A Comparative Study Of The Core Concept Representations Of Chinese And American High School Biology Textbooks

The biological core concept is the backbone of biology and it is the core of biological knowledge system.The classification of core concepts of the teaching material is the basis for teachers to implement teaching of the core concept.Only when the students have mastered the core concept,could they start to properly establish the life science knowledge system.This research took the Shanghai secco version of high school biology teaching material 《life science》 and the mainstream American high school biology teaching material 《biological: the dynamics of life》 as research subjects.Mainly using the literature,comparative research,mathematical statistics,induction and other research methods to compare the core concepts in terms of knowledge points,definitions,introductions,presentation,consolidation,etc.A comparative study of the textbooks of the two countries suggest: Although the core concepts covered by the two countries’ teaching materials have different knowledge points,their classifications of the core concept were centered at "life of the material","genetic and variation","evolution","biological diversity";etc.The core concept of the two countries’ teaching materials has a similarity of 90%,and it can be argued that the definition of both countries’ core concept is largely consistent;In the learning process of the core concept,a series of inquiry experiments and emphasis on cultivating the students’ logical and operating skills were set up to assist the teaching.The core concept stresses on capability and being linked to real life.But at the same time the two countries have their own characterization on the core concept of teaching materials.China’s definition of teaching materials on the core concept is relatively more complete and more professional,striving to give students a relatively complete knowledge system;In the process of presenting concepts,China’s teaching materials are based on the students’ cognitive rules and on the focus of presenting the basics.And the use of deductive interpretation of the concepts,which will help achieve the goal of knowledge.The core concept of American teaching materials is clearly presented and the structure mode is fixed;Although the demonstration of the concepts is more difficult and more in depth,the use of diverse charts,graphs and experiments to assist the teaching;At the same time,American’s teaching materials are more open,having“internet links” and “biology online” inserted in them.They use the modern internet technology to assist students in self-learning the core concept.Comprehensive comparison of the results led the researchers to believe that the classification of our country’s teaching materials on core concept were still in need of further improvement.Learn from the advantages of American teaching materials in order to make adjustments to the classification of the core concept of ours.Reasonably increase the use of charts,models,examples to comprehensively enhance the demonstration of core concept to help students conduct logical reasoning and mind activity on the basis of perceptual knowledge;In the meantime,enrich forms of experiment related to the core concept,simplify the difficult and complex experiments and set up life-associated small experiments for students to conduct at home so as to extend their learning in the core concept from more angles and on more aspects.On the basis of proper classification of the teaching material’s core concept,the high quality of conceptual teaching also requires teachers to consider the characteristics of the core concept and students’ learning condition.Sorting and rearrangement of the teaching material’s core concept are also needed,so are flexible choosing of proper conceptual teaching method.And the implementation of review classes for students to construct the core concept from different angles and do so step by step in order to generate excellent teaching effectiveness.The variety of teaching methods of biology core concept requires all biology teachers to work hard for the same long-term goal.