A Comparative Research On Junior Middle School Mathematics Teaching Material (the Third Edition)

The curriculum reform in compulsory education has spreading all round the nation. Curriculum implementation works through teaching materials, which, to some extent, has a heavy influence on the success of reform. At present, there are several editions of teaching materials which are composed under the criterions of new curriculum. Anyone, either the maker of teaching materials or the teacher, should lay much emphasis on the study of mathematics teaching material for it connects tightly to the quality of teaching.Teaching material, which is also named textbook, is the essential part of teaching. It is the intermediary of teaching, and all the materials and measures used for teaching behaviors are included in it. There are two main kinds of junior middle school teaching materials according to the curriculum criterions for mathematics in full-time compulsory education (trial draft), one is pressed by Beijing Normal University (named BNU's edition followed) and the other by People's Education Press (named PEP's edition followed).It's due for teachers to study the two editions for the creative use of teaching materials. However, there is not any lesson that we can learn from home and abroad for the study of mathematics teaching materials. Through long probe both in theory and in practice, Holland scholars, the Vansiors put forward a five-level theory about students' geometry thinking, which is consisted of visualization, analysis, inference, deduction and rigor, and depicts students' thinking development well. Based on such a theory and the examples of the similar graphs in teaching materials between BNU's and PEP's edition, the author constructs a comparative research for the purpose of revealing the dimensions about geometry in junior middle school, assuring the accurate understanding about the content and enhancing the teaching quality.The paper is divided into four parts. In part one, the author introduces the changes and controversy brought by mathematics curriculum reform; in part two, the author briefly introduces the Vansiors' theory, based on which the comparative research on graphic similarities between the two editions of teaching materials is on its way; in part three, the author analyses and discusses the outcomes born from the comparison; in part four, several suggestions for the making of mathematics teaching materials in junior middle school are proposed.