Abstract
A comparative study was used to analyse the Function Concept(FC) in the Chinese, Singaporean and British textbooks of junior high school mathematics, and it was found that the three textbooks were arranged vertically and horizontally: (1) in terms of the pre-preparation and post-extension of FC, the Chinese and Singaporean versions were similar, with rich and in-depth contents; (2) in the acquisition of the FC, the three were all arranged using the concept-formation method, with the Chinese textbook case scenarios are rich and hierarchical; (3) in terms of practice problems, Singaporean and British textbooks have far more than Chinese textbooks in both classroom and after-class practice, and the three have different levels and proportions in terms of the level of practice problems. Based on above, the following suggestions are made for the study of Chinese junior high school mathematics textbooks: (1) To consider using more universal pure mathematics contexts for the contexts in the textbooks; (2) To add “conceptual” and “conceptual understanding” practices to the classroom practice questions in the chapter of FC; (3) To provide students and teachers with a richer source of post-course exercises.
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