High School Mathematical Modeling Teaching Action Research

To improve the students' mathematical implemental abilities is one of the main objections of mathematical education. Mathematical modeling is one of the best approaches to reach this educational objection. And thus the teaching of mathematical modeling has been paid great importance both in china and abroad. In the preface of the ICTM-4 conference paper, it goes that : " In the fields of theory and practice of mathematical teaching, mathematical application, mathematical modeling have gained growing attention in the past dozens of years. They have been considered as the fundamental elements no matter in the fields of education, science, society, and in the field of culture." In 2003, it has been officially written in the (?) high school curriculum standardsthat the mathematical modeling to be as the teaching content of high school mathematics. The standards have clearly announced that mathematical modeling, mathematical exploration and mathematical culture are all important content of high school mathematical curriculum. During high school, we should at least assign a thorough mathematical modeling and mathematical exploration activity.This paper has adopted the method of action research which has become more popular in social sciences. I worked together with the experienced teachers in the affiliated middle school ofthe Capital Normal University to open an option course___ "mathematical modeling" duringMarch 2005 to March 2006. During this year ,we have experienced the transformation from "teacher-centered mathematical modeling" to "students-centered mathematical modeling". In this paper I make a detailed explanation and analysis of the teachers', the students', and the education researcher's activities in this transforming period, and make unique high school mathematical modeling teaching methods: paper-reading teaching method, paper-reporting teaching method, and paper-discussing teaching method, etc.There are five chapters in this paper. First : A brief introduction to mathematical modeling. This chapter is mainly to introduce the status of mathematical modeling both in china and abroad. The second chapter: An action research on mathematical modeling teaching. This is to introduce the methods and the transforming processes from "teacher-centered mathematical modeling teaching" to " students-centered mathematical modeling teaching". The third chapter: inspiration and reflection from the action research on high school mathematical modeling teaching. In the fourth chapter, I gave an evaluation on the credibility and value of this paper from five perspectives.As it goes "no practice , no gain in one's wit", this paper's purposes are to explore andpractice the effective teaching methods in high school mathematical modeling ____" students-centered teaching methods"through my action research; and to find the reasons and resolving methods for the problems met in high school mathematical modeling teaching. They are the five basic points in high school mathematical modeling teaching. Hope this paper can provide some inspirations and thinking for teachers and education researchers.