Comparison Of The Concept Representation Between The Chinese And The American Geography Teaching Materials

The geographical concept is the core of geographical knowledge. It is important to state the geographical concept clearly for editing geographical textbooks and for the students to understand the essence of geography. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate and study the statement of the geographical concept in the geographical textbook of the middle schools. This research compares the statement of the geographical concept to that in the history and abord, based on the theories of pedagogy, psychology, mass-communication, and geography. After summarizing the successful experiences and the problems existing in the statement of the geographical concept in textbooks of middle school, I develop an optimal design of the statement of the geographical concept by using cases. The article is composed of six parts:The first part, introduction, introducing the research background, significance, present situation of the research, innovation as well as the technical line of this research.The second part introduces the geography concept in the geographical textbooks in the middle school, including the definition, classification and component elements of the geographical concept.The third part proposes the standards rational for the statement according on the basis of psychology, the basis of the geographical concept.The fourth part, the key one of this article , compares the present textbooks with the experimental textbooks according to the rational standards, and summarizes the successful experience of the concept statement. Further morec, this part compares the Chinese's four sets of experimental textbooks with the US' textbook named "Scientific Seeker", and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each textbook. Finally, the problems existing in the statement of the geographical concept in Chinese middle school textbooks.The fifth part, develops the optimal design of the statement of the geography concept in the middle school textbook on the bases the analyses in the third and fourth parts. The theoretical basis and the general rules of concept statement are proposed first, the general strategy to the design the statement of the geographical concept is explained by cases.The sixth part summarizes the conclusions of this research, and points out the problems need to be solved in the future..