A Comparative Study Of The Reasoning Method In Geometry Between British And Chinese Middle School Mathematic Textbooks

To foster middidle school sudents’ mathematical reasoning ability has always been a topic of concern in education sector as well as one primary goal in math courses. While great importance is attached to this area, poeple still feel puzzled. Many Chinese scholars and educators are exploring solutions to raise students’reasoning capacity.Here, the author tries to find differences and similarities in developing students’ mathematical ability between two countries, China and Britain.Differences between british and Chinese view on mathematical reasoning mainly reflects on different course design and requirement. To get a further insight into British and Chinese fostering of middle school students’ reasoning ability, this essay compares and classifies reasoning methods described in British and Chinese textbooks through literature review, text analysis and cotent comparison.From the perspective of logic, the author divided the reasoning methods in China’s PEP and British SMP textbooks into two categories:plausible reasoning and deductive reasoning.By taking the theorems, propositions,and examples in these two editions as the research object and collecting corresponding datas, the research found that in English textbooks plausible reasoning takes a far greater proportion than that of deductive reasoning, while in Chinese textbooks deductive reasoning dominants in geometry textbooks. This comparison is particularly evident in certain chapters, especially graphic shape and congruent. At the same time, via comparison the research found that reasoning in some chapters are similar such as graphics perimeter and area, and volume of the three-dimensional geometry, which mainly focus on deductive reasoning. With further comparison and based on the conclusion of these comparison, this paper aims to offer proposals for future course reform and textbook compilation.