Situational Themes Study Of Mathematics Textbooks In Lower Grade Elementary Schools

To introduce mathematical problems in the proper contexts is a hot and critical issue in the current new round of curriculum reform in elementary schools. The contextualization is a distinctive feature of mathematical textbooks in primary school. Most of current studies in China are about how teachers use the existed situations in the classroom teaching, rather than create new situations in the textbooks.This study is a research on the content of different situations presented in the pilot textbook of the mathematical curriculum standard for primary school and centered on the situations in the textbooks. The methodology in this article mainly is a content analysis, as well as literature review, statistics, questionnaires and interviews, which were made to carry out a comparative study between the textbooks for Grade1- Grade 3 published by Beijing Normal University Publishing House and Jiangsu Educational Publishing house. Among these methods, content analysis, statistics and literature review are used to explore the frequency and types of the situations for the mathematical problems. A survey also was conducted to know the identity and understanding both teachers and students. 50 teachers and 200 students are involved the survey.The research shows:Situations'contents presented in the primary mathematical textbooks should be in the context of students'cognitive competency and their thinking characteristics; Situations'contents should be associated with students'real life which can construct the students'understanding of mathematic; Situation's contents should be inquiry and interesting. The selection of situations'content should embody scientific features of the mathematic discipline.After the comparative analysis, I found that there are some problems in the situations contents in the textbooks: the situations'contents in both versions are relatively single, such as lacking of the topics about labor in Beijing Normal University's version and the topics about moral education in both versions; Contents in Jiangsu's version are not interesting and optional, and it has a disorganized structure. Based on those problems, I gave some suggestions and strategies to improve the situation.The results of the comparative analysis demonstrates that there are some problems in the situations contents in the textbooks: the situations'contents in both versions are relatively single, such as lacking of the topics about labor in Beijing Normal University's version and the topics about moral education in both versions; Contents in Jiangsu's version are not interesting and optional, and it has a disorganized structure. Based on those problems, I gave some suggestions and strategies to improve the situation.Based on those problems, the article gave some suggestions and strategies to improve the situation. One is to improve the writing techniques about primary school mathematic textbooks such as: Develop more topics with comprehensive and real activities which can be students'"Learning Material"; Design more extra challenging questions. On the other hand, improve reading comprehension level of the textbook as well as teacher's ability in using textbooks.The only solution to the poor interest and indigestion which are the common problems in the situation contents is to make it in accordance with the characteristics of students'thinking. The situation contents should have a extensive types which should be integrated with students'study, real life and labor and embody the features of the age and inspire students'interest and desire to explore, which can enhance their motivation to learn, enable students to truly move and do, exchange students'good emotional experience, form a good learning attitudes and habits.This research is the study on two versions of textbooks, which has its limitations because there are more than two versions are widely used in China.