On Development And Reform Of Community Colleges In The United States

American community college has a history of more than 100 years,and the experience of its development and transformation is worthy of reference for higher vocational and technical colleges in our country.Compared with the study on vocational education in countries such as Germany,Britain,Australia,the study of American vocational education is comparatively weak in our country.The community college is an important educational institution that implements vocational education in the United States.Study on the history and current situations of the community college is helpful to comprehensively review education in American community colleges and summarize experience that is worth learning for our higher vocational and technical colleges.The main contents of this study include five parts.The first part Chapter One"Introduction" elaborates origin and scheme of the study.The second part,Chapter Two"Development Course of Community Colleges" and Chapter Three "Development Rules of Community Colleges,elaborates the history and rules of community colleges.The third part analyzes the current situations,features,problems and reforms of community colleges,consisting of Chapter Four "Current Situations of Community Colleges",Chapter Five"Features of Community Colleges" and Chapter Six "Problems and Reforms in the Development of Community Colleges".The fourth part predicts the development trends of community colleges and analyzes several typical issues of community colleges,which consists of Chapter Seven "Development Trends of Community Colleges" and Chapter Eight"Study of Typical Issues in the Development and Reform of Community Colleges".The fifth part explores enlightenment of community colleges to higher vocational and technical colleges,including Chapter Nine "Enlightenment from American Community Colleges to Higher Vocational and Technical Colleges in Our Country".The main contents of each chapter are as follows:Chapter One "Introduction" explores the origin,significance,methods,and scheme of the research.Given that the management and operation of the American community colleges is special and community colleges are constantly changing,the study of American community college can provide useful experience for higher vocational and technical colleges in China.The chapter also proposes that the research will conducted on the basis of studying history and current situations of American community colleges through literature research,investigation,factor analysis,comparative study and case study.Chapter Two "Development Course of Community Colleges" analyzes five stages in the history of community colleges:the embryonic stage(1901-1920);the preliminary development stage(1921-1944);the rapid development stage(1945-1983);the adjustment and improvement stage(1984-2008);the re-adjustment stage(since 2009).Chapter Three "Development Rules of Community Colleges" includes:government supports the shaping of a sound community college network;cooperation with four-year universities and industries promotes healthy development of community colleges;close connections with needs of personal development are the vitality of the community colleges;the community colleges' development is influenced by many educational thoughts while enriching educational thoughts.Chapter Four "Current Situations of Community Colleges" elaborates from community colleges' six perspectives:administration and school management system;educational and training programs and their courses;faculty;students;industry-college cooperation;cooperation with other educational and training institutions.Chapter Five "Features of Community Colleges" includes:community colleges are important hubs of American educational and training system;community colleges' education serves community with priority;educational and training curricula in community colleges are flexible;community colleges cooperate with external partners extensively;community colleges have distinctive characteristics of part-time faculty teams.Chapter Six "Problems and Reforms in the Development of Community Colleges"mainly focuses on four aspects:the articulation of curriculum with four-year universities;occupational relevance of occupational category courses;cooperation with industries;and students' study completion.Chapter Seven "Development Trends of Community Colleges" predicts six trends:the community colleges will pay more attention to industry trends and labor market needs;community colleges will have more extensive and deeper external cooperation;community colleges will further improve the certificate system and curriculum system;community colleges will be committed to improving students' study completion rate;community colleges'education has trends of "higher level education moving" and "internationalization";evaluation about community colleges will receive more attention.Chapter Eight "Study of Typical Issues in the Development and Reform of Community Colleges" discusses four typical issues:curriculum articulation between community colleges and four-year universities;improvement of certificate system;construction of part-time faculty team;and cooperation between industries and colleges.Chapter Nine "Enlightenment from American Community Colleges to Higher Vocational and Technical Colleges in Our Country" mainly has five aspects:higher vocational and technical colleges are supposed to set priority to meet the needs of regional education and training,establish flexible team of part-time and full-time faculty which is variable,develop the curriculum to meet industries' needs and students' development,implement cooperative education through multiple methods,and make community colleges grow to be regional educational and training hubs.The possible innovations in this study include:dividing the historical development of American community colleges from a new perspective;trying to explore the rules of community colleges' development;discussion about construction of faculty team and argument of training and education hub in the enlightenment part.Limited by the research conditions and research ability,research on specific courses,construction of faculty team,industry-college cooperation,and transfer is not explored adequately,and more in-depth exploration is needed in future study.