Math Tutoring and Competition Helper (Grade 8)

Author: Huang Dongpo (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: When this series of books was published, we had already entered the new 21st century, a new era filled with new opportunities and challenges, also giving birth to new ideas and concepts. At the critical juncture of the turn of the century, mathematics education philosophy and concepts, as well as teaching methods and approaches, had undergone profound changes. Cultivating students' creative spirit and innovative awareness, while emphasizing the improvement of their exploration and practical abilities, had become the theme of mathematics education in the new century. The purpose of compiling this series is "to focus on excellence and face competitions." Therefore, junior high school mathematics is organized into 84 thematic lectures, aligned with teaching progress and learning processes, providing teachers with a fresh instructional approach and students with a scientific training method. During the compilation process, the following points were emphasized:
1. Reflecting the spirit of the new curriculum guidelines
This series is based on the National Mathematics Curriculum Standards for compulsory education and uses the Newly Revised Junior High School Mathematics Teaching Syllabus and the Junior High School Mathematics Competition Syllabus as guidelines. It strives to reflect the spirit of the new curriculum guidelines, which is to cultivate students' scientific spirit and innovative thinking habits, and to inspire their independent thinking and innovative awareness.
2. Exploring new problem-solving methods
This series selects problems from recent junior high school entrance examination papers and various levels of mathematics competition papers across the country from 1997 to 2000, adhering to the principles of inspiration, novelty, and guidance. It collects typical problems from these exams, reflecting the new characteristics of the new junior high school entrance exams and competitions, such as the shift from knowledge-based to ability-based assessment, setting questions at the intersection of knowledge domains, emphasizing the cultivation of application awareness, and advocating open-ended and exploratory problems, among others.
3. Pursuing new writing formats
This series employs an "open window" writing method, where example problems only provide hints for solutions, leaving ample space for students' thinking, reflection, and answers. Annotations are used to highlight difficult or essential points, covering rich knowledge such as "mathematical history, new developments in mathematics, problem-solving techniques, mathematical thinking methods, and extensions and generalizations of problems." This aims to create a mathematical cultural atmosphere, allowing readers to gain mathematical cultural enlightenment and inspiration for creativity within a limited space. May this series become your "trusted assistant" in learning.
Since its publication in 2001, Mathematics Excellence and Competition New Assistant has been widely praised by readers across the country for its foresight in reflecting new concepts in mathematics education, its practicality in aligning with students' learning development, and its originality in using an open and interactive writing style. It has sold hundreds of thousands of copies and has become a "trusted assistant" for both teachers and students in teaching and learning. It has been awarded the titles of "Top Ten Influential Books in Hubei Province in 2001" and "National Best-Selling Book of 2002."
In recent years, with the promulgation of the National Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education, people's understanding of mathematics education and mathematics learning has undergone significant changes. Curriculum reform and examination question-setting are in a critical period of transformation. To reflect these changes and better serve teachers' instruction and students' improvement in mathematical literacy, the compilers have revised this series in the following two aspects:
1. Reflecting the new curriculum standards philosophy
During the revision process, the National Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education served as the guide, aiming to highlight new concepts in mathematics education and learning, such as: mathematics providing language, ideas, and methods for other sciences; mathematics playing a unique role in enhancing reasoning, abstract thinking, imagination, and creativity; the content of mathematics learning being real, meaningful, and challenging; and effective mathematics learning activities not relying solely on imitation and memorization, but instead emphasizing hands-on practice, independent exploration, and cooperative communication.
2. Replacing more than one-third of the examples and exercises
During the revision process, the original examples and exercises were screened, and new ones were added based on novelty, inspiration, and guidance. These include outstanding competition and junior high school entrance examination questions from across the country since 2001, such as context-based problems that advocate mathematical application, open-ended problems that leave space for students' active thinking, exploratory problems that guide students to investigate, innovative problems that assess students' developmental potential, and interdisciplinary problems that focus on comprehensive ability development. They reflect, to some extent, the new characteristics of examination question-setting and embody the new philosophy of curriculum reform.