The Case Study On Reform And Development Of Integrated Science Curriculum In Chinese Junior Middle School

In the June of 2001,"the Outline of Basic Education Reform (trial)"was issued for enforcement in China. It symbolized that, the eighth curriculum reform came into implementation stage in new China. One object of the curriculum reform was to change the current situation that the subject-centered was excessively emphasized in the curriculum structure, and that the subjects were too many and were devoid of conformity; to set up holistic nine year curriculum genus and hour proportion; to set up integrated science curriculum in order to adapt the demand of different districts and different students; to manifest that the curriculum is balanced, integrative and selective. In this curriculum reform, the integrated science curriculum becomes an important part of national basic education curriculum. It changed the situation that there is only different subject curriculum in schools since the founding of new China. Since the new curriculum has been put into experimented in autumn, 2001, the situation of integrated science curriculum implementation is not optimistic. The students that take part in the experiment become fewer. There are so many difficulties in the process of curriculum implementation. There are different opinions about integrated science curriculum. The integrated science curriculum is not a new thing in China. Since the 80's of 20th century, several areas have already begun to do the experiment. At first the High school Attached to Northeast Normal University did the experiment. Then several schools in Shanghai joined it. And then Zhejiang Province began to implement the integrated science curriculum. They accumulated luxuriant experience for us. At the same time, some problems that were worthy of thinking were present to us. The reviewing and summarizing of the typical case of integrated science curriculum reform in our country, and searching for the experience and edify from it, is valuable for the coming reformation and development of our integrated science curriculum .This research chooses two cases of integrated science curriculum reform in the 1980s. We adopt the investigate measure of review, literature analysis and observed on the spot, to review their originated background, study mode, curricula characters and implementation process. From the research we try to summarize the characters of our integrated science curriculum reform and search for apocalypses for the practice of current integrated science curriculum in China.From the study we know that the main reasons to give birth to integrated science curriculum of 80's of 20th in China were the development of politics and economy and the demands of compulsory education reform. At that time, there were some severe problems in the traditional science curriculum as follows: the repetition, immoderate difficulty and deviation from society practice of the content and the result of students with high achievement but low ability. For these reasons and with the international background of amalgamation of different subjects, the integrated science curriculum came force in our country. The development of integrated science curriculum is a process of investigating, designing, experimenting and amending synchronously. That process used the experience of international integrated science curriculum for reference and was restricted by investigators'experience. The integrated science curriculum in the 1980s as the first era of our integrated science curriculum, influenced by our traditional branched curriculum, examination and adaptability of teachers, is characterized of mild-integrated and blending with the comparative systematic knowledge and emphasizing of knowledge structure and the connection of knowledge. The first generation integrated science curriculum paid more attention to the science method education and enhanced the contact between curriculum and practice. It also paid more attention to STS education. Teacher's problem is the choke point of the integrated science curriculum implementation. Teacher's problems are those teachers reject the curriculum emotionally, the knowledge configuration is deficient, the experimental skill is not up to par, and the teaching method is simplex. The research indicates that we can effectively solve the teacher problem through these approaches, such as enhancing teachers'adaptability to the teaching materials, ensuring the validity of teacher training, coming on reasonable policies, solving the problem of education resource and so on.According to the result of the research, we argue that the group of integrated science curriculum in the following curriculum reforms not only on their course background and theory specialty, but also on the experience of the implementation of integrated science curriculum they have done. To implement the integrated science curriculum successfully, we need persistence and compromise. We need to go to the end from stage to stage instead of haste for the end. Consider of our country's reality, problem of teachers is the most important one, especially teachers' knowledge structure. Administrative potencies and support carried the practice through in the case. The policies of government which make the implementation of integrated science curriculum are going well. We should know something about implementation from this point. We should solve the question on what is so good about the integrated science curriculum as soon as possible. It must be reinforce the study of evaluation and teacher's adaptability in the following science reforms, and innovate the curricula setting of university and adjust the fostering strategies of teachers.