Research On The Content Of "Earth And Universe Science" In The American Science Textbook Science Dimensions

According to China Compulsory Education Primary School Science Curriculum Standard released in 2017,the primary school science curriculum had been changed from grade 3-6 to grade 1-6 in order to cover the entire primary grades,and the rules in the goal and content settings had been changed too,reflecting the new requirements for the new era in elementary science education in our country.The domestic various versions of the elementary school science textbooks also require new or adapted versions accordingly.In 2013,the United States released the New Generation of Science Standards for K-12 education,which contains many new ideas about science education.Science Dimensions is a new set of Science textbooks launched by Harcourt educational publishing company following the new standards in the United States.It was officially launched in 2018 and reflects the latest science education concepts in the basic education stage of the United States.At present,there are few studies about Science Dimensions in China.In this stage,the analysis and research on this elementary science teaching material can provide some possible enlightenment for the compilation and revision of the Science teaching material and the design of Science curriculum in China.The author chose the "Earth and Space Science" content from Science Dimensions(grade k-5)as the research object.Since this discipline is one of the four disciplinary content of the primary science curriculum.In Science Dimensions,each disciplinary conent has the consistent way of unit,lesson,column setting style,so to select only "Earth and Space Science" content as an example to analyze in depth,from one to whole,in order to find out the characteristics,ideas and guidelines hidden in the textbook content.First of all,through literature review,the research results of domestic and foreign researches of science teaching materials were sorted out,mainly focusing on the methods used in the analysis of teaching materials,the framework,the process of teaching material evaluation,the selection of methods,tools,criterions and indicators,etc.By summarizing the achievements and shortcomings of textbook analysis,the method and framework of textbook analysis and evaluation in this study are clarified.Then,Science Dimensions is analyzed concretely.Firstly,the name,quantity and distribution of the units and lessons of “Earth And Space Science” in the textbook are generally sorted out.It is found that the subjects or units in the textbook have the characteristic of spiraling upward through years.The arrangement of the topics in each unit reflects the idea of paying equal attention to science and engineering.Then,combining with the curriculum standards,the qualitative and quantitative methods are adopted to analyze Science Dimensions in 3 aspects of content selection,content organization and content presentation.Conclusion: first,in terms of content selection,the selection of units and lessons is based on the development of the disciplinary core ideas.Second,in terms of content organization,the content structure of each lesson follows the three-dimension science learning mode from NGSS,and the columns order in each lesson satisfies the 5E teaching mode.Thirdly,in terms of content presentation,there are many kinds and large quantities of in-class teaching activities,and the activities are open-ended,with rich and vivid text,pictures and forms and having online resources for each student as well.Then,on the basis of the content analysis of the textbook,the content of the textbook is evaluated.In the first part,the alignment degree between the textbook content and the curriculum is evaluated,and finding the alignment degree between the textbook and the curriculum standard is with high level.In the second part evaluates the quality of teaching materials supporting effective teaching.According to the established evaluation criteria,the quality of teaching materials supporting effective teaching is close to excellent.On the basis of the above analysis and evaluation,it is concluded that the teaching material of Science Dimensions can be used for reference for the compilation of teaching materials and the design of curriculum materials in China.The main references are as followed.Firstly,to improve the integration and coherence of the curriculum content;Secondly,the status of engineering design in science curriculum and its integration with science content should be improved.Thirdly,to pay attention to the development of students' interest in STEM career and self-identity;Fourthly,the learning activity setting must take into account the formation,application and evaluation,so to support the effective teaching;Fifthly,provide abundant online resources.