A Comparative Study Of The Content Of "Plants" In Elementary School Science Textbooks Between China And India

In order to go along with the world reform of education trends,to enhance the citizen's science quality,to build a innovation-oriented country,to achieve all-round coordinated and sustainable development of the society and economy,it is the time to reform the science subjects.Science is the major subject for school to cultivate rigorous science attainments of students.One of the core factors of science subject is textbook.In the meantime,textbook is the basic of a subject,and it is the foundation for teachers to put their teaching methods into practice.In recent years,'textbook' is becoming a hot spot in educational academic world.By comparing the two versions of science textbooks between China and Indonesia,we can enrich the theories of elementary science subject research.Meanwhile,we can provide theoretical works of science subject for both countries,and we can offer more materials to compile new science textbooks.Even more,frontline teachers could have wider international vision,they could use the textbooks better,and they could improve the efficiency of class teaching.In this paper,I set the Chinese Jiangsu version and Indonesian SD/MI version science textbook as researching examples,by utilizing documentary research,content analysis and comparison research methods.Firstly,I reviewed the background of Indonesian curriculum reform and the history of Chinese elementary science curriculum.Then I summarized the current science curriculum of both countries.In the next part,I zoomed out these two versions of science textbooks from three dimensions:structure,content and presenting.More specifically,I illustrated the characteristics and differences of these two books,including unit structure,knowledge structure,range and quality of content,choices of source materials,language,illustrations,concepts,presenting of experiments and settings of columns.Through comparison,in the layout structure,the two versions of textbooks use the unit theme map,progressive self-exploration and cooperative observation,and the knowledge structure spirals up.The difference lies in the total amount of knowledge and the end of the chapter;in content selection,the breadth is consistent basically,the depth is slightly different,the selected materials are more close to their own national conditions,but the selection of specific materials of Jiangsu version has more regional characteristics;in the way of presentation,two versions of textbooks have set many columns for the division of scientific activities,pay attention to the development of students' scientific experiment exploration ability,the concept of Jiangsu version is more consistent with primary school students' age characteristics and cognitive development rules.The SD/MI version of Indonesia is more distinctive by using concept maps and diagrams to help students build knowledge frameworks.After all,by analyzing these two versions of science textbooks of China and Indonesia,I submitted some further suggestions for future compiling of elementary science teaching materials.Firstly,diversifying the ending part of each chapter,by increasing the review and comment sectors;secondly,encouraging and developing student's studying awareness,by choosing the substance with the characteristic of localization and lifelization;at last,arousing the science curiosity of the students,by presenting contents in a way which preferred by children.