A Historical Study Of Curriculum Reform In American Higher Education From 1958 To 1968

In the late 1950 s and early 1960 s, there were many great changes and upheavals in the international political situation. At that time, America had gradually lost its dominance in the international politics. Besides, the American people were yelling for civil rights. In a word, America was threatened by a series of challenges, both external and internal. Americans were shocked by the launch of Soviet satellite. Meanwhile, they were motivated to get the dominant position again. Naturally, education was regarded as the “magical cure” of many problems, an important field which can make a big influence on the country in danger, a guarantee for the country to be the strongest one in the world. As a result, with the development of popularization of higher education, people paid more attention to higher education which was the essential organization for training high-end talents during the Cold war.In the American higher education history, the “Golden Age” is referred to the period from the end of World War II to the beginning of 70 s. The author defines the ten years from 1958 to 1968 as “Golden Ten Years” in this essay. During this period of time, regulations and laws of higher education are carried out intensively. As a result, mass higher education is promoted into popularization. The rapid development of American proves that the reform of those ten years makes a big difference. Combining the needs of social development and new higher education goals, the author discusses the curriculum reform aiming at revealing the connection between education reform and social needs. The essay is mainly divided into following parts: introduction and 5 chapters. In the introduction part, there are reasons why the author chooses the topic, the research methods and core concepts and so on. Chapter 2 shows background information about the reform. Chapter 3, chapter 4 and chapter 5 discuss the changes of curriculum goals, curriculum structure and curriculum features during “Golden Ten Years”. In the last chapter, bearing the hope to do some useful research for the future study, the author tries to conclude the importance and values of the “Golden Ten Years” reform in American higher education history, and illustrate how to put the helpful experience into our country higher education reform.