A Comparative Study Of Inquiry Activities In High School Biology Textbooks Between China And The United States

In the new round of basic education reform, scientific inquiry became the keyword. In China, although the inquiry teaching has undertaken in some schools, but there still are also some problems. After analysis I found, for teachers, the instructors of inquiry-based activity are mainly textbooks. However, the textbooks written in exploration activities are to some extent. So teachers have a sense of fear of difficulty. Therefore, the study of exploration activities from the perspective of biological teaching materials is the way to solve the problem that exploration activities difficult to implement. In the "Stones from other hills may serve to polish jade"idea, I zeroed in Sino-Us materials, compared and analyzed the inquiry activities in American high school biological textbook"Biological.life force" and China PEP high school biological textbooks, exploring worth learning places to improve the quality of our biological inquiry teaching activities.In this study, I used three approaches. The literature research, content analysis and comparative analysis. First, based on a literature review, I selected my study; defined "inquiry""exploration activities"; described the development and theoretical basis of domestic and foreign exploration activities; viewed the recent study of biological materials and exploration activities in biological materials. Followed, by content analysis and comparative analysis the two versions of textbooks exploration activities were compared. Analysis dimensions include eight areas, the overall structure of materials and the theme of the event, the type, the open level, the presentation, the question type, teaching objectives, equipment and the arrangement of teacher-student activities. The results are as follows.From the point of overall structure, our teaching materials are modular, American materials mix the knowledge together. In the theme, our textbooks emphasis on theoretical knowledge of reproduction, American textbooks focus on expanding. On the view of type, two countries are common, experimental activities take a large propotion, investigative less, curricular activities are more than extracurricular activities. The open level of exploration activities in two editions are common, mostly level 2, none level 5. On the view of presentation, there is a small number of illustrations in our textbooks, the color of the images is single, the tune is cool, the printing is blur; there is a large number of illustrations in American textbooks, the color of the images is rich, the tune is warm, the printing is clear. The style of words in our textbooks is rough, American detailed. Our expression concise, American vivid and kind. Activities in two countries are same on distribution problems, mostly closed type, less half open issues and open issues. On the teaching objectives,our textbooks focus on the achievement of the goal of knowledge, American on the ability. On the equipment, our types are less, American are rich; the name of equipment in our books is blur, American clear and specific. On the arrangement of teacher and student activities, our only scheduled student activities, American scheduled both student and student activities; on the student activities, American more detailed. The features of our exploration activities are:the structure compact, point prominent; language expression simple and concise; focusing on highlighting the characteristics of profession. American features are:can trigger students'interest; with strong guidance and operability; focusing on the contact of theory and life.At last, based on the research conclusion, I put forward some suggestions on improving the quality of the biological exploration activities in our class. First, optimize the design of the activities based on in-depth understanding of curriculum standards; second, rich the content and extend the knowledge area; third, enhance the creativity awareness, develop new equipment in activities; fourth, fully use the multimedia, increase the fun of exploration activities in class; fifth, pay attention to the details, enhance the guidance; sixth, use the local resource, increase the regional features.