A Comparative Study Of Junior High School Mathematics Textbooks Between China And The United States Under The Mathematics Core Literacy

In the field of basic education,core literacy has become the focus of education reform all over the world.Although the concept of core literacy appeared late in China,it has penetrated into various disciplines.In the field of mathematics,the research on mathematical core literacy is in the ascendant.China's Ordinary High School Mathematics Curriculum Standard(2017Edition)clearly proposes that students' mathematics core literacy should be cultivated in education and teaching.Although our country has excellent performance in international mathematics assessment,there are still some problems,which reflects that students' mathematics core literacy should continue to develop.Textbook is an important carrier to implement mathematics core literacy.The development of mathematics core literacy calls for mathematics core literacy oriented textbooks.Thus,this paper makes a comparative study of the PEP textbook and MIC textbook to explore the advanced experience of American mathematics textbooks,and provide suggestions for the compilation of mathematics core literacy oriented textbooks in China.According to the three-dimensional goal of mathematics curriculum and the internationally recognized PISA mathematics evaluation concept,this paper constructs the training framework of mathematics core literacy from mathematics knowledge,mathematics application,mathematics learning strategies and mathematics emotion,attitude and values,and determines the specific indicators of the comparative study of the two editions of textbooks according to the framework.Macroscopically,this paper makes a comparative study on the content arrangement and chapter structure of the two editions of textbooks.The results show that:the content of PEP textbook is scientific and reasonable,which reflects the strict mathematical knowledge system,the titles of each chapter are clear and intuitive,and the summary of procedural knowledge is emphasized.MIC textbooks lack this kind of induction and summary.There is no clear knowledge structure diagram.And most of the titles are difficult to directly present the content of this chapter,but they can make students understand the practical significance of mathematics and stimulate their interest in learning.Due to the difference of educational ideas,PEP textbooks have higher knowledge content and difficulty than MIC textbooks.At the micro level,this paper makes a comparative analysis of the contents of "acute trigonometric function" in the two editions of textbooks from the perspectives of knowledge relevance,problem types and situations,and problem solving process.In the field of mathematics knowledge,PEP textbooks pay more attention to the internal logic of knowledge.It is helpful for students to form an overall understanding of mathematics.MIC textbooks emphasize the external connection of knowledge.It is helpful for students to form good mathematical core literacy under the background of comprehensive knowledge.In the field of mathematics application,PEP textbooks emphasize the review and consolidation of knowledge,while most of the problems in MIC textbooks are used to explore new knowledge.Compared with MIC textbooks,PEP textbooks have less realistic situations,and most of them are cartoon pictures,which is not conducive to students to establish the connection between mathematics and reality.And the situation level is not high,which is not conducive to the cultivation of mathematical modeling ability and problem-solving ability.MIC textbooks are better at using problem-solving to cultivate high-level mathematical ability and promote the development of mathematical core literacy,but it costs more time and resources,which is not in line with the basic national conditions of China.In the field of mathematics learning strategies,MIC textbooks use problem groups and multiple representations to promote the development of students' knowledge understanding strategies,while the standardized definitions and standard answers provided by PEP textbooks limit the development of this strategy to a certain extent.MIC textbooks guide students to monitor and adjust their learning process when solving problems,and promote the development of problem-solving strategies.PEP textbooks rarely provide such opportunities.In the field of mathematics emotion,attitude and values,PEP textbooks enable students to understand the beauty of mathematics through humanities and arts,cultivate their feelings for mathematics through the application of mathematics in science and technology,cultivate students' admiration for mathematicians and feel the charm of mathematics by introducing mathematicians and classic mathematical problems.And MIC textbook is more close to students' real life,and students have a higher sense of substitution.It also emphasizes the role of mathematics in historical development,and improves students' interest in mathematics.In view of the above conclusions,this paper puts forward the following suggestions for the compilation of mathematics core literacy oriented textbooks in China: create real and rich problem situations throughout the knowledge learning process;set up open problem groups to build mathematics learning scaffolding;strengthen the internal and external connection of mathematics knowledge for carring out contextual learning;optimize the activity evaluation methods to improve innovation and practice ability;strengthen the infiltration of mathematics culture to cultivate positive mathematics emotion,attitude and values.