A Comparison On The Function Course In High School In China And America

The comparison on the function course in high school in China and America can help us to know the mathematics education of the other country and the characteristic of their teaching material, at the same time, it also can help us to know our own mathematics education and teaching material more clearly, and by comparing we can find the difference between the two countries and the deficiency of ourselves, then we can propose some suggestions to improve and promote our mathematics education after referring their advantage and contacting our own actual situation.In this article, Having seriously collected,listed and analyzed the existing research results, I compare the function course of high school in China and America to find the difference of their curriculum standards and their text books. By comparison, I get the following findings:(1)There are similarities and differences between the two countries'curriculum standards of high school function course. Similarities include: both countries emphasize the connection of"relations"and"functions", different expression types of functions and the conversion among them, the use of modern information technology, the cultivation of students'mathematical model building skills, and both of them are trying to provide function course to all students. But the two countries'curriculum standards are different– different functions types, different statements of the requirement of the function study, and different level of emphasis on learning functions concepts.(2)High school functions textbooks of America and China differ with each other significantly in terms of compiling rules, content and exercises design. American textbooks place much emphasis on motivating students to learn, utilizing math teaching resources, providing instructions, and cultivating students'problem solving skills, while Chinese textbooks focus on training students'mathematical reading and researching skills. In content design, American textbooks dedicate more portions on learning different functions types than Chinese ones, and they focus on the process of mathematics knowledge differently. In addition, the excises on American textbooks outnumber Chinese ones considerably, and Chinese textbooks seem to have problems in balancing different types of excises more obviously. However, they have different but equally important ways in addressing background, calculation, deduction and knowledge points in exercise design.During the research, I also continually reflect some questions encountered by the Mathematics curriculum reform and existing to resolve. For example, how to implement the three-dimensional target and how to design the mathematics excises. Finally, I propose some suggestions to improve and promote the writing of our curriculum standards and text books through my comparison and reflection.