A Comparative Study On "Practice And Comprehensive Application" Of Primary Mathematics Textbooks

As a prominent feature of the new curriculum reform,"Practice and Comprehensive Application" reflects the new ideas directly.It also reflects the trend of international mathematics education which focuses on the comprehensive application of mathematics knowledge.Aiming at cultivating students' creativity and practice ability,it breaks through the traditional learning methods. However,it just has general objects but no settled contents in the Mathematics Curriculum Standard. All these directly lead to the occurrence of different features and problems in the "Practice and Comprehensive Application" of different textbooks.Textbook is an important carrier of the course and whether it is highly qualified in compiling or not directly affects their implementation.Therefore, facing the problems in the implementation of "Practice and Comprehensive Application" in the new curriculum reform,making comparative study of four editions of textbooks on this field is significant,not only to the compiling,emendation and use of the Mathematics Curriculum Standards and this field,but also for development of the field and the research on the theory of mathematics curriculum of primary school.This study takes the methods of comparative method,content analysis,literature method and investigation to do research on "Practice and Comprehensive Application" of different textbooks, which respectively published by People's Education Press,Beijing Normal University Press, Southwest Normal University Press and Jiangsu Education Pres.The study starts mainly from four aspects:amount of subjects,selection of materials,arrangement of content and the presentation form. Through the static comparison of textbooks and the analysis of the survey data,some conclusions are found as follows.The main features and differences of four editions are presented in four parts.(1)To the amount of subjects,all the four editions fluctuate in the subjects' amount of every semester.But there are great differences in the degree of fluctuation and the whole number of subjects.(2)To the selection of materials,all these four editions have well considered the characters of students' age and properly reflected students' experience of daily lives.Their differences are mostly focusing on the differences of material trends,material sources,and different proportion in the same source.(3)To the arrangement of content,all these four editions have well indicated the concepts and requirements of the Mathematics Curriculum Standards.Their differences are mostly focusing on the differences of the framework of the textbook and the independent subject,and the compiling form.(4)To the form of presentation,all these four editions try to present with description and pictures together,well link with our lives,and organize materials by various forms.Their differences focus on design of the layout,the expression of text,the forms that materials organized and different proportion in the same form.The main problems in the "Practice and Comprehensive Application" of four editions are also presented in four parts.(1) There is a lack of consideration to the character of students' age when arranging the amount subjects of the textbooks.The amount of subjects does not change according to the change of classes.(2) To the selection of materials,the four editions' materials are lack of systematization in the whole.They often have obvious trend of urbanization and have few rural themes.The materials are not good enough in interest.The repetition of themes and math activities without a proper background abound in the material resources.(3) To the arrangement of content, there are fewer chances left for teachers' choosing or adjusting in teaching and students' autonomous learning,such as the textbooks published by People's Education Press and Jiangsu Education Press.The framework of some independent subjects is complicated,and it is hard for students to understand,such as the textbooks published by Beijing Normal University Press.Also, some subjects are too hard,while some are so easy.(4) To the form of presentation,some editions are a bit crowded in the layout.The real photos are not properly used in the subjects.The forms that materials organized are monotonous,the feasibility of activities still needs to strengthen and the activities about math knowledge without circumstances are too much.Based on the ideas of new curriculum,and the features and problems in the field of these four editions,some advices are presented as follows.(1)The amount of the subjects should be arranged properly according to the grade.It is more suitable to arrange 2 or 3 subjects in low grade,3 or 4 subjects in middle grade and 4 or 5 subjects in high grade.(2)The material of "Practice and Comprehensive Application" should adhere to nine principles:familiarity,age,novelty,quality of knowledge,interest,proportionality,being worthy of thinking,systematization.(3)Content arrangement of "Practice and Comprehensive Application" in math textbooks should consider six points bellow:setting titles for decentralization arranged activities,adding exercises properly,being clear in steps,major and minor for concentration and decentralization in different learning periods should be clear,flexibility in content arrangement and the hierarchy in the structure of subjects. (4)Presentation form of "Practice and Comprehensive Application" in math textbooks should follow five points bellow:being in a mixed form of comic strips,real photos and descriptions; properly arranging the comic strips,real photos,descriptions in different learning periods; organizing materials reasonably and strengthen the feasibility of activities.(5)Other suggestions: being moderate in the amount of knowledge and the difficulty,use information technology in moderation,pay attention to the compilation of "Practice and Comprehensive Application" in teaching reference books.This is the first study to compare four editions in "Practice and Comprehensive Application" from several aspects in China.The conclusion of the study can provide references for the development of textbooks of our country.However,due to the limited ability of me,some deficiencies still exist in the study,which need further exploration,such as the study does not communicate with the complier and learn about their purposes;also the research depth is still far from satisfying.