A Comparative Study Of The Physics Textbooks In Chinese And American High Schools From The Perspective Of Structure

Based on the deepening of the reform of physics curriculum in middle School,the Chinese Ministry of Education promulgated the standard of physics curriculum in general High School(version 2017)in 2017.In particular,the new curriculum standard emphasizes the importance of textbooks,which is one of the important expression of educational ideas at the national level,and also determines the development of national education and teaching level to some extents.With the continuous development of global education curriculum reform,the content of physics textbooks in middle schools is becoming more and more abundant.The development of physics education in middle schools in the United States has been always at the forefront of the world,and its rich content of textbooks has been widely used by countries around.After a survey on the development of curriculum standards and textbooks in China and the use of four mostly used textbooks in the United States,the People’s Education Press edition of high school physics textbook and the American middle school physics textbook “Concept Physic”(written by Paul G.Hewitt,translated by Shu Xiaolin)were chosen as the research object,combined with structuralism curriculum theory,cognitive Structure curriculum theory,comparative pedagogy,ISM(interpretation structure)method,this thesis analyzed and compared the surface structure and knowledge structure of the two textbooks respectively.Through the comparative analysis of the two textbooks,the structure and similarities of them were obtained.Combined with the advantages and disadvantages of the two textbooks,some suggestions for the preparation of textbooks in China were put forward.Through the analysis and research of the knowledge structure of textbooks,Chinese teachers and students can be helped to recognize and understand the textbooks and master the structural context of textbooks.The research showed that in the surface structure system,the framework of the two edition textbook is unique.The People’s Education Press edition of high school physics textbook takes “chapter-section” as the main line and sets up a number of columns suchas scientific stroll,experimental inquiry,subject research,problems and exercises.While “Concept physics” takes "chapter" as the main body,and sets up several columns,such as physics history,physicists profile,prompt bar,foreground prospect,author’s essay and so on.In the chapter catalogue,there are great differences in the order of knowledge arrangement between the two textbooks.In the early part of the chapter,the People’s Education Press edition of high school physics textbooks are dominated by famous quotes and images related to the content of textbooks.The “Concept physics” is dominated by description of the stories of some physicists and educators,as well as images related to the content of this chapter.For the image system,“Concept physics” is interspersed with a large number of cartoons,attaching importance to the comic effect of images while the images in the People’s Education Press edition of high school physics textbooks focus on the interpretation of knowledge,highlighting the frontier of physical knowledge.In the exercises system,“Concept physics” arranged more types and large number of exercises,including thinking questions,review questions,extracurricular self-study homework,simple calculate problems,sorting questions,exercises and test questions.While the People’s Education Press edition of high school physics textbooks arranged relatively less in types and number of exercises,only three types including examples,thinking discussion,problems and exercises,but the content of the exercises pay more attention to the application and exploration.On the knowledge structure system,we first determined the specific operation steps of ISM textbook analysis.According to the specific process of ISM method,we chose the knowledge elements in the "Newton’s Law of Motion" and "the Law of Thermodynamics" section of the two textbooks and drew out the diagram of the structure of the knowledge elements.According to the process and results of the analysis,the knowledge structure of the relevant content of the two textbooks is compared from the four aspects as "choice of knowledge elements","content comparison of the same elements","selection of knowledge elements at the highest level" and "formation relationship between elements".At the end of the thesis,according to the research results,some feasible suggestions are put forward for the preparation of textbooks and the development of textbooks.