A Comparative Study On High School Mathematics Textbooks Of Shanghai, Hong Kong And Singapore

Shanghai has received more and more international attention in recent years,. As the World Exposition is going on, it absolutely will offer new opportunities for Shanghai's economic development. The history experience explicitly told us that education is the very basis of economic development. Moreover, education should never be ignored and should be given more attention behind the economy growth in today's China. Many other countries and regions in the world have been carrying out education reform, of which the curriculum reform is a very important project. Therefore, it is of great significance for Shanghai to concern with the reforms in those countries and regions, to learn their advanced experiences and eventually to proceed with the Mathematical curriculum reform.Undoubtedly, the curriculum reforms in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore have achieved certain effectiveness already. Since these three regions locate in the East Asia and have a relatively economic power, as well as are influenced by the Confucianism to such an extent, my research choose these three series of mathematics textbooks using in High School to analyze their different features, therefore to give some suggestions about Shanghai textbooks.This research has analyzed the content characteristics, organization characteristics and instruction characteristics of textbooks, using literature analysis and comparative method of studying, In the process of the comparisons, whole comparison and enumerations are also used.This research shows that(1) in the point of content characteristics:knowledge in Shanghai textbooks are deeper and wider; Shanghai textbooks give attention to the contents about life and the knowledge that relate to other subjects, but relatively less than Hong Kong textbook give; Shanghai textbooks don't pay enough attention to use information technology, which has been better combined with teaching in the textbooks of Hong Kong and Singapore;(2) in the point of organization characteristics:Shanghai textbooks emphasize the internal association in a same topic of knowledge and the external association between different topics; Hong Kong textbooks organize contents in a spiral way; Singapore textbooks are presented as a structure with relatively independent modules;(3) in the point of instruction characteristics:columns, such as texts and exercises, are designed more comprehensive in the textbooks of Shanghai and Hong Kong than of Singapore, which are relatively simple and traditional; Hong Kong textbooks are designed to have different difficulties or types to both satisfy students'different level and be convenient for students' self-learning; textbooks of Shanghai and Hong Kong attach more importance to reading ability than those of SingaporeOn the basis of the research above, I have three suggestions for the amendments about mathematics textbooks of Shanghai. The textbooks should first strengthen the combination between teaching and information technology; second, emphasis the connection of knowledge between senior high school and junior high school and give more attention on the retrospect of learned knowledge; third:consider to be added infinitesimal analysis.