The Study On The Direction And Strategy For The Development Of The Information Technology Curriculum In China

Countries from all around the world place high hopes on talent cultivation of information society, especially the IT curriculum reform. China is entering information age, the IT curriculum plays a core role in talent cultivation. When the popular information technologies become the lifestyle and the way of students thinking, the IT curriculum should pursue stability of curriculum content and core value, people constantly ask the way of the IT curriculum. The international research reveals study on development of curriculum is becoming an important part of curriculum reform. After more than 30 years of development, the IT curriculum research in China has obtained certain results. There are some researches on development of the IT curriculum but lack of systematic research. As a result, the direction for the development of the IT curriculum become essential issue.Research adopts the combination of quantitative and qualitative strategies, integrated use of historical method, case method, ethnography, life history, the computation of this investigation, interview method and questionnaire survey research design, collection, treatment and analysis of literature surrounding the research question and the empirical data. The paper can be divided into eight chapters, covers four main questions:What is the processes and characteristics of the IT curriculum in China? What is the status of the IT curriculum in China? What is the direction for the development of the IT curriculum in China? How to guarantee the reform and sustainable development of the IT curriculum in China.The main findings of this study are:History displays the IT curriculum developed in join forces, and computer science and technology is the driving force. Firstly, it is just because computer science starts the journey of IT curriculum that the reforms of the IT curriculum are developing with the revolution of computer science and technology in China. Secondly, curriculum ideas guide and promote the IT curriculum. In history, there were three important curriculum ideas which had been influencing the development of the IT curriculum in China. They are the theory of computer culture, the theory of computer tools, and the theory of information literacy. Thirdly, the policy of the IT curriculum in China is related to the national top-level design and the regional practice and exploration.The present situation reveals the interior and exterior environment of the IT curriculum has changed, the curriculum can't meet the appeals of digital natives. First, students who have been the generation of digital natives are now leading a digital study life with a digital mode of thinking. Secondly, the society has stepped into the Information Age which features the informatization of the social communications and interactions and creates a ubiquitous digital study environment for students. Thirdly, the process of IT implementation reflects IT curriculum can't meet the need of students' development in the information society.The reform of the IT curriculum which centers "computational thinking" is the direction for the development of the IT curriculum. The first course is to update the ideas of IT curriculum. The basic task of the IT curriculum is to "strengthen morality education". The "core literacy" is the key concept of guiding the reform of the IT curriculum. The second course is to optimize curriculum objectives. The digital literacy should be the extension of the concept of information literacy and should be the general goal of the IT curriculum. Technology innovation is regarded as a higher-order goal of the IT curriculum. The third course is to construct the core literacy of IT discipline in terms of computational thinking, digital study and information consciousness. The essence of the IT curriculum is computational thinking, learning approach is digital study, and the moral value is information consciousness. The fourth course is to adjust the contents of the IT curriculum. It is concluded that computer science and technology discipline is the key and basic discipline of the IT curriculum. Computer science and technology has been the core contents of the international IT curriculum in the new era. New technology and new tools should be introduced properly based on the inheritance of classic knowledge of computer science and technology for the IT curriculum, and finally scientific knowledge system of IT curriculum in China is constructed.A series of strategic supports that systematic curriculum policy oriented are needed for the reform of the IT curriculum. The first strategy is the systematic curriculum policy-making in three aspects:1) The unity of knowledge, society, and talents development will serve as he basic value of policy making.2) To revise the curriculum standard in order to transform the "direction" into the binding curriculum policy.3) Integrated construction of teacher's professional development and get through the pass between the reality and the ideal. The second strategy is the scientific curriculum development. There are three main issues that we need to direct our attention to.1) To avoid the influence of the dominating culture and attach importance to the nationality of the curriculum development.2) To pay attention to the top-down design of the curriculum and plan integrative curriculum standard in different stages.3) The methods of curriculum evaluation target students' professional choices in the future.4) Teachers and students participate in curriculum decision-making. The third strategy is the creation of digital study environment. Three measures are as follows:1) To construct the infrastructure of educational informationization for the construction of a "hard" environment for digital study.2) To supply digital learning resources to help the construction of digital study "soft" environment.3) To have digital human relationship to reflect humanistic care of the IT curriculum.