Experts in the examination of unified textbooks： it is more difficult to compile textbooks for primary and secondary schools than for universities.

　　Why are Laozi, Confucius, Mencius, Mozi and others all called "Zi"?

　　Is the second stroke of the word "four" horizontally folded or horizontally folded?

　　Is Hanhao bird a bird?

　　… …

　　These questions don’t seem to be problems, but they need to be taken seriously by textbook writers and answered one by one.

　　Textbooks are an important tool for primary and secondary school students to learn, and have been widely concerned by the society. Especially after the textbooks of compulsory education ethics and rule of law, Chinese and history compiled by the Ministry of Education were implemented nationwide in September 2017, the public paid more attention to the textbooks.

　　Recently, China Youth Daily Zhongqing Online reporter visited a number of editors who compiled textbooks to understand the story behind the compilation of textbooks. Many experts mentioned the "artisan spirit" in unison. "To make children like learning and let children like this new set of textbooks, we must be standardized, accurate and rigorous." Chen Xianyun, executive editor-in-chief of primary school Chinese textbooks, said.

　　Every lesson should be taken to the classroom for trial teaching.

　　In recent years, the textbooks of primary and secondary schools in China have emphasized the closeness to the reality of students’ lives. But how to get close?

　　"Ask children if you have a problem." Gao Desheng, executive editor-in-chief of the textbook of ethics and rule of law in primary schools and professor of the Institute of Curriculum Textbooks of East China Normal University, said that this was a "brilliant move" for the compilation by Lu Jie, the chief editor-in-chief of the textbook and a senior professor of Nanjing Normal University. Professor Lu Jie once presided over the development of the curriculum standards of Morality and Life and Morality and Society, and had a deep insight into the teaching materials of compulsory education courses. "Every lesson should be taken to the classroom for trial teaching, which has become a necessary link in the compilation of teaching materials."

　　Gao Desheng remembers that when the first draft of the next textbook in grade three was formed, they were going to try out teaching in primary schools. At that time, it was the lesson "Traffic in All Directions" that was to be tried out. "Professor Lu Jie specially proposed that the lessons with strong urban flavor such as traffic development should be tried out in rural primary schools to see how rural children reacted and whether they could understand it."

　　The trial teaching was arranged in Tongjing Town Central Primary School, Jiangning District, Nanjing. It borders Anhui and is about 50 kilometers away from the main city of Nanjing. At that time, 83-year-old teacher Lu Jie also went to listen to the trial teaching together. They set off at 6: 30 in the morning and arrived at school before the first class started.

　　Although it was hard, it was fruitful. "The whole day’s trial teaching made our revision ideas suddenly clear." Gao Desheng said.

　　"Trial teaching" has almost become a "magic weapon" in the process of compiling and revising the textbooks of the three subjects.

　　Ye Xiaobing, executive editor of the history textbook for compulsory education and professor of the history department of Capital Normal University, remembers that after the seventh grade textbook was finalized, some of it was printed for trial teaching. In a class that tried to teach a hundred schools of thought contend, a student asked, "Why are Laozi, Confucius, Mencius, Mozi and others all called ‘ Son ’ ？” At that time, I was a young teacher. I didn’t expect the students to ask this question at all, so I had to answer, "This is probably the customary name at that time."

　　"Such questions can only arise in the real learning process of students, so such questions should be dispelled in the teaching materials." Ye Xiaobing said, therefore, in the revised textbook, a "related historical event" was added next to the text of this lesson. It was introduced that in the Spring and Autumn Period, Qing and Doctor were generally called "Zi", which was a kind of honorific title; By the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, people used "Zi" to address famous scholars and teachers. In the Warring States period, "Zi" became the honorific title of ordinary scholars.

　　"The compilation of teaching materials should be responsible for the country and the children." Gao Desheng said. And the most difficult thing is the construction of teaching material framework. "On the surface, framing is a technical issue of content distribution, but it is actually an educational issue explored by educational laws." In this process, really approaching students and classrooms is the best way to solve difficult problems.

　　Get out of the misunderstanding that "Hanhao bird is a bird"

　　Many people must remember the story of Hanhao Bird, because it makes people understand the truth that "you can’t be lazy and lazy, and you can’t muddle along".

　　In the past, some stories in children’s books had pictures of a bird flapping its wings and flying. Not many people questioned such a picture.

　　However, does it have to be a bird to be called Hanhao bird? In the process of compiling the textbook, experts never let go of any detail, including illustrations. "In fact, Hanhao Bird is a kind of rodent, whose scientific name is the compound-toothed flying squirrel. Because of its natural fear of cold, it barks day and night, which is commonly known as ‘ Hanhao bird ’ 。” Chen Xianyun said. The writing team searched a lot of data and pictures, and repeatedly communicated with the illustrators. Finally, the appearance characteristics of Hanhao bird were accurately shown in the illustrations of the teaching materials.

　　"Our students and parents are full of curiosity after getting the textbook and seeing Hanhao Bird." Chen Xiangsu, a Chinese teacher in tsinghua university primary school, Beijing, said that many children began to look for information. A parent took their children to do PPT overnight, and the children gave a detailed introduction to their classmates the next day. "Children not only know that they can’t be as ambitious as Hanhao bird, but also know that Hanhao bird is not only a bird, but its feces can also be used as medicine to relieve pain and promote blood circulation."

　　The new textbook clarifies the misunderstanding that people have habitually thought that Hanhao bird is a bird for decades. Chen Xianyun commented that from this small illustration, people can see that "Chinese textbooks not only pay attention to literariness, but also attach great importance to science".

　　Many experts emphasized to the reporter of China Youth Daily and Zhongqing Online that the editing process of this new textbook is to be more scientific and rigorous, to prevent mistakes as much as possible, and to minimize the possibility of misreading.

　　"I have come to Beijing no less than 30 times for this set of Chinese textbooks." Liu Shizhen, an expert in reviewing Chinese textbooks and a professor at Nanjing University, said. Textbook review is divided into thematic review and subject review, in which thematic review solves scientific problems. For example, "We often say ‘ Volcanic eruption ’ After the review, it was changed to a more scientific ‘ Volcanic eruption ’ 。”

　　After solving the scientific problems, we need to conduct disciplinary review, which requires the text to be more in line with the laws and educational characteristics of the Chinese discipline. "For example, an article written by Yang Liwei, Space Day, has no scientific problems, so we must combine the characteristics of primary school Chinese and modify it from the perspective of Chinese." Liu Shizhen said.

　　Find the original source for each historical fact.

　　"We also have a principle in the process of compiling textbooks: all historical materials quoted must be compared with the original source and cannot be sloppy." Ye Xiaobing said.

　　Most of the editors of history textbooks are professors and researchers. In order to make the new textbooks more suitable for teaching, after-school activities are generally designed by middle school teachers with rich teaching experience.

　　In the lesson "The Rule of the Ming Dynasty" in the second volume of the seventh grade, there is a subtitle "Changes in the Imperial Examination", which introduces stereotyped writing for selecting scholars. To this end, middle school teachers designed an after-school activity:

　　Gu Yanwu, a thinker in the Qing Dynasty, said: "The harm of stereotyped writing is equivalent to burning books and ruining talents, which is more than that of those trapped in the suburbs of Xianyang, but there are more than 460 people." Why did Gu Yanwu say that stereotyped writing was more harmful to talents than Qin Shihuang’s burning books and burying Confucianism? Do you agree with his comment?

　　"This activity design comes from previous teaching practice. This passage of Gu Yanwu is often used by teachers in middle school history classroom teaching to explain that stereotyped writing is criticized. " Ye Xiaobing said, but when discussing the first draft of the textbook, some people suggested that this historical material was misused. Gu Yanwu’s original intention was not to criticize stereotyped writing.

　　As a result, textbook writers began to consult a large number of historical materials, and found that this passage was indeed "out of context". This passage comes from Gu Yanwu’s Record of Japanese Knowledge (Volume 16), which was originally intended to criticize the "imaginary topic" for coping with the scientific research at that time. "The rich and powerful families invited celebrities to stay at their home schools, and each of them wrote an article on these dozens of topics, so that their children and the handsome and intelligent slaves could memorize them. Admission proposition, ten to eight, that is, copying the volume with the recorded text. " This practice makes the candidates opportunistic without reading Confucian classics, so Gu Yanwu thinks that there were more than 460 people burning books and burying Confucianism in the Qin Dynasty, but this practice is even more corrupt for talents, and this practice of reciting only simulated test questions should be abolished.

　　After finding out Gu Yanwu’s original intention, the textbook editor deleted the original activity design and redesigned the after-school activities.

　　This method of textual research, inquiry and tracing appears not only in the history discipline, but also in other disciplines in the process of compiling unified textbooks.

　　I believe many people still remember that primary school Chinese once learned a text entitled "I don’t forget to dig wells when I am drinking water".

　　This is an old text that has been used for many years, and its source is not very clear. The first time it was incorporated into the textbook was the second volume of "Chinese in Primary School Textbook (Five-year Consistent System)" published by People’s Education Society in 1952, entitled "People who don’t forget to dig wells after drinking water".

　　Chen Xianyun introduced that in the process of compiling this textbook, in order to find the "source" of this classic text, the writers searched several times and found several versions with similar topics, including a poem entitled "People who Dig Wells when Draught" and a short article entitled "People who Dig Wells when Draught". However, these poems or essays have a low similarity with the selected texts. Finally, we found a photocopy of People’s Daily on October 12, 1951 in the National Library, in which the headline news was Our Great Motherland, with a high degree of overlap between the text and the text, and finally found the original source of The Digger Who Never Forgets to Draw Water.

　　Maybe someone will ask, is it necessary to go to so much trouble for a text?

　　"Inaccuracy is prone to controversy." Chen Xianyun said that because teaching materials are the model for children to learn, rigor and accuracy should be the most basic attitude when compiling teaching materials. "We should investigate all doubts and doubts.".

　　"It is much more difficult to compile primary and secondary school textbooks than to compile university textbooks." Professor Han Zhen, an expert on textbook compilation, said that primary and secondary school students are young, so there are too many factors to consider in compiling textbooks for primary and secondary schools.

　　According to the relevant person in charge of the Textbook Bureau of the Ministry of Education, a huge compiling team of more than 140 people has been set up, and there are as many as 116 review experts. Hundreds of outstanding experts in various fields have spent five years consulting materials, repeatedly scrutinizing and entering the classroom, just to carve out the most suitable textbooks for children in China.