Research On Effectiveness Of Higher Vocational Education Curriculum

The research on effectiveness of higher vocational education (HVE) curriculum takesthe training objective of HVE talents as a reference, and studies the implementationstrategies of HVE curriculum objective, curriculum content, curriculum resources,curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation, and the methods for monitoringand evaluation to improve the development effectiveness of HVE curriculum, so as toimprove the effectiveness of HVE curriculum. The research on effectiveness of HVEcurriculum aims at providing theoretical and practical guidance on HVE curriculumdevelopment and amendment, and helping to achieve the training objective of HVEtalents.Through literature search and review, the author discovers that the foreign researcheson curriculum effectiveness focus on the evaluation for specific courses or theimplementation effect of curriculum programs, in order to evaluate the effectiveness ofsingle course or curriculum program. The domestic researches on curriculumeffectiveness just sprung up, and there were few related researchers. The research domainmainly concentrated in general education, and the outcome in the origin of effectivecurriculum research, the connotation and the characteristic of effective curriculum. Therewere rare outcomes on the research on curriculum effectiveness in domestic HVEdomain.In this study, the author adopts literature analysis and survey methods to analyze themain factors that affect the effectiveness of HVE curriculum, and the current situationand characteristics of effectiveness of HVE curriculum, which is based on the philosophy,economics, sociology, psychology and systematic theory. Further, the author puts forwardstrategies to improve the effectiveness of HVE curriculum.The HVE curriculum objective, curriculum structure, curriculum content, curriculumdevelopment, and higher vocational school students’ psychological characteristics oflearning, groundwork and learning style will influence the actual effect of HVE curriculum. The domain value and difficulty of curriculum objective have influence onthe selection of curriculum content. The curriculum content beyond HVE scope andstudents’ learning ability will undoubtedly increase students’ learning difficulty, andcause to curriculum objective fail. The overemphasis of theoretical knowledge orpractical skills also has influence on the realization of training objective of HVE talents.So do curriculum formal structure and curriculum substantive structure. Basic skills andprofessional skills play the same important role for higher vocational school students.Compulsory courses of HVE and general education, core curriculums of HVE andgeneral education carry weight on students’basic skills and professional skills. The utilityof curriculum content is directly related to the effectiveness of curriculum. The researchshowed that there was positive correlation between the achievement of college entranceexamination and academic achievement. It happened because of students’ originalknowledge structure and cognitive structure. Different learning styles have differenteffects on individual understanding, adapting, and assimilating new knowledge and skill.The presuppositions of the determination way of curriculum objective in curriculumdevelopment process, the analysis way of professional ability, the selection way ofcurriculum content, the matching degree of curriculum resources, teaching strategies, andteaching methods are factors that influence the actual effect of curriculum.Through investigating higher vocational school students, teachers, alumni andemployers, the author discovers that:1. Overall effectiveness of HVE curriculum contentis not very high, and half of enterprises are not satisfied with HVE curriculum.2.Different groups of higher vocational school students show significantly differentattitudes towards the existing HVE curriculum.3. Higher vocational school students’basic skills are not very consistent with the needs of enterprises.4. Higher vocationalschool students’ individual personalities do not meet the requirements of enterprises. Thesurvey results indicate that enterprises do not welcome the HVE curriculum and itscontent, and the effectiveness of HVE curriculum is fairly low.The characteristics of effectiveness of HVE curriculum are reflected in thecurriculum system, single course and students’ learning styles. Effective curriculumsystem objective should meet the needs of the country, enterprises and students, haveself-assessment criteria, emphasize the structure optimization of substantive elements within the system, and have comprehensive practice opportunities. Effective singlecourse should meet the needs of enterprises and students, and have matching practicaltraining conditions. Higher vocational school students’ learning styles show thecharacteristics of applied learning.Through the study, the author proposes the following strategies to improve theeffectiveness of HVE curriculum.1.Effective curriculum strategies: curriculum objective should focus on “professionalpost(s)”, and relatively broaden the curriculum objective domain; the curriculum shouldprovide sufficient opportunities for students to practice what they have learnt, andenhance “the core curriculums of general education” and “the core curriculums of HVE”to improve higher vocational school students’ basic skills and abilities; and the effectivecurriculum should have public evaluation criteria for successful curriculum.2. Effective single course strategies: course should focus on professional post(s) andemployment after graduation, enhance higher vocational school students’adaptability andemployability on their first jobs, and concern the improvement of students’ overallquality; the course content should focus on and stress practical knowledge, fullyconsidering students’ existing capacity and practical training matched with courseobjective and content; course development should comprehensively use various coursedevelopment technologies based on the scientific survey and analysis of the needs ofstudents and enterprises; course development should presuppose teaching strategiescomplied with course objective and course content, and professional courses shouldcombine knowledge, skill and attitude learning with special practical operation.3. Curriculum resources development strategies of effective curriculum: effectivecurriculum needs curriculum system plan, teaching standards of single course, relatedcurriculum and teaching management materials, matched with curriculum system andsingle course; curriculum development must develop material resources such asforerunner resources including teaching materials, case resources, multimedia resourcesand curriculum guidance resources etc., and build conditional resources such aslaboratories, practical training workshops, integrated classrooms and practical teachingbases and so on.4. Monitoring and evaluation strategies of effective curriculum development: the key point of effective curriculum is to build curriculum monitoring and evaluation mechanismto monitor and evaluate the whole process of curriculum system and single coursedevelopment program, curriculum development program evaluation, curriculumdevelopment, curriculum implementation, and evaluation development of the result ofcurriculum implementation.