本研究採語料庫輔助論述分析，主要探究日本中學校（即國中）三年級理科教科書「生命的延續性」單元設計，部分參照臺灣教科書內容，探討教科書設計於教改脈絡下之意涵。研究發現，日本單元課程設計融合了目標與歷程模式，由日常現象引介學生能探究的問題，圖文版式採大幅攝影供觀察討論、以角色插畫及比臺灣單元使用更少的專有名詞與更多驅動學習表現的動詞，鼓勵學生投入探究活動，以獲得概念理解，並活用理解來思考新問題。其意涵包括教科書創造活用科學概念與探究的情境，以解決問題、適應社會作為學習的脈絡；視學生為探究社群裡知識的建構者與問題解決者，經教師從旁協助運用科學探究方法習得概念、知識與技術，學生再進行小型自由研究。教材提供支持課程改革實踐之完整、穩定且普及的教學鷹架，有利於師生持續投入創造課堂探究社群的新學習經驗。

Using corpus-assisted discourse analysis, this study primarily analyzed the design of a unit titled “Continuation of Life” in a Japanese science textbook for third-year junior high schoolers with reference to a Taiwanese unit. The study also examined textbook design implications in the context of educational reform. The unit in the Japanese textbook integrates the objective and process curriculum models. To encourage learners to inquire and apply their understanding to manage new problems, the unit introduces inquiry questions through natural phenomena, presents large photographs for observation and discussion, and uses more character illustrations, less terminology, and more verbs that drive learning performance than Taiwanese counterparts do. The findings have the following implications. Textbooks can create learning contexts in which students use science concepts and inquiry to solve problems and adapt to the society. Students are regarded as problem solvers and knowledge constructors in a community of inquiry; with teachers’ facilitation, students use scientific inquiry methods to acquire concepts, knowledge, and skills, and then conduct small projects for independent inquiry. Textbooks can serve as comprehensive, stable, and pervasive scaffolds to support the enactment of curriculum reform; they may help teachers and learners co-create new learning experiences in developing inquiry communities in classrooms.