A Comparative Study Of Problem Situations In The Content Of Mathematics And Algebra In Junior High School Mathematics Textbooks In China, Singapore, And The United State

Mathematics textbooks,as the main source of student learning,have received more and more attention from educational researchers.Core literacy is the main direction of the new round of curriculum reform in China,and the development of students’ core literacy in mathematics cannot be achieved without problem solving in authentic contexts.A comparative study of problem situations in domestic and foreign mathematics textbooks is important to improve the quality of problem situations in our textbooks and to develop students’ core literacy.Based on this,the research question is: What are the characteristics and similarities of problem contexts in Chinese,Singaporean,and American middle school textbooks in the four dimensions of "Number and Algebra",namely,type,representation,authenticity,and relevance?In order to carry out the study,we first used literature research to understand the current status of problem contexts in middle school mathematics textbooks and to provide a basis for determining the dimensions of comparison and the countries and editions of textbooks;then,based on cultural differences and international educational assessments,we identified representative textbooks from three countries for comparison;again,we used content analysis to code problem contexts according to the analysis framework.The data were analyzed using the chi-square test to investigate whether there were statistically significant differences in the dimensions of the problem contexts in the three textbooks.Based on the analysis of the data results,the following conclusions were obtained:(1)In terms of the distribution of problem situation content and the number of problem situations,the Chinese,Singaporean and American editions all contain knowledge about number and algebraic equations,equations and inequalities,and functions,but Singapore contains knowledge about algebra such as sets and series,while the Chinese and American junior high school textbooks do not involve(or do not contain)knowledge about algebra such as sets and series.The number and proportion of problem contexts in the Humanities Edition of Number and Algebra are much less than those in the NSM and MIF Editions.The NSM edition has a "RealWorld in Contexts" section,and the MIF edition has a "Reading and Thinking"section,which contains "Mathematical Culture" problem situations.Contexts" section in the NSM version,and "Quick Check" section in the MIF version for each subsection to review students’ mastery of the knowledge they have learned related to the content of the section.(2)In terms of the types of problem contexts,the four types of problem contexts in the Chinese,Singaporean and American editions all show a distribution of "personal contexts as the most important,scientific contexts as the second most important,and social and vocational contexts as the least important".(3)In terms of problem situation representations,the three types of problem situations in Chinese,Singaporean and American textbooks all show a distribution of "text-based,compound-based and visual-based".(4)In terms of the authenticity of the problem contexts,the proportion of constructed contexts in the Chinese,Singaporean and American textbooks is significantly higher than that of authentic and quasi-authentic contexts.The proportion of both quasi-authentic and authentic contexts in the Human Education textbook is higher than that of the Chinese and American textbooks,but overall,the textbooks continue to be dominated by constructed contexts.(5)In terms of the relevance of problem situations,the relevance of the three types of problem situations in the Chinese,Singaporean and American textbooks showed a distribution of "generally relevant,highly relevant and irrelevant".The proportion of highly relevant contexts was lower in the Human Education textbook than in the Singaporean and American textbooks.Based on the findings of the study,the following suggestions were made for the setting of problem situations in junior high school textbooks: 1.Increase the number and proportion of problem situations in textbooks to provide more opportunities for students to solve problems;2.The problem situations should be set up carefully,and the research and development of problem situations should be carried out in a thematic way.4.The depth of integration of information technology.