A Comparative Study Of Illustrated Materials In Physics Textbooks Of Chinese And American High Schools

As one of the forms of the teaching materials, the textbook illustrations have large influence on students’learning interest as well as learning effect and therefore attract more and more attentions. The feature and the worth of illustrations in Chinese high school physics textbooks are still to be studied. Currently, the high school physics textbook includes five sets, such as PEP and SEE. Comparative study on these textbooks is inadequate and the comparative research for illustrations is even less.Comparative models of illustrations in different physics teaching materials is built here based on characteristics of the physics teaching and learning. The United States has an advanced education system and is a recognized educational power in the international community. Therefore, American teaching materials have a high reference value. We select High School Physics and Physics Principles and Problems as research materials, published by the people’s education publishing house and the McGraw-Hill Companies respectively, analyse illustrations of the textbooks, compare both differences in many aspects including quantity, quality and presentation form, and finally draw the characteristics and differences between both. The balance of all kinds of illustration in textbook illustration is roughly same in the two countries, they are all attach great importance to the quantity of referenced illustrations. But the American textbook illustrations are superior in the design aesthetics, color, etc. And the Chinese textbook illustrations have strong humanistic color in content presentation.Combining the characteristics of the two countries’textbook illustration, we will adopt the way of comparative study that combining theoretical analysis and investigation interview. Firstly, textbook illustrations are classified three aspects according to the presentation, the content of the illustrations and the function. Then we not only compared the quality of the illustrations rendering in the two countries’textbooks, but also contrasted the quantitative statistics of illustrations in teaching material body parts or exercises. Finally we summed up the differences between the two countries’textbook illustrations in quantity, quality and other aspects. Based on the above comparison results, for the differences of textbook illustrations between the two countries, we interviewed front-line physics teachers of high school and some students respectively, learned about the evaluation and application situation of physics textbook illustration. On this basis, We summarize the results of related investigations, draw research conclusions.