A Comparative Study Of The Example Design In Mathematics Textbooks In Chinese And Singapore Junior High Schools

Mathematics textbooks are an important medium for the implementation of curriculum.As an important part of textbooks,examples play a key role in cultivating students' ability to solve problems,helping students master basic knowledge and skills and comprehend mathematical thoughts and methods.At the same time,the difficulty of examples often reflects the comprehensive difficulty of mathematics textbooks.So the design of examples plays an important role in teachers' teaching process as well as students' learning process.The full text can be divided into four parts.The first part is the introduction,which is consisted of the background information,research significance,research methods as well as literature review.It first points out that the present study is against a background of enriching present studies on junior middle school mathematics textbooks,solving problems related to the teaching of mathematical examples in junior middle schools,and expanding current studies on examples in junior high school mathematics textbooks used in China and Singapore.Next,it introduces three kinds of research methods used in the current study,namely,comparative research,literature research and text analysis.Finally,it reviews previous research at home and abroad,including studies on junior middle school mathematics textbooks,studies on the examples in junior middle school mathematics textbooks,and studies comparing the junior middle school mathematics textbooks used in China and Singapore.Based on the classification of the illustrations in mathematics textbooks and the comprehensive difficulty model,the second part,adopting comparative research and text analysis,quantitatively and qualitatively compares the five themes in two sets of China and Singapore junior high school mathematics textbooks.To be specific,this part compares the number of examples,the structure of examples,the types of illustrations,and the five dimensions of example difficulty in the five themes.The third part mainly analyzes the causes of the differences in examples between Chinese and Singapore junior high school mathematics textbooks.According to the curriculum guidelines and mathematics textbooks of the two countries,the differences in examples can be attributed to the following three aspects: the different orientation of mathematics curriculum objectives,the difference in the formal structure of mathematics textbooks,the distinct spiral arrangement of mathematics textbooks,all of which are illustrated with specific examples.The fourth part,based on the results of quantitative and qualitative analysis,suggests a revision of present junior high school mathematics textbooks in sections that are connected with example teaching: First,the introduction part needs to be closely related to the upper knowledge,which is of great assistance to students to construct their mathematical knowledge system.Second,put a high value on inspection and review parts of the textbooks,cultivating students' ability to reflect and summarize.Third,prominence should be given to examples of scientific situation,which can enrich students' experience in solving problems.Fourth,the proportion of exploratory examples should be increased so as to develop students' mathematical inquiry ability.