The Comparison Between Chinese And Japanese Textbooks

Currently, the curriculum reform of basic education in China is stepping into the reflection phase. It is necessary and worthy to reflect and reconsider the positive results and disadvantages in the reform of Math course with regard to the compilation of the textbooks. Since both China and Japan belong to the Sinosphere, there are a lot of similarities in Math course reform. By comparing Chinese Math textbook published by People's Education Press and Japanese Math textbook published by Japanese Education Press for primary school students as the subjects representing two countries' best level, this thesis figures out the different methods in compiling textbooks, discerns the advantages and disadvantages in them, and proposes constructive suggestions to the future editing and revising of the Chinese textbooks.The thesis is divided into four parts.The first part sets out the subjects and research methods. The adopted methods here include the document analysis and comparison.The second part, the key section, is the comparison of the content, including general situation analysis and the content comparison on the two kinds of textbooks, following the sequence of Number and Algebra, Space and Figure, Statistics and Probability, Integrative Practical Activity. Through the comparison in the textbooks of the two countries on content overview, compiling features, and material choosing, it is concluded that Chinese textbook contains more materials in contents, both demonstrate unique compiling order, and Japanese one is more excellent in content choosing.The third part compares the form and design of the textbooks, including exercise samples, exercises, illustrations, formats and typography. It is evident that the Japanese textbook contains fewer exercises, and is more excellent in the other aspects.The last part is the conclusion and the reflection. Five points has been concluded and realized—the curriculum rationale including curriculum standards has a fundamental influence on the textbooks; the selection of the teaching materials is the most important and essential; materials should be logically and intellectually arranged according to the course characteristics with special intention on the simultaneous exposure of the different teaching subjects; although the Dutch Realistic Math Teaching has a positive influence, the research on textbook compilation has a long way to go; learning from the developed countries for the design and arrangement in textbook format and package is necessary and beneficial. Under the guidance of the curriculum reform, the compilation of Chinese textbooks have been changed and improved. Admittedly there are incompleteness and inadequacy in textbook research in China. However, this is just what we should make efforts to. The curriculum reform in China should be continued and perfected, and much still remains to be done in the future.