A Comparative Study On Spatial Geometry Of Chinese And The United States Mathematics Textbooks

Along with the development of global education reform, China took up reform of basic education in 2001 and applied the reform to high school education in 2004. To improve the quality of reform, it is necessary to do comparison between China and other countries. As carriers of curriculum goals and teaching content, textbooks attract people’s attention to study and research.This paper analyses presentation on spatial geometry in two versions of textbooks, the PEP High School Curriculum Standard Textbook(A version) and Mathematics Geometry published by American Prentice Hall. Basically, the content is divided into three parts. Firstly, the paper studies on different characters reflected in two textbooks. Secondly, the paper analyzes similarities and differences between them. Thirdly, the paper researches on different teaching goals behind two textbooks.The paper takes advantage of research methods including content analysis and comparison, along with research tools like concept maps and Excel. Moreover, based on qualitative and quantitative analysis, here below are conclusions:1. Differences and similarities coexist in the overall content of two textbooks. Both of the two textbooks have designed much blank space for students to take notes. Except that, the PEP version is in black and white color with narrow line space and small font-size. The PH version is colorful with wide line space and big font-size.2. The two textbooks present different written orders in teaching spatial geometry. The PEP version strongly focused on the integrity of mathematical concepts. It is written following the order of "Structure- three views and intuitive diagram- the surface area and volume". And the PH version is written following the order of "orthographic drawings- expansion and cross-sectional surface- Structure-surface area- volume".3. Judging from the content of two textbooks, PEP version emphasizes on standard of concepts. All concepts are presented in clear and orderly way. In contrast, PH version pays more attention on building links among different concepts. In introducing new concept, PH version uses many related situations, along with diagrams and tables. In addition, there are examples for every concept in PH version, but not every concept is equipped with examples in PEP version. In conclusion, compared with PEP version, PH version is more easy and convenience for student to learn by themselves.4. From the aspect of demands on students, both of two textbooks mainly focused on procedural skills, not exploration of theory. There are more related knowledge and areas in PH version than in PEP version.Based on study of spatial geometry in two different textbooks used in China and America, this paper comes up with some suggestions on writing new textbook.