The Evolution Of The Curricular Thoughts Of American University In The 20～(th) Century

Curriculum is the key factor of improving the quality of higher education. Moreover, the thoughts of curriculum serve as the prerequisite and theoretical guide of building high-quality curricula in colleges and universities. During the 20th century, American higher education became the most advanced one throughout the world with its meaningful curriculum thoughts, which have transformed from the competition and conflict in colleges and universities in the first half of the century into integration at the end of this century. This transformation places a positive role in the constant improvement of U.S.A.'s university curriculum quality, therefore, it is worthy of study.This dissertation aims at American educators' thoughts about undergraduate curriculum in the 20th century and does the research according to the historical development of higher education philosophy and curriculum philosophy in the U.S.A. Furthermore, it specially focuses on the contents, evolution and influence of several major undergraduate curriculum thoughts of the 20th century in the U.S.A. The dissertation includes five parts: the Foreword, three chapters as main body, and the Conclusion. Specifically, the Foreword chiefly presents the meaning, the object, and the methodology of this research; three chapters, as main body of this dissertation, are arranged as following: in the first chapter, three important curriculum thoughts in American colleges and universities on which the survival and thriving of American curriculum thoughts rely, are mainly discussed. Those curriculum thoughts include: utilitarianism, liberal education thoughts and research-oriented thoughts. Furthermore, the reasonable tension, resulted from the debate and competition between the three forms mentioned above, kept U.S.A.'s university curriculum thoughts from developing into over-biased ones. Chapter two chiefly analyzes the research of the evolution of general education curriculum thoughts between the World War II and 1970s. The goals of the inquiry in the general educational curriculum conducted by American higher are to avoid over-utilitarianism, to formulate the students' shared value, and to realize the complete education purpose. In Chapter three, the tendency of integration of diverse curriculum thoughts in higher education system in 1980s and 1990s is described. In this era, American higher educator believed that knowledge should be regarded as an integral matter, and emphasized the university curricula of general education and professional education should bebased on the integral knowledge idea, pursuing the integrity of university curriculum and instruction, looking forward to improving the quality of undergraduate education, and developing the all-rounded talents. This tendency is also the continuation of the work in the former stage. This dissertation takes the curriculum reforms in Duke and other Universities as the illustrative examples. Finally, the conclusion gives the general characteristics of the evolution of American university curriculum thoughts during 20' century.Generally speaking, the track of the development in university curriculum thoughts in U.S.A. took on the tendency from conflict to integration, and the obvious character is that the later thoughts is the succession of the previous. The integral knowledge idea becomes the main theoretical foundation of future development in the U.S.A.'s university curriculum. The main trend of the reform in American university curriculum is to set up an undergraduate curriculum system which combines general education and professional education together.