Our College Of Art And Design Undergraduate Course Structure

The dissertation tries to find the problems in the college arts courseeducation, focusing on the structure of undergraduate courses in art design fromearly 1980s to 2006, wich are selected from more than 40 different Arts colleges,.The major problems are the inconsistency between courses, the duplication and noclear principle and rule in curriculum. As a result, the arts courses are far fromtheir original goals, which leads to unclear education objective and disorderedcourse structure. The dissertation is made of introduction, conclusion,appendixand four chapters.Introduction: focusing on problem expounding, meaning of researching,definition of keywords, current research situation, and future research direction.Based on the transfer theory of contemporary education idea, we rethink theproblems of the arts courses and try to find the essence of these problems, withthe help of some cases. Beginning from researching the unreasonable factors ofundergraduate course structure of arts design major, we aim to make it clear thatwhat are the education goal and the relationship between internal and externalproblems. Finally, we try to resolve these problems, in order to improve the qualityof education and to make the courses of arts design develop continuously.First Chapter: Discussing the development of arts design course, with wrongdirection which has lasted more than 100 years and without any change till now, wetry to make a clear description of arts design course development. This is not onlythe reason for the changes of the courses, but also for the causes of the problemswe face now. So, to resolve the problems in the course, we must know its origin andfind its process of development, especially the different aspects of the artscourses.Second Chapter: According to the issues in the course structure, there are threemajor problems:First, the disbalance between skill courses and synthesis courses, the disorderof basic courses and special course are the major problems of curriculum structurein art design. For example, because of lacking the varied goals in different periodsand the disorder of the curriculum, it is hard to find the reasonable course order.One more example, because of the habitual idea of "Major or Minor Course", theproportion of skill courses and synthesis is far from where they should be, whichcauses a serious inclination to skill courses with ignorance of synthesis courses.Second: The discontinuity in course structure. There is no relationshipbetween vertical and horizontal course structure, and no connection between logicstructure and course elements. For instance, most of the undergraduate Art Designcourses have problems of the indistinctness in course objective, and there are too many assumptions, unclear course description and function, which have been causedby the misunderstanding of course structure. In direct connection with the market,the art design courses are facing more new knowledge, new technology, more new fieldand more new problems than other longer term majors. Further more, because of theemphasis on the personality in Art Design education field, most of the arts collegesset up their own art design course structures, which causes the self-developmentcircle of the art design course, secession from real market need and advanced field,and low level duplication of course.Third: Indistinct course structure, which shows the unclear demarcation ofrequired courses and elective courses, and the inconsistence of tangible coursesand intangibles courses. For instance, a normal phenomenon in many arts collegecourse is that they only list the course names, lacking the course functiondescription and guidance for choosing courses. Especially, there is no cleardemarcation between required courses and elective courses. The importance ofinter-function of tangible and intangible courses has never had enough attention.Third Chapter: Expound of the three major reasons causing the unreasonablecourse structure: history, reality and system.From the point of history, the early art design education had three origins:the new style art design, beginning from the end of Qing dynasty, the direct learningfrom masters in small hand craft workrooms, the transfer of amalgamate arts educationstyle of Japanese and Germany arts education. So, whichever origin came from, thearts education has the limitation, focused in arts design and hand craft teaching,and only vertical teaching for skill training. For a long period, the arts designeducation only focused on the skill teaching, but ignoring the horizontalrelationship between arts and society, humanity, science, and technology. Our artsdesign education has experienced several different development stages, with noconsistent external environment, influencing the development of reasonablestructure.From the point of reality , there are two major reasons: the influence of twodifferent development opportunities. The first opportunity began from early 1980s,with the tide of society restructure, many arts schools, teaching colleges, andtechnology institutes set up professional arts colleges. The second opportunity,all the colleges and universities have opened their doors for more students to havehigher education since 1999, many different colleges and universities have set upnew arts departments and majors, causing more problems in arts teaching. The secondreason from reality, with no enough preparation time, the adjustment of arts designundergraduate major in 1999 ,caused the lack of reaction of course structure.From the point of the society system, the arts course settlement,whichdeveloped in the planning economy system, must follow the nation' s plan. So theproblems in the courses structure are normal in the whole society. For the same reason,as the establishment of market economy system, the colleges need to consider themarket needs to improve the education efficiency. From one extreme to another, manycolleges put the market benefit as the first consideration not the education itself,which has caused people only to consider the short term goals and has influenced the education itself.Forth Chapter: Discussing the major principle of course structure design, thischapter cites three principles: Education goal is the foundation of course structuredesign. Teaching goal is the major principle of course structure adjustment. GeneralEducation is the most important basis of course structure design. Discussing theprinciples of course structure design, the dissertation shows that the course structuredesign is not only the objective requirement of education modernization and societymodernization, but also the core of education reform with great importance. Besides,as one of the tools improving human culture' s evolution, arts course still hasimportant function on culture transformation, communication and innovation. Thecourse structure design not only influences the process of education reform, butalso determines whether the culture' s development could fit the need ofmodernization.Conclusion: The dissertation provides five points finally: 1, To point out that a reasonable artscourse structure is the pre-requirement to improve teaching quality. 2, To propose that differentkinds of colleges have their own courses structures which base on their own need. 3. To suggestthat, to complete the course structure design, the arts course should bulge the importance of majorspecialty courses which base on the total knowledge education, connecting the courses indifferent levels, and consider the combination of different fields to realize the continuousdevelopment of arts courses. 4. To point out that Arts course needs to combine the moderneducation theory and course theory to make sure that the art course structure is scientific,reasonable and under rule 5. Discussing the rules of course structure design, the dissertationidentifies the three principles of course structure design.