A Humanistic Study Of Example Situations In Primary School Mathematics Textbooks

With the establishment of the fundamental task of moral education and cultivating students’ character in China,the educational values are gradually shifting from imparting knowledge to nurturing students’ moral qualities.It has become a focus of educational reform to cultivate and shape students’ good emotional attitudes,values,and noble spiritual character during the process of learning.At the same time,in the context of globalization,cultural exchanges and collisions are increasingly intense.Textbook development is not only related to the ideology of Chinese socialism with Chinese characteristics but also directly affects the talent attributes of future generations in China.As an important carrier of teaching and learning for both teachers and students,textbooks have an important influence.Especially for students,they are not only directly influenced by the explicit disciplinary knowledge in textbooks but also silently guided and influenced by the cultural connotations conveyed in the contextual situations of textbooks.Therefore,the state has issued a series of policy documents requiring the comprehensive integration of excellent Chinese traditional culture,mathematical culture,and socialist advanced culture into textbook design.As an important foundational subject in compulsory education,primary school mathematics must shoulder the dual responsibility of scientificity and humanism in modern education,implement the task of moral education,and forge students’ Chinese spirit and soul with the red gene.This study aims to sort out and analyze the humanistic elements and presentation methods of contextual situations in primary school mathematics textbook examples,summarize their strengths and weaknesses,and propose suggestions for the improvement and revision of the Xi Shi version of primary school mathematics textbooks on this basis,in order to better achieve the humanistic value of primary school mathematics textbooks.This article includes the following sections:Introduction: The introduction provides an explanation of the research problem,purpose,and significance through a discussion of recent education policies,new curricula,and the importance of contextual situations in textbooks.It also reviews related research on textbooks,example problems,situational contexts,and humanistic elements to explain the theoretical foundation of the study and define core concepts.Finally,the research object is identified,the research questions are focused,the research ideas are sorted,and the study’s innovative contributions are presented.Theoretical analysis: This section selects and summarizes the primary and secondary categories and definitions of humanistic elements in example problem situations by combining relevant documents issued by the national and local education departments and scholars’ research achievements.The section constructs a humanistic analysis framework for example problem situations in the Xi Shi version of primary school mathematics textbooks,laying the foundation for subsequent content analysis.Research on humanistic elements in example problem situations: First,the section sorts and summarizes the number and category of humanistic elements in example problem situations according to the research framework.Then,the section explores and summarizes the connotation of humanistic element categories in the textbook and their composition in different stages.Analysis of the presentation of humanistic elements in example problem situations:This section defines the illustrations and texts in the textbook and then sorts and summarizes the presentation of humanistic elements in example problem situations from two different perspectives: graphics and text and explicit and implicit.Conclusion and suggestions: The Xi Shi version of the textbook has many advantages in terms of humanistic elements in example problem situations,including diversity,core competency cultivation,mainstream values,traditional Chinese virtues,and close alignment with rural life and balanced allocation of urban-rural course resources.However,the study also identified several limitations,including uneven distribution of humanistic elements in some topics and stages and outdated elements that do not reflect the latest developments.Therefore,the study proposes several suggestions to improve textbook development,such as optimizing the selection of example problem situation materials,enhancing the proportion of traditional Chinese cultural contexts,and increasing the number of humanistic elements in higher stages.In summary,this study re-examines the example problem situations in primary school mathematics textbooks from a humanistic perspective and analyzes the performance of the Xi Shi version of the textbook in this regard.The study provides useful reference for further implementing scientific and humanistic principles in textbook development to promote students’ comprehensive development.