A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Junior High School Geometry Textbooks

This thesis compares Michael Serra,the middle school geometry textbook published by the American Core Curriculum Press,"Discover Geometry-An Inductive Method"(hereinafter referred to as "Discovery Geometry")and China's compulsory education mathematics curriculum standard experimental textbook--"Mathematics"(Beijing Normal University Press,2012 edition)(hereinafter referred to as "Mathematics").The author tries to find out the similarities and differences between the students' texts and the same subjects,and compares them to find their advantages and disadvantages respectively.I hope to provide some reference for the preparation of Chinese textbooks and the teaching materials used by our front-line teachers.This paper mainly uses the literature research method,the content analysis method and the comparative research method to compare the content of "graphic congruence and similarity" in the two versions of textbooks.The author analyzes quantitatively and qualitatively from three dimensions which are content structure and knowledge organization system;problem scenarios and inquiry activities;knowledge content and level of thinking.Through research comparison,we draw the following conclusions:(1)Content structure and knowledge organization systemThe content setting of the Chinese and American textbooks is from simple to complex.In the distribution of textbook content: the textbooks of Beijing Normal University are relatively scattered,while the content of this part of the American textbooks is relatively concentrated.In terms of the arrangement of knowledge points,the knowledge points of the Beijing Normal University use the linear arrangement mode and are arranged from easy to difficult;the arrangement of American textbooks gradually penetrates the thought method,adopts the spiral expansion mode;in the content arrangement: the American textbooks gradually deepen through the problem during the learning process,and the students can comprehensively use themathematical thinking method to analyze and solve the problem which is worth learning in this respect.(2)Problem scenarios and inquiry activitiesThe two editions of the textbooks differ in both the number of situations and the distribution of categories.In terms of problem situation setting: compared with Chinese textbooks,American textbooks pay more attention to the setting of problem scenarios;This aspect is worth learning from.In the teaching materials or classroom teaching,the number of situations is appropriately increased.The textbooks are arranged to reasonably balance the contextual content of each column.In the teaching,the situation is selected from the real world,and the situation is introduced from the reality.We should also pay attention to the design of problem scenarios in teaching,so that the class is more interesting.In inquiry activities: American textbooks allow students to explore and cooperate in mathematics activities independently,and according to the requirements of China's "Standards",The inquiry activities of Chinese textbooks are generally guided by the teacher.Students' learning activities should be a process of initiative and individuality.Not only must we accept learning,but we must also actively participate in hands-on practice,independent inquiry,and cooperative learning.Students need to have enough time and space to observe,summarize,analogy,guess,reason,verify,communicate,etc.,to promote students to think independently,actively explore,cooperate and exchange,in order to obtain basic mathematics activities experience.The "inductive-exploration-proof" strategy of "Discovery Geometry" is a new method of learning geometry.This method can be used for reference in the preparation of mathematics textbooks in China.Our frontline teachers should pay attention to inquiry activities in teaching design,correctly guide students to explore and cooperate independently,and cultivate students' ability to explore and cooperate.(3)In terms of knowledge content and level of thinkingThe two editions of textbooks conform to the development model of Vanhill's geometric thinking level,but there are some differences: the level of knowledge and geometric thinking in the American Discovery Geometry textbook is higher than that of China's;and in China's Mathematics,there are more knowledge points to understand the hierarchy than Discovery Geometry.The knowledge points of Chinese and American textbooks belonging to levels 1,3,and 4 are similar in number.Among them,the two editions of textbooks belong to the level of common sense introduction,and most of them belong to the level of understanding and application.Compared with the Beijing Normal University edition,the American "Discover Geometry" textbook has higher requirements for inquiry,thinking methods,and reasoning ability,while the requirements on the line-like lines and triangle-related lines are lower.At the level of thinking,high-level geometric thinking,especially logical thinking ability,is an extremely important part of the basic core literacy of mathematics.Chinese mathematics textbooks should explore "how to enable students to achieve high-level geometric thinking levels efficiently." Our front-line teachers should also develop high-level geometric thinking levels based on existing textbooks.How to design a teaching is worthy of our students' thinking and exploration.Finally,from the previous analysis and comparison,some inspirations about improving the writing of geometric textbooks in China are obtained,and suggestions for the use of teaching materials by front-line teachers are put forward.