Survey And Analysis On The Present Situation Of Calculus Teaching And Learning In Senior High School

Calculus, whose creation is honored as "a great success of human spirit", provides important methods to study variables and functions and is applied widely in production practices and our daily lives. However, it is so difficult to learn calculus well that the content of calculus has been in and out the mathematic textbooks of senior high school alternately. The knowledge of calculus in senior high school is updated contentiously. In National Mathematics Curriculum Standards for Senior High Schools (Trial), which was enacted in2003, calculus is rescheduled and laid out again as a part of mathematics in senior high school. Up to now, the curriculum reform has been on for ten years. How is the teaching and studying of calculus at present? Are teachers and students satisfied with the calculus curriculum? Can they adapt themselves to this part? How about teachers’teaching and their feelings? How about students’learning and their feelings? What about the teachers’teaching in the eyes of students? Is there any successful experience in calculus teaching and learning? What are the problems? All of these questions are worth people’s attention and a further research.Based on the existing related researches, the thesis studies those questions by questionnaires, interview and classroom observation. The study result shows that the existing calculus curriculum has got some achievement, for example, most teachers and students have recognized the value of calculus. However, there are still some problems. For example, students don’t have a complete understanding of calculus’s nature; information technology is not integrated in mathematic curriculum well; new columns such as "Inquiry and Discovery" are poorly applied in textbooks; there is few methods for evaluation, and so on. Lastly, the thesis puts forward some suggestions to improve the calculus teaching and learning in terms of curriculum, teachers’teaching and students’learning:(1)putting the calculus curriculum in senior high school in a properly position;(2)presenting calculus from different aspects and highlighting the nature of calculus;(3)strengthening calculus’ applicability and coherence;(4)enhancing the integration of information technology and calculus.