The Comparative Research Of Human Geography Between PEP High School Geography Textbooks And Taiwan Hanlin Version

Teaching material, an important part of curriculum resource, which is not only a necessary guarantee to achieve educational objectives, but also an important content to measure the basic educational level of a district or a country. The demands of teaching material’s diversification was put forward after publishing The Program for Elementary Education Curriculum Reform(trail) in 2001,Therefore, it is essential to strengthen the construction of geographical textbooks.According to literature, the paper learns the current status about the comparative study of geographical textbooks. Based on that, the paper analyzes the curriculum standards between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, and also studies the human geographical textbooks edited respectively by People’s Education Press in mainland and Hanlin Publishing House in Taiwan. Through the comparison, there are different styles and characteristics in both sides. After a comparative evaluation, the paper summarizes the advantages of the textbooks by Hanlin in order to give some advice in revising the textbooks in mainland. Besides, the paper also gives students and teachers the suggestion about how to effectively use textbooks.The main part of the paper is about the whole design of the two editions and their elaboration systems. Here are some findings:First, in terms of the whole design, Hanlin’s edition has higher quality,emphasizing on the application of scientific technology, color matching and other details. With a strong humanistic care, it also provides better reading experience for readers. Compared with that, People’s edition is more traditional.Second, both the two editions have a logic organization system,having abundant types of supporting materials and wide selection. People’s Education Press concentrates on the nature of knowledge as well as the principles and processes of geography. Hanlin focuses on the elaboration of geographical concepts. However, the depth and breadth of its knowledge are inferior to those of Hanlin’s edition.Difficult as it is, Hanlin’s edition is full of fun and close to daily life.Third, there are different image types in both editions. The textbook by People’s Education Press puts more concentration on the use of maps. But,the number of its images is far behind that of Hanlin’s textbook. The latter takes advantages of many landscape maps in its content. Furthermore, it has a more detailed classification of different maps. Hanlin’s textbook emphasizes the quality of image and the protection of intellectual property right.Fourth, they also have different activity types, mainly focusing on cognitive activities. People’s Education Press pays more attention to its activity systems, and it has advantage in quantity. While, Hanlin’s edition more concentrates on geographical practice, so in its content, there is a chapter which is design for introducing the practice methods.Fifth, the organizations of both content systems are relatively reasonable. That is to say, they all have the function of highlighting key points and breaking through difficulties. But, there is still a space for further improvement.