The Investigation And Research On The Use Of The Mathematics Textbooks (A) Published By Pep In Senior High School:Focus On Primary Algorithms

As one of the main resources of education, textbooks have an immediate impact on teaching and learning. Since the new version of textbooks came into use in senior high school2004, it has been the focus of public attention. In order to detect the advantages and weakness during the course of usage, Beijing Normal University and Southwest University have been authorized by China’s Education Ministry to carry out relevant research, which is named The Investigation and Research on the Use of the New Version Mathematics Textbooks in Senior High School. About ten Universities at home took part in this research and senior high schools from eleven provinces and cities, including Beijing, Chong Qing, Zhejiang and so on, involved. According to the results, the usage of Primary Algorithms, as a new content part of the textbooks, has given rise to heated debate. For the sake of gathering more accurate information about the use of Primary Algorithms, the author randomly selected36mathematics teachers and451students in Chong Qing as subjects. And the results of the survey are as follows:1. Most mathematics teachers and students feel satisfied with the content of primary algorithms and its composing form.2. Fact and some concrete suggestions about the use of primary algorithms:(1)Most mathematics teachers and students can make full use of the resources from mathematics textbook in order to guarantee the daily teaching activities. And the mathematics examples and problems in textbooks are frequently used;(2) Some students find the knowledge and corresponding examples too hard to understand. At the meanwhile, the amount of problems to practice is neither typical nor sufficient;(3)The views about reading material are different among teachers and students. The former pay more attention to marginalia while the latter focus the exploration and research parts rather than thinking and discussion. Both of mathematics teachers and students overlook the parts of thinking and reading;(4)Therefore, the suggestions of teachers and students are reducing the difficulty of programming, increasing more typical examples and problems relevant to practice. 3. Both mathematics teachers and students do not have clear recognition of the nature of primary algorithms. Many of them believe the content of primary algorithms has no implication of other knowledge in textbooks. There is just one question in the test paper of university entrance examination and it almost useless in daily life. Accordingly, some teachers believe this part is of less importance and even someone advocates to cancel it. Moreover, there are still some teachers who are lack of basic knowledge and understanding of primary algorithms; as a result, they have no ability to teach this part of content well.According to what mentioned above, the author advises strongly that some content of the chapter of primary algorithms in mathematics textbook should be revised immediately. At the same time, teacher training about this part should be strengthen, and senior high school should also invest resources into improving teaching equipment, all of which are urgent task of ensuring the curriculum reform to go smoothly.