A Comparative Study Of Settings Of Examples And Problem Sets At Statistics And Probability In Middle School Mathematics Textbooks

This paper selects a representative four versions of middle school mathematics textbook namely,People's Education Edition,Beijing Normal University Edition,Shanghai Education Edition and Zhejiang Education Edition.The examples and problem sets in the field of statistics and probability are the research objects.Their setting features are discussed from the following aspects:Firstly,the four versions of textbooks are overall compared in terms of characteristics of composing,the way of editing and the number of exercises.The research finds that the arrangement of the scope and knowledge are stratified and diverse,reflecting the basic concepts of development of mathematics.Different versions of textbook fully consider the regional differentiated developing level in culture,politics and economy,which reflects the inherent materiality of statistical and probabilistic basic knowledge.As for content plan,the PEP version,whose knowledge structure is clear and systematic,is of strict universality align with absorption of essence of many textbooks at home and abroad.The Beijing Normal University Version has a unique taste to the circumstances of problem sets whose structure attaches great importance to students' knowledge gradient.Shanghai Education Press Version embodies the characteristics of the new curriculum standard with distinctly basic and advanced content.In Zhejiang Education Version,the knowledge structure is efficient and smooth,reflecting the internal relationship between various parts of knowledge and skills,emphasizing original elements.Secondly,the surface structure analysis,in terms of the number,material and type,of surface structure of examples and problem sets from preliminary chapters in these four versions is carried out.Then the deep structure analysis of the relevance between the examples and problem sets in the context of contextually is conducted.Therein,for examples,processing way,typicality,exemplarily,basics are examined.For problem sets,exercises coverage,degree of stratifies,changes,cognition are inspected.Similarities between the four versions of textbook can be drawn as follows:There is a high consistency in the configuration of the difficult examples;they all emphasize the application of the type of examples;the material is mainly based on social life background;there is no pure mathematics example without background;the examples are more targeted;the problem level is obvious.The differences include: the number of examples,problem sets and knowledge points are different;the proportionof each type of example setting is quite different,and the types of problem material have different emphasis;the types of problem materials are slightly different;There are differences in the way the examples are handled;the relevance of the problem content in the context of the exercises is different.Finally,through the comparison of the characteristics and similarities and differences in examples and problem sets of statistics and probabilistic part between four textbook,combined with compilation principles of the existing examples and problem sets,some suggestions on the compiling examples and problem sets,are to be put forward in this paper.First,fundamentalism and expansiveness ought to be incarnated and the development of difficulty levels and variant extensions needs to pay close attention to.Second,scientific and procedural nature should be incarnated and students' life events need to be concerned with and integrated into the knowledge formation exercises.Third,advanced and operability should be represented to create the practical exercises that can be implemented in the classroom teaching.Fourth,advanced nature and relevance should be revealed to produce high-quality examples in with the current of the time.Fifth,originality and exemplary characteristics have to be shown to design examples and problem sets that inspires the students passion towards mathematics.