On The History Textbook Of Taiwan Senior High School

With the deepening of the new curriculum reform, textbook reform has gained increasing attention from the education field. It has been more than one decade since the implementation of the new curriculum reform in mainland China, but exploration and improvement still continues. Similarly, Taiwan across the Taiwan Straits is also exploring in the education field. As a branch of Humanities, history subject reform has been in the spotlight among education circles.In 2011, Taiwan formulated the new history curriculum outline to update various versions of history textbooks. This paper adopts Taiwan History Textbook for Senior Highs published by San Min Book Co., Ltd. in 2015(hereinafter abbreviated as the “San Min Version”) and History Curriculum Outline for Regular High Schools in Taiwan issued in 2011(or the 101 st year after the birth of the Republic of China)(hereinafter abbreviated as “101 Curriculum Outline”) as research objects. Focus is on discussing characteristics and defects of Taiwan’s history textbooks. Based on that, the author attempts to provide some references for the history curriculum setting and textbook reform of mainland China.Chapter 1 is the introduction part, which covers the topic selection background, research value, research overview, research methods and innovational points. In the research overview part, the author expounds on the current academic research into various versions of history textbooks both in mainland China and Taiwan, and the comparative research between mainland China and Taiwan in terms of their history textbooks.Chapter 2 mainly introduces the senior high history curriculum outline reform situations and the history textbook versions in Taiwan; analyzes variations of senior high history curriculum outlines, including “95 Temporary Curriculum Outline”(namely temporary curriculum outline adopted in 2005), “98 Curriculum Outline”(namely curriculum outline adopted in 2008) and “101 Curriculum Outline,” in terms of their curriculum objectives, class hour distribution and textbook content outline; and looks into the future development tendency of history curriculum outline for senior highs in Taiwan. Besides, the author also introduces the seven versions of history textbooks for senior highs currently in use in Taiwan at an attempt to get an overall understanding of the current history textbook content of Taiwan.Chapter 3 is an in-depth analysis of the major content of the “San Min Version.” It discusses the content editing characteristics of history textbooks for senior highs in Taiwan based on the overall textbook content system and the major content of textbook fascicules, including four required fascicules, two optional fascicules, history of Taiwan, history of China, history of the world and history of culture.Chapter 4 introduces the structural setting of the San Min Version. Its fascicule, outline, chapter, section and paragraph setting are analyzed based on its overall structure. Besides, according to the article structure of the textbook, the lead-in, notes, illustrations, knowledge extension, consolidation exercises and attachments of every article are analyzed to further show structural editing characteristics of the history textbook in Taiwan.Chapter 5 summarizes the defects and referential points of Taiwan’s history textbooks according to the above analysis and discussion. The defects of Taiwan’s history textbooks include redundant content without focuses, frequent curriculum changes, and serious de-sinicization. The referential points include rich content, full coverage of knowledge points, clear structure and clear demonstration of the historical development, focus on social and cultural history and reflection of diversified cultural values. Based on these defects and referential points, the author puts forward some suggestions for the editing of Taiwan’s history textbooks.