The Comparative Analysis of China Geography in High School Textbooks among Taiwan, Japan and United States

The major purpose of this study is to conduct a content analysis of China geography in high school geography textbooks among Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. It is anticipated to result in a list of categories that summarize what geographers and educators would recommend for inclusion in high school geography textbooks. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are used in this study for comparison. A list of twelve content categories is developed, which includes: location, landforms, climate, water resources, vegetation and soil, mineral and energy resources, population, economy, transportation, urbanization, and culture. Each category is further analyzed for its inclusion, intensity, and degree of description and exemplification. In content analysis, six analytical categories are used: number and percentage of pages contained in this study, frequency and percentage of various maps in illustration, composition of content in geography textbooks, composition of illustration in geography textbooks, inclusion or omission of specific factors in each topical category, analysis of specific points about each textbook. According to results from literatures review and analysis, the main findings of this study are summarized as follow:. Taiwan''s textbook contains the highest propotion of China geography among the three countries’ textbooks.. The textbooks of Taiwan and U.S. provide more comprehensive information of China, while the Japan’s textbook emphasizes more on human geography than physical geography.. Taiwan’s textbook takes a topic-oriented writing style. U.S. authors write physical geography and human geography in order with some ingridients of history and social study. Japan authors emphasize human geography and international relationship.. The writing style of the introduction is different among textbooks. Taiwan’s textbook is somehow dry, flat and not well organized while Japan and U.S. authors make better use of images so that their textbooks appear more interesting and attractive.. All three textbooks rely more on pictures than maps. . The ratio of the number of pages containing images are more than 80%, and the highest is Japan’s textbook.. The size of images in Japan’s textbook is the smallest, while which of U.S. textbook is the biggest. This difference is affected by the size of textbooks.. The thematic maps in Japan’s textbook contain the most information.ccording to the conclusions above, this study offers suggestions for future textbooks editing, teachers’ instruction and further study.