A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Japanese Junior High School Music Textbooks

Teaching materials have their origins in human educational activities and,as an important medium that occurs and develops alongside education and teaching,they have evolved and changed with the influence of modern science and technology.The content and layout of teaching materials in compulsory education reflect,to some extent,the national requirements for education,and the structure and content of the materials reflect the curriculum and teaching philosophy of their authors.This paper compares the textbooks of China and Japan because Japan and China belong to the same East Asian region,and there have been many cultural exchanges between the two countries in terms of politics,economy and culture,which have had a profound influence on each other.In order to implement the concept of "taking stones from other mountains to attack the jade,and taking sites from other waters to enrich oneself",this article selects the compulsory music subject "Middle School Music" published by the People’s Music Publishing House,which is a universal textbook widely used in all provinces,cities and autonomous regions in China,and the most widely used textbook in Japan,"Education".The most widely used textbook in Japan,Music for Junior High School Students,published by the Art of Education Society,was selected for the study.Using the methods of documentary analysis,content analysis and comparative study,several aspects of the process of writing junior high school music textbooks in China and Japan are compared,the background of writing the textbooks based on the development of the ideas of the times,the stylistic structure of the textbooks,and the selection and composition of the content of the textbooks.The main content of this paper is divided into the following five sections: the introductory section,which clarifies the origin and background of this paper,the significance of the study,the current status of the study,the innovations and the research methodology.In the first chapter,we analyse the Japanese and Chinese music curriculum standards,the arrangement of curriculum hours and the process of selecting and validating the two editions of the textbooks,and explain the different conceptions of the two editions(China places more emphasis on ’moral education’ and Japan on the cultivation of ’autonomous spirit’).The second chapter examines the different contexts in which the two editions of music textbooks were written.Chapter 2 summarises the structure of the two editions: the People’s Music Publishing House Edition is a linear unit system and the Japanese version is a spiral single lesson system.In comparison,the advantages of the People’s Music Publishing House Edition textbook structure are the clear logic of knowledge development and the wide range of content coverage,while the advantages of the Japanese version of the textbook structure are that it is more functional in stimulating students’ independent thinking.In the third chapter,the author analyses the content of the two editions and summarises the differences between the two editions in terms of the content of traditional music,the content of world folk music,the content of Western classical works,and the content of modern professional compositions,and presents his opinions and suggestions in this regard.In the fourth chapter,the author uses the first three sections to analyse and compare the content of the two editions and proposes the following suggestions for the development of junior high school music textbooks in China: to emphasise the development of students’ independent thinking skills and to expand the content of the creative part of music;to adjust the content structure of the textbooks appropriately and to consolidate knowledge through spiral and progressive teaching;to broaden the categories of traditional Chinese music works and to enrich the content of traditional music.