On Changes In Our Current School Curriculum Of The Operating Mechanism

Curriculum reform, as an important policy of a country, is closely related to the benefits of its government and citizens, and its outcome will determine the development of one generation, so we should have a full understanding of its complexity. The curriculum reform should take into consideration various factors: in curriculum decision - making, designing, executing and evaluation , we should have mature plans to ensure the operation of every link is reasonable, scientific and feasible. As curriculum design alone can't solve all the problems confronted by us, curriculum operation mechanism are drawing more and more researchers'attention. A comprehensive look at the curriculum reform of other countries indicates that a successful reform is, without exception, supported by a feasible curriculum operation mechanism and an unsuccessful one is often due to the lack of a curriculum operation mechanism. Here, I don't mean that the curriculum operation mechanism is the only approach to the departure of curriculum theories from practices, but it can be concluded that without a reasonable and feasible curriculum operation mechanism, the curriculum reform won't go well.Curriculum operation, as a new term in the curriculum research field, refers to organic and dynamic transformation process of curriculum decision, design, execution and evaluation. Curriculum operation mechanism means the internal methods and principles of the operation, i.e. the regulations and procedures of the operation. As a theoretic proposition, it is open to discussions in many fields, but I think the urgent task is to put it within the framework of current basic curriculum reform, so as to find out the curriculum operation mechanism we need NOW.In terms of power division of curriculum, the relation between subjects of curriculum operation, and the features of curriculum operation procedures, the curriculum operation mechanism exhibits itself in three modes: government control—school execution, government supervision― school independence, and government guidance― school lead. our country has adopted the government control― school execution mode in the past, i.e., the decision-making power of curriculum is in the control of national educational agency, with curriculum plans, syllabuses and textbook made and revised by the central government, and local governments and schools faithfully executing the decision. This kind of operation mechanism mode has worked well for a long time since the founding of P.R.C., but with the establishment of socialist market economy, the transformation of governmental function and the downward transfer of the educational reform center, it becomes increasingly out of tune with the needs of society. Nowadays, the overemphasis either on governmental control or school independence is likely to lead to the failure of the curriculum reform, so"government guidance―school lead"mode is unanimously adopted by the countries all over the world. This mode is interactive rather than linear, the latter being the feature of the other two modes. It no longer argues about the question: who is the real subject of education, government or school? Instead, it aims at coordinating the relationship between central government, local governments and schools. And in this way each side is able to conduct operations as well as fulfill their own responsibilities and obligations, thus forming a three-dimensional operation system. In the mechanism, the relationship between decision-making and execution is not contradictory or clear-cut, neither is that between government and school; instead, curriculum policies and curriculum reform plans are worked out by groups concerned after stages of conflicts, compromise and consensus. Besides, as the place where the curriculum reform is executed, the school is entitled to draw out its own executive strategies within the framework of national reform, and the government is not the single legal representative of curriculum reform, imposing the administrative directive on the school. It should make full use of its resources to guide the development of the curriculum reform, and to adjust and revise the reform plan according to the feedback of practices. Only in this way, can the reform be more realistic. The mission of curriculum reform and the feature of"government guidance—school lead"mode decide that to change the curriculum operation mechanism is a practical measure.Yet the change of curriculum operation mechanism requires that we establish the consultation mechanism, improve decision-making mechanism, reinforce execution mechanism and introduce dynamic mechanism, perfect evaluation mechanism and regulate monitoring mechanism, so as to strengthen out the internal relationship between the links involved, making decision-making, design, execution and evaluation an organic whole to ensure that the curriculum operation is scientific, reasonable and feasible. But since the curriculum operation mechanism is a systematic project, its study should go beyond the research for the internal principles and methods; it should also establish an external support system to guarantee its effective operation. An educational reform goal, however ideal, will not be reached without a complete policy support system. Curriculum reform is one systematic project. So setting up effective support system is an important link in carrying it out. The external support system mainly consists of three parts: cultural reshaping of curriculum, innovation of curriculum system and management of curriculum resources. They set one realistic platform for the effective operation of the curriculum operation mechanism, thus greatly helping promoting curriculum reform and achieving the goal of the reform.