'means',and then achieves the results of activity.Based on the unit analysis method,this study designs the action-level activity and operation-level activity according to IL'enkov's theoretical model.The overall evaluation of textbook as a typical action of the activity can reveals the basic content of evaluation criteria as a whole.As a series of specific operations in the process of action implementation,the sub-item evaluation further shows the reconciliation of the personal view and the social speech under the constrained situation,and provides individual voice to further enrich the connotation of the criteria.In the process of understanding,analyzing and extracting the evaluation criteria,this study uses Garvin's 8-dimensional quality criteria as a reference framework for coding the data.The fifth chapter fully demonstrates the framework's suitability to the local culture and its consistency of existing practice through the analysis of curriculum standards and comparison of five typical evaluation protocols.It thus ensures a broader and more inclusive overall framework of the data analysis,which integrating text and application,content and teaching,object and subject,and revealing teachers' cognition and practice of evaluation from the perspective of teaching practice.The sixth chapter presents the analysis process and conclusion of the overall evaluation activity in the action-level.The overall evaluation activity chooses the chapter or section as the unit of analysis,and takes textbook evaluation diaries as a research tool.There are 68 primary mathematics teachers participate in the activity,which are from Shanghai municipal,Chongqing municipal,Guangzhou city,and Zhongshan city.It collects 103 pieces of textbook evaluation diary.The study shows that:(1)The evidence of the criterion of "durability" is scarce among teacher's evaluating discourse;(2)the criterion of "performance" occupies a dominant position in teacher's evaluating discourse;(3)the connotation of the criterion of"features" is most richest;(4)the criterion of "conformance" is a precondition of the"reliability";(5)teachers and students are in urgent need of the criterion of"serviceability";(6)the criterion of "aesthetic" can further enhance or weaken the quality level of textbook;(7)the criterion of "perceived quality"is an overall perception of textbook from teachers and students.The seventh chapter indicates the analysis process and conclusion of the sub-item evaluation activity in the operation-level.The sub-item evaluation activity takes the typical elements as the unit of analysis,and chooses questionnaire and interview as research tools.There are 32 primary mathematics teachers participate in the activity,which are from Shanghai municipal.The study has shown that:(1)the capacity of content is an important regulatory variable of the criterion of"performance";(2)in refer to the criterion of "features",teacher constructs the evaluation cognition based on the curriculum standard;(3)teachers are in urgent need of the normative of content when considering the criterion of "reliability";(4)in refer to the criterion of "conformance",teachers show emphasis on the matching degree of examples and exercises;(5)the convenience and applicability receive wide attention under the criterion of "serviceability";(6)the connotation of "aesthetic" are enriched and developed;(7)interesting is the most important point when teachers talk about the criterion of "perceived quality";(8)the criterion of "durability"emerges in the sub-item evaluating discourse.The eighth chapter integrates the results of these two kinds of activities,and presents the internal symbolic tool and its connotation.Based on that,it puts forward the following conclusions:teachers' behavior of textbook evaluation has its own activity mechanism;the emphasis of different criterion reflects the tendency of interactive relationship;the evaluation criteria can be used as a starting point for promoting the transitional development of the activity.In addition,this chapter discusses four important "contradictions" in the evaluating discourse:first,teacher's definition of "blanking" of the layout of the textbook and the conflict between the commodity value and the teaching value of textbook;second,teachers' demands for the "matching" of textbook content and supporting resources,which shows the debate between the certainty and uncertainty of knowledge;third,the significance and limits of "teaching reference book" when it plays as another standard in the evaluating process;forth,the regional educational policy plays as an important"context" and its interaction and mutual influences with activities.This chapter also proposes some suggestions for the con-construction of subject and object.Finally,this thesis makes a reflection and outlook in the following aspects:the application of the theoretical codes,the subjective of participants,the identity of researcher,the possibility of criteria as a follow-up tool,the role of discourse should be further distinguished,highlighting of the central position of contradictions,shifting from the discourse analysis to practice intervention.