The Development And Transformation Of Science Education In American High Schools During The 20th Century

The United States is the world's sole superpower, Its power and influence in science, technology, and culture can not be matched by other countries.The leadership established by The United States in science and technology has an intimate relationship with high school science education on which the whole nation and every community place top priority. The science education in American high schools is in the leading level of the world in general. For many years development and careful management, it has achieved remarkable achievements and accumulated tremendous amount of experiences. Therefore, taking the science education in American high schools during the 20th century as the studying target, this dissertation mainly studys the science education in American high schools during the 20th century and systematically explores its law and good methods.The history of development of the science education in American high schools during the 20th century is an important issue of education which has lasted for a long period of time and covered a large number of important contents.This dissertation mainly adopts the method of literature review and analytical method to do the research of the development and transformation of the science education in American high schools during the 20th century.Here we have divided the process of the science education in American high schools during the 20th century into three stages which are: the first half of the 20th century ,the period of the Second World War to the end of 70s of the 20th century, and the period of 1980-2000.It separately discusses the background and the overview of the development of the science education in American high schools. In this three stages, the author analyses the revolution of the development of science education in American high schools which has a great influence in American education. Moreover, the author summarizes the characteristics of each stage of the development of science education in American high schools. Through its systematical discussion of the process of development of science education in American high schools during the 20th century, we can see that it brings us the following inspirations. (l)the conceptions of science education in the high school should keep pace with the development of our society;(2) The teaching methods of science education in high schools should be improved continuously; (3) All walks of life of the society should give their concern to the science education in high schools; (4) The relationship of the theory and practice should be dealt with properly in the process of the development of science education in high schools; (5) The science education in high schools should be harmoniously developed with the humanistic education.