A Comparative Study On The Difficulty Of Statistics And Probability Textbooks For Junior High Schools In China

As the key of textbook evaluation,the difficulty evaluation of teaching materials has a profound impact on the new curriculum reform in China.The content of the chapter "statistics and probability" is very important to cultivate students' "concept of data analysis".Most of the teaching materials in China are compared qualitatively,but the difficulty of textbooks needs more quantitative comparison.There are few domestic literatures on the comparison of textbook difficulty,which reflect the difficulty of textbook by studying the examples and the difficulty of exercises.Therefore,this paper selects four versions of textbooks,including the people's education press,Beijing Normal University Edition,Zhejiang Education Press and East China Normal University Edition,to conduct a comparative study on the difficulty of the textbooks in the chapter of "statistics and probability".The purpose of this paper is to investigate the similarities and differences of the examples and exercises in the chapter of "statistics and probability" of these four editions of textbooks,and put forward the following questions:(1)the examples and exercises of the four versions of junior high school "statistics and probability" textbooks are in the "background" What are the differences in "mathematical cognition,operation,reasoning and knowledge synthesis" ?(2)What is the difference in the comprehensive difficulty of the four versions of junior high school "statistics and probability" textbooks?The research methods used in this paper include: literature research method,quantitative comparison method.The research tool used in this paper is the difficulty model of Bao Jiansheng's mathematical problems.Starting from the five dimensions of "background,mathematical cognition,operation,reasoning,and the comprehensive degree of knowledge",this paper conducts quantitative evaluation research on the part of "statistics and probability" marked with "examples","exercises","classroom exercises","exercises" and "review questions" in the content of junior high school "statistics and probability" Finally,the comprehensive difficulty of each edition of textbooks in the chapter of "statistics and probability" is calculated by using Bao Jiansheng's mathematical difficulty model.From the research results,the following conclusions are drawn: 1)the order of the comprehensive difficulty of junior high school "statistics and probability" textbooks of PEP,Beijing Normal University,Zhejiang Education Press and East China Normal University is as follows: Zhejiang Education Press < People's education press < East China Normal University Edition < Beijing Normal University Edition.2)At the "background" level,the cases and exercises that belong to "personal life" and "public common sense" are the highest,and the distribution of PEP is the most balanced.The distribution focus of examples and exercises in the four versions are also on "personal life" and "public common sense".Although each item has distribution,the proportion of "scientific situation" needs to be strengthened.3)On the level of "mathematical cognition",the distribution focus of the four versions of examples and exercises is on "understanding explanation".Zhejiang Education Press has the most examples and exercises in this item,while there are too few examples and exercises in "analysis and exploration".4)On the level of "operation",the four versions of textbooks are mainly "no operation" and "numerical operation".In this item,each edition of textbooks needs to find a balance point.5)At the level of "reasoning",the distribution of examples and exercises in the four editions is focused on "simple reasoning".The proportion of this item in the textbook of East China Normal University is the highest,and the overall difficulty is also the biggest.6)On the level of "comprehensive degree of knowledge",people's education press,Zhejiang Education Press and East China Normal University Edition accounted for the highest proportion of "one knowledge point".Among the three,Zhejiang Education Press accounted for the highest proportion,while Beijing Normal University Edition accounted for the highest proportion of "two knowledge points".Each version of the textbook pays more attention to the relationship between knowledge points and background,but ignores the relationship between knowledge points and knowledge points.The above conclusions,to a certain extent,enrich the relevant research on the comparison of textbook difficulty under the background of the new curriculum reform,and also conducive to the further study of the difficulty comparison of "statistics and probability" textbooks,and provide certain theoretical support and Enlightenment for the new curriculum reform in China.In practice,for the revision of various versions of junior high school mathematics textbooks,the reasonable optimization of the difficulty produces guiding significance;it is also conducive to the front-line teachers from a higher starting point to view the difficulty of examples and exercises,make more rational use of teaching materials in the daily teaching process to design teaching plans,control the teaching difficulty,improve teaching efficiency,promote the improvement of teachers' teaching level,and students“ The awareness of data analysis has been enhanced.