A Study on the Compilation of School-based Mathematics Textbooks in Secondary Vocational Schools

Nowadays our country is promoting vocational education. Reforms in vocational education aim at cultivating skilled laborers of high quality. Mathematics is an important basic course in secondary vocational schools, which is supposed to be students-oriented, provide basic knowledge for students’vocational courses, cultivate students’cultural literacy, care for students’sustainable development and help students’lifelong learning. Most of the present mathematics textbooks in secondary vocational schools, whose compilation is organized by the government, come from materials designed for general senior high school mathematics teaching. Therefore, these materials are too difficult, compared to the actual ability of secondary vocational school students. They are theoretical and abstract, seldom combined with vocational courses, which makes it hard to meet the needs of secondary vocational education. An effective way to solve the problem is that secondary vocational schools should compile their own school-based mathematics textbooks according to their own school-running characteristics and students’different situations.School-based textbooks should be compiled according to the mathematics curriculum objectives for secondary vocational schools, based on students’needs in different schools, characterized by different schools’school-running characteristics and combined with particular professional knowledge. Such learner-centered and professional knowledge oriented textbooks will do good to students’learning and development.From the angle of a mathematics teacher in a secondary vocational school, the author analyzes the use of unified textbooks, students’actual ability and learning situations in vocational schools. Taking the mathematics school-based textbooks for electrical major students in Shunde Liang Qiuju Vocational and Technical School as an example, this thesis proposes the theoretical foundation, principles and arrangement of school-based textbooks compilation. Some detailed examples are also given. In the end, the paper discusses what we should pay attention to when compiling school-based textbooks under new vocational education modes in Guangdong. The author expects to improve the compilation of school-based textbooks so as to promote the reform of mathematics teaching in secondary vocational schools.