A Comparative Study Of The Four Editions Of Primary School Science Textbooks

In 2017,after the release of primary school science curriculum standards,a new version of elementary school science textbook has been published and put into use,this is the change from the experimental edition to the formal edition of science textbooks for primary school in China,it is also a milestone in the development of science textbook for primary school in China.In order to explore the characteristics of each new edition of primary school science textbook,further improve the compilation of primary school science textbooks and improve the quality of primary school science textbooks in China,this paper selects the new edition of the fourth representative edition of primary school science textbooks published by Education Science press,Jiangsu Education Press,Elephant Press and Guangdong Education Press as the research object.Through the text research method,the literature research method and the comparative research,it analyzes the editions of the structure,content organization,content presentation and learning activity design of the four editions of textbooks,and finds the following conclusions in the above five aspects:In terms of textbook structure,from the perspective of edition structure,unit structured and text structure,it is found that the other three editions of primary school science textbooks have their own characteristics expect the Education science edition.In terms of the selection of textbook content,it analyzes the breadth,depth and difficulty of content.it is found that among the four editions of the textbooks,the content breadth ranked from highest to lowest is Guangdong Education edition,Elephant edition,JiangSu Education edition and Education science edition;the content depth ranked from highest to lowest is Elephant edition,Guangdong Education edition,JiangSu Education edition and Education science edition;the content difficulty ranked from highest to lowest is Elephant edition,JiangSu Education edition,Education science edition and Guangdong Education edition.The content organization of teaching materials is analyzed from two angles:vertical organization and horizontal organization.The vertical organization includes spiral organization and linear organization,through quantitative research,it shows that the highest proportion of spiral organization is Guangdong Education edition,while the lowest proportion is JiangSu Education edition.The horizontal organization research shows that the content of scientific knowledge in the four editions is more than that of scientific inquiry,and there is almost no content related to scientific attitude.In the field of "life science",most of the content is biological knowledge,and there is almost no content of physics,chemistry,astronomy and geology.In terms of the presentation of textbook content,from the perspectives of language presentation,concept presentation and illustration setting,the research shows that the narrative angle of JiangSu Education Edition is different from that of the other three editions of primary school science textbook;The Education science edition and Elephant edition of elementary school science textbook tend to present concepts after activities,the Guangdong Education edition tend to present concept before activities,while the JiangSu Education edition tend to present both;the Elephant edition has the most cartoon illustrations,and the other three editions have the most physical illustration.In terms of the design of learning activities,this paper analyzes the types and quantities of inquiry activities,inquiry experiments and scientific reading,and finds that the most inquiry activities in the four editions of textbooks are discussion and communication,followed by observation and experiment activities.The four editions of textbooks are different in inquiry experiments and scientific reading.Through the above analysis of the textbooks,the following five conclusions are drawn:in terms of structure,the style and characteristics of the Education science edition textbooks should be more distinct;In terms of content,the textbooks of Education science edition,JiangSu Education edition and Elephant Edition should attach importance to the connection with students actual life;In the organization,the textbook of JiangSu education version should pay attention to the spiral organization of knowledge;In terms of presentation,the fourth edition textbooks need to add summary and evaluation;In the design of learning activities,the fourth edition textbooks should attach importance to scientific observation and experiment and other exploratory activities.