A Study On The History Of Life Science In British High School Biology Textbook

Biology textbooks, as an important carrier for course, are important tool to fulfill the curriculum standard for teacher and carrier of biology knowledge and learning platform for students. Especially in 21st century, on the basis of using new biology curriculum standard, there has been further changes in the contact, construction and visions of biology textbooks. With the rapid development of technology and society, biology textbooks need to make further adjustments and amendment.Life science history as a part in biology textbooks, plays a decisive role in almost every country in the world, brings great benefits to biological educators and educatee.This essay applied the document analysis method, content analysis, case analysis and inductive methods to study the biology textbooks written by British AQA, especially the AQA Biology AS and the AQA Biology A2 to study the theme of life science history, modes of presentation, writing features and application of the biology textbooks for British senior high school students.According to the study, there are five main topics about the life and science in the British biology textbooks, namely, medical treatment, the organics in the cells, photosynthesis and respiration, biological evolution, as well as economy and environment. Medical treatment is divided into human organs and vaccinatio-ns, which are closely related to real life, can arouse students’interest in learning biology. Organics in the cells includes saccharides, protein, and nucleic acid, whi-ch need only simple description. Photosynthesis and respiration list the objects related separately in a way of listing the procedures of scientists’ experiments an-d get students to come up with the conclusions.Biological evolution consists the e-volution of species and genes, and shows a connection with mathematics, economy an-d environment. Introductions about economy and environment, as well as the relationshi-p between them are made, which show correspondence to the heated topics at present.There are four methodologies applied in the textbook to present the history of the life sciences, the presentation of how the work about the scientist is done, the assertion to the text, unveiling of the experiments, learning in exercise. In the program "how the scientist-works", most is about medical treatment with detailed descriptions and questions. This independent way of presenting gives stu- dents a view of the whole story of those scientists, which can help to arouse th-eir interest. The assertion which has a proper connection with the context in the text is refining in wording, summarizing, and emphasizes the research result, whi-ch can be well connected to the context as well as keep the original meaning-s. Experiment demonstrations can develop students’ability of observation. Showing the exercises can enhance students’understanding of new knowledge and help them to remember it by interpreting.The features of the British senior high school biology textbooks are as follows:(1) It emphasizes the connection with the real life. (2) It emphasizes the combination of scientific ideas and methods.(3) It pays attention to connect to different subjects. (4) Questions assert in the text with proper connection to the context. (5) Enough illustrations make the books vivid and authentic. After an intensive research on life science of the British senior high school biology textbooks, the author wrote an instructional designed with the guidance of those biology textbooks. This instructional design is based on some chapters of the Chinese biology textbooks and the Ordinary High School Biology Curriculum Standard. At the end of the essay, discussions about the enlightenment of the research helping to design and refine the biology textbooks in our country are made. Hopefully, this essay can provide the teachers of high schools with some teaching examples thus to make the exercises in each unit more scientific and rational, more suitable for students to learn, as well as to realize the values of life science history with the united efforts of all parties in the educational world. Moreover discussions are made to think more about the history of life science and its prospect. Besides, proposals are made to carry out a further study about the theme of life science history, ways of presenting as well as writing features and its application.