A Study Of The High School Education At The End Of The Qing Dynasty And In The Period Of The Republic Of China

The thesis attempts to clear up some basic lines and core problems about the development of the high school education of our country in the first half of the 20th century by examining it at the end of the Qing Dynasty and in the period of the Republic of China. Starting from the basic subjects of the high school education study such as systems,courses and discipline,the author plants to handle a discussion in the form of monographic study to achieve the union of history and logic. Then,on the basis of inductive,analysis of some relative statistical data,the author attempts to adopt the approach of quantization to describe the dynamic development of the scale and structure of the high school education.For those high schools in the West,there are following two types of development ways:downward structure of the aristocracy and upward structure of the populace. And it is in the process of the mutual influence between the two development ways that the modern high school systems gradually take shape. Meanwhile,the contradictions between the purpose,function and the structure of high schools emerging in the high school systems of the West are accordingly adjusted step by step. However,the sudden and full emergence of the modern high school systems of our country is the outcome of the experience borrowed from the western countries. Therefore the connotation of the purpose,function and the structure of the high school systems does not suit the social development of China at that time. It needs a process of adjustment. Actually,the educational purpose of the high schools in this period is constantly confined to the separation and union of the following three trends:the preparation for further study,the enrichment of common senses to enhance people's quality and the reparation for future life and career. Regarding the mode of the high school systems,people frequently argue about the following problems,single track or dual track,grading fragment or consistent systems,function integrated or decentralized,separation or combination of art and science. In short,all of this displays the permanence and complication of the adjustment.Theoretically,the high school courses at the end of the Qing Dynasty and in the period of the Republic of China have been much influenced by various western ideas about courses. Yet in the field of curriculum provision and enforcement,the subject orientation and the core courses always occupy the leading position. It remains the same until the 1920s when the children orientation prevails for a time. And the development of the world education in the first half of the 20th century displays the following changes:The educational philosophy of culturalism is gradually replaced by that of pragmatism;the formal education yields to the material one. Accordingly,as the reflection of the above changes,more and more non-academic courses of skillsand knowledge closely connected to daily life emerge. And the change of the high school courses in this period also roughly reflects the trend of the time by the means of reducing the number of instrumental courses and increasing the proportion of skill courses of recreation and sports,In this period,discipline starts to play an important role in the high school education,which is the outcome of the school interior function division developed from the resolution of the educational connotation oriented to human beings since modern times. And discipline of this time observes the following principles in different periods:despotism in the Qing Dynasty,personality reform education in the early period of the Republic of China,self-rule and personalism during the May 4th Movement,group work and discipline emphasized in the Kuomintang period. All the above reflect the requirement on the students' behavior and perception raised by the social change of the modern times in China.Virtually,the high school education at the end of the Qing Dynasty and in the period of the Republic of China develops along a tortuous way in the unstable and changeable social environme...