The Research On The Construction Of Integrated Science Education Specialty Courses Offered Framework In China Normal Colleges

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, junior high schools (Grade 7 to 9) had always adopted a separate subject model in teaching science curriculum, which did not evolve until the 1980s, when an integrated science curriculum was introduced. Many problems, however, have emerged during the short period of the past two decades or so nation-wide. One of the most noticeable ones is the lack of quailed integrated science teachers. So far, more than 60 higher education institutes have set up Integrated Science Education programs, which, being a new specialty within the broad scope of Teachers Education, are still needing systematically thorough research and standardization in terms of professional concept, training procedure, course structure, teaching content, etc. As a result, there is a lot of haphazardry in the process of each college's setting up such programs.In this research on the new specialty, we will discuss the construction of the course framework and the prominent issues of the courses. Based on the discussion, we try to seek the more appropriate development direction for the specialty, and lay a solid foundation for regulating the standard professionalization of integrated science teachers.This paper includes 9 parts.The first part is introduction, which focuses on research methods and research content. Part 2, literature review, focuses on the definition of the core concepts and other researchers' achievements. Prat 3 is an investigation on the present situation of the courses offered in integrated science education specialty. Part 4 talks about a research on the construction of the scientific teachers' literacy. In this part, we first compare the westen countries' scientific professional teaching standards, and then we construct the courses offered framework based on the results of the comparsion. Part 5 is about the comparison on the overseas courses offered. We want to bulid the framework based on this international comparison. Part 6 is an investigation on the primary and middle school teachers' demand. We want to get suggestions about the courses offered from them. We use their suggestions to consturct the framework. Part 7 is another investigation on the teachers and students in science education specialty. We also want to get suggestions from the courses practitioners. Based on their views, we can get the framework construction direction. Part 8 is the comparative study based on the framework from Part 3 to Part 7, we use the framework to compare the courses offered. Part 9 discusses results, suggestions and issues for further researches.The main results are shown as follows:1. A recent national survey on the current situation of science education reveals that there are 62 institutions of higher education in China that have been approved to establish programs in science education. The 62 approvals were allocated as follows: 1 in 2001,8 in 2002,24 in 2003,13 in 2004, 7 in 2005, and 8 in 2006. In the year of 2007 the handing out of approvals ended. These science education programs offer two types of degrees: 52% of schools grant students degrees in pedagogy, and the other 48% offer bachelor's degrees in science. Another survey shows that, of the different schools (colleges/departments) that offer science education programs,15 are Schools of Chemistry,8 are Schools of Life Science,9 are Schools of Physics,9 are Schools of Pedagogy,6 are Schools of Chemistry and Life Science,5 are Chemistry and Materials,5 are Schools of Mathematics and Science,2 are Life and Environment Sciences,1 is a School of Chemistry and Environment Science, 1 is a School of Mathematics and Computer Science, and 1 is a School of Marxism Studies. The statistics clearly demonstrate that Schools of Chemistry take an obvious lead in science education programs. In terms of geography, there are higher education institutes in China's 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (except for the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Hainan Province, Beijing and Tianjin). All of these locations have established science education programs. Of these locations,14 are in the southwestern area,8 are in the northwest,5 are in the north,11 are in the central area of China,16 are in the east, and 8 are in the northeast. The x2 test shows that the number of science education programs in the southwest and the eastern areas are significantly higher than those in the other areas.2. The research on the science education specialty courses offerd framework contains 4 sections. Section 1:a qualified science teacher's literacy includes professional knowledge, professional skills and professional spirit. In the professional knowledge, it includes science knowledge and discipline professional knowledge. Section 2:the courses in the overseas universities are constituted by general courses, discipline courses, and education courses. Education courses are constituted by education theory courses, teaching courses, teaching practice courses and science courses. In section 3 and section 4:the teachers and students who practice science education attach importance to discipline courses and education courses. There are five discipline courses in total. They are:physics courses, chemical courses, biological courses, geography courses and science courses. Education courses are covered by teaching skill courses, science education courses, pedagogy courses. In this paper, science education specialty courses offered should involve discipline scientific courses and education scientific courses.3. In the discipline courses field,38 colleges offer 123 courses. But more than half of these courses are offered by only one college, which shows significant discrepancies among colleges. The comparative results also demonstrate a disorder in the setup of the discipline courses. For example, of the 7 kinds of the discipline scientific courses, chemistry courses and science courses outnumber other courses by a wide margin..Of all the 123 courses, general physics, college chemistry, experiment of college physics, environmental science, experiment of college chemistry, basic biology, biological experiment, STS, natural geographical introduction, earth science, history and philosophy of science and technology are significantly important than the other 112 courses. Generally speaking, the HPS courses and STS courses are significantly less important than the other ones.In the education scientific courses field, there are 65 courses offered at 38 colleges. Again, more than 60% of these courses are offered by only one college. The five categories of the education scientific courses are:education theory courses, psychology theory courses, teaching theory courses, teaching skill courses and experimental teaching courses.In the education scientific courses field, pedagogy, psychology and science courses teaching theroy are more important than the other courses.Based on the investigation and research, this article provides several suggestions for administration, and professionalization of integrated science teachers and direction for further researches.