A International Comparative Study On The Construction Of Chemical Elements And Compounds Content In Textbooks

On the basis of literature review and text analysis, the construction factors of chemistry textbooks in middle school have been defined as three parts in consideration of the nature of chemistry discipline, they are knowledge, experiments and exercises. The content of chemical elements and compounds is the basis of chemistry discipline, it’s so essential that attract researchers’great attention. In this situation, the systematically study of the content in domestic and foreign chemistry textbooks is of great significance.This study chooses the content of chemical elements and compounds in junior high school (or Grade7-9) chemistry or science textbooks from five different countries:China, America, Germany, Singapore and South Korea, which are the objects of this study. The comparative study focuses on the domestic and foreign chemistry textbooks’knowledge, experiments and exercises, and analyzes the important features and determines the level of them from three aspects of breadth, depth and the case analysis. This systematical comparison combines quantitative methods of data statistics with text analysis, in the hope of providing lessons and guidance, and improving the compilation work of the domestic junior middle school chemistry textbooks.The study finds that the selection and organization of the chemical elements and compounds in the domestic and foreign textbooks have different characteristics and hierarchical levels. And breadth of knowledge affects the breadth of the experiments and exercises. Domestic textbooks have higher depth and breadth on the three construction factors of knowledge, experiments and exercises, while the foreign textbooks pay less attention on the chemical elements and compounds content, but the designation of the experiments or exercises in some textbooks still worth learning.