Chapter 8: A Comparative Study on Example and Exercise Design in High School Mathematics Textbooks

This chapter compares the designs of examples and exercises in senior high school mathematics textbooks from China, U.S. and Germany. By constructing basic designing principles of examples and exercises in mathematics textbooks, we established a comparison framework and relevant coding system for analysis. The study focuses on the content of “function”, and makes the comparison from both external and internal aspects. The external aspect mainly involves the quantity, types and materials of examples and exercises. The internal aspect concerning examples covers their exemplarity, typicality, fundamentality and treatment methods; the internal aspect concerning exercises involves hierarchy, variation and coverage. Comparison results show the commonalities and differences in the textbooks from the three countries. Based on comparative analysis, this chapter also offers suggestions to optimize senior high school mathematics textbooks’ examples and exercises design.