From The Bscs To Scientific Discovery - A Comparative Study Of American High School Biology Textbooks

In this thesis, the author selects different versions of U.S.high school biology textbooks, the most popular BSCS (Biological Science Curriculum Study) biology textbook of An Ecology Approach(Green Paper Edition) in the20th century and American mainstream scientific biology textbook in the21st century " Biology:The Dynamics of Life".By comparative research, we can not only expand our horizon,but also help us to grasp the development trend of China-US high school biology education reform and textbook’s construction.Moreover,by taking the advantages of American textbooks we can promote our own high school biology textbooks with international standard. According to it,we try to look for the implementation of our new curriculum reform and give some pieces of advice on the textbook’s amendment and how to use textbooks well.In this study,the autor adopts the method of document analysis and comparative study to research the different versions of U.S. high school biology textbooks,mainly from three aspects:the overall analysis,the specific structure of the textbooks and the characteristics of the textbooks.The author analysises comprehensively the two versions biology textbooks, including the cover, the catalog, the content system and the Appendix design.The specific structure refers to the style and columns of the textbook, the language features, the exercise sets.The characteristics of the textbooks take a deep analysis to the scientific concept,the scientific inquiry,the scientific illustration.the education of "science/technology and society",the comprehensive discipline,and the education of’emotion, attitude and values"in the different textbooks.The research shows that the different high school biology textbooks,written at different times,not only have something in common,but also have their own charactertistics.The Similar parts:They are all to improve the students’biological scientific literacy as the curriculum basic concept and the textbooks wrote directly base.They pay great attention to the scientific inquiry,especially inquiry learning content and learning styles. The education of "science,technology and society"(STS)is throughout the textbooks.Their word expressions are beautiful, lively,interesting and humanized. They pay much attention to the exercises, focusing on the training and the development of thinking. The differences are that:The Dynamics of Life biological textbook system is more perfect than the BSCS’s.The style is more detailed.The contents and forms are more diversified in the scientific biology textbook,such as the columns,the science illustration,the scientific exploration activities. The disciplinary trend have been become more obviously.The textbook have obvious feature of the times; At last, it enhances the guidance of learning methods and test skills.At the end of the thesis, the author outlooks the construction and the development of our high school biology textbook, other than that for biology curriculum reform and for our country’s science education either.The research also proposes the amendment to the high school biology textbooks, and how to use the textbooks and teaching skills for teachers.In terms of textbook revised, the author suggests that we should make the textbook catalog perfectly, carefully choose the practice problems in the textbook; enrich the type of experiment; add interview,debate,survey of practice; focus on food safety education.The suggestions about the teachers are how to use textbooks and teaching methods: First, the biology teachers must be familiar with the textbook to grasp the main line of the textbook. Second, they should understand the textbook fully to know the core spirit of the textbook. Third,they have to use the textbook well and choose what should be teaching or not. Fourth,they should be not restricted by the textbook. At the same time as high school teachers,they should always keep pace with the times, constant learning, and bold innovation.