Design and Implementation of Mathematics Textbooks in Support of Effective Teaching for Secondary Schools: A Chinese Case

Mathematics textbook plays a significant role in shaping students' learning of mathematics. Logic, rigor and abstraction as typical features of the formalization of mathematics, dominate mathematics textbooks around the world, which is regarded as one of the important origins of students' learning difficulties in mathematics. An innovative series of Chinese mathematic textbooks is presented in this paper. Supported by the supplementary materials excerpts from the textbooks, it gives a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the principles of design and implementation of this series of mathematics textbooks. The effectiveness of this series of textbooks is demonstrated by student achievement and secondary research data. It shows that series of Chinese mathematic textbooks has largely decreased students' learning difficulties in mathematics and enhance classroom teaching efficiency. It suggests that prioritizing the essence of mathematics and reducing abstraction is an important notion for mathematics textbook design and implementation.