A Comparative Study On The Subjects And Contents Of College Entrance Examination In China And England

The college entrance examination is the “goalkeeper” of college talent selection.AS the core of the entrance examination,the examination subjects and contents are the main bearing of the talent selection.Among them,the examination subjects determine the knowledge structure that the talents should possess,while the examination contents determine the level of knowledge and ability that the talents should possess.As the birthplace of examinations in the East and West,the college entrance examination in China and England has played an extremely important role in the admission of higher education institutions.After entering the new century,facing the new international political and economic situation,the two countries have carried out a series of reforms in examination subjects and contents.This study from the outside to the inside systematically analyzes the reform and characteristics of the examination subjects and contents between the two countries,which includes the study of examination subjects-setting,examination subjects-requirements and subjects-choice,examination subject-content,and examination proposition-content.The purpose of this study is to compare the similarities and differences in examination subjects and contents in China and England.In the course of the study,the documents,decrees,reports and examination syllabus and examination papers issued by the Chinese and English governments and relevant agencies are used as the carrier.And the literature research method,the content analysis method,the case study method and the comparative research method are applied in the study,and then the paper draws the following conclusions:1.A Comparative study on the Subjects-setting of College Entrance Examination in China and EnglandThe subjects-setting of College Entrance Examination reflects the state's proper positioning of the knowledge structure of talents.In the form of subjects-setting,it is always the form of "compulsory subjects +" in China,while it is always free to choose the examination subjects in England.In China,the pilot reform is the main form.It adjusts from the the division of Arts and Science to the subjects selected,and its purpose is to give students more choice,to promote their personalized development.In England,the overall reform is the mainly form.It adjusts from the modular to the linear,and its purpose is to improve the quality of education,to guarantee the academic and rigorous examination.In the number of examination subjects-setting,in China it is relatively stable,and there is an increasing trend,while in England it is the basic trend of increasing after 2000.But in the new exam reform,the number of examination subjects-setting is a large number of deletion and mergers.In the type of examination subjects-setting,comprehensive-subjects in both countries will disappear;the types of subjects-setting in China are relatively single,and mainly basic-subjects,and have three compulsory-subjects,focusing on promoting the formation of comprehensive knowledge structure of the candidates.The new College Entrance Examination reform sets up the type of selected-subjects,and provides the possibility for the personalized development of students.In England the types are rich and mainly expanded-subjects.After the new examination reform,the the proportion of basic-subjects gradually increases.The examination subjects are all the selected-subjects,focusing on promoting the formation of the personalized knowledge structure of candidates.2.A Comparative Study on the Subject-requirements and Subject-choices of College Entrance Examination in China and EnglandThe examination subject-requirements reflect the colleges' requirements for the knowledge structure of the selected talents,while the candidates' examination subject-choices reflect the actual knowledge structure of the talents.In the examination subject-requirements of colleges and universities,taking history,physics and economics for example,subject-requirements in Chinese college are still vague,with “one out of three” or “unlimited”.The top ten professional colleges and the last ten have little difference.Subject-requirements in English college are difference.The top ten colleges generally have a clear professional orientation,and in addition to the examination subjects,they also involves subject grading,times,and combination and so on.The last ten colleges are mainly “unlimited”.In the examination subject-choices,basic-subjects are the main choice of candidates in China and England.In the both common subjects,biology is ranked more forward,and physics is ranked last in the number of candidates in the two countries.The subject combination of Chinese candidates is mainly the cross combination of Arts and Science,while the English candidates mainly take the Science combination.3.A Comparative Study on the Subject-contents of College Entrance Examination in China and EnglandThe examination subject-contents reflect the assessment requirements for the talents' knowledge and ability.Taking the physical subject as an example,and the examination syllabus as the analysis carrier,the examination objectives of our exams focus on the memory,understanding,application and analysis of factual knowledge and conceptual knowledge,while the examination objectives in England are more balanced in the understanding,application,analysis,evaluation of factual knowledge,conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge,and they are more prominent the ability to apply physical in solving practical problems.In the breadth of subject-contents,China and England's subject-contents are decreased,but the average depth of subject-contents show the opposite trend.The average depth of ours is decreasing,while the England is on the rise.In all,China's subject-contents is showing the trend of “shallow and narrow”,and England's subject-contents is showing the trend of “deep and narrow”.4.A Comparative Study on the Proposition-contents of College Entrance Examination in China and EnglandThe examination subjects-setting and subject-contents are finally carried out through the proposition-contents.Taking the physical subject as an example,and the paper as the analysis carrier,the knowledge coverage rate of papers in China is significantly lower than that in England,and the distribution of the content modules in the papers and the syllabus in England is higher consistency than that in China.To a certain extent,it shows that the papers in England can better reflect the knowledge and ability requirements of candidates for examination syllabus.The number of test questions in our country are less,but the time value is relatively long,and the answer time and each title scores are higher,which shows that China's physical examination has a “deep point” characteristic.The number of test questions in England are more,but the time value is shorter,and the answer time and each question scores are low,which shows that England's physical examination has a “wide coverage” characteristic.In addition,the number and score of objective questions in China are higher than the proportion of subjective questions,and the questions are more focused on the results of the test for the candidates' thinking.The number and score of subjective questions are higher than the proportion of objective questions,and the questions are more focused on the process of the test for the candidates' thinking.Overall,college entrance examination content characteristics can be summarized as “comprehensive” “fuzzy” “more easily” and “results” in China.That is to say,the examination content in our country pays more attention to guide the formation of comprehensive knowledge structure of candidates,and on this basis,it intends to meet the personalized development needs of candidates.The examination subject-requirements of colleges and universities are fuzzy,so that the subject-choices of candidates are mainly cross combination of Arts and Science to some extent.It reduces the candidates' knowledge and ability requirements,and pay more attention to the test results with knowledge and ability of candidates.England's college entrance examination content characteristics can be summarized as “personality” “clear” “more difficult” and “process”.The examination content in England pays more attention to the formation of personalized knowledge structure,and is committed to improving the status of basic subjects,in order to make the talents to master a more solid academic foundation of knowledge.The subject-requirements of colleges and universities are clear,so that the subject-choices of candidates are mainly the Science combination to some extent.It improves the requirements for candidates' knowledge and ability,and pays more attention to test process with knowledge and ability of candidates.Based on the above research,the subjects and contents of college entrance examination in our country can be reformed in the following ways: First,we can construct the examination subjects-setting scheme based on classification selection to meet the needs of diversified development of students.On this basis,colleges and universities can set multidimensional examination subjects requirements in order to achieve the precise positioning of talents.Secondly,we should gradually strengthen the process test of knowledge and ability of candidates,and then guide the secondary school to concentrate on the cultivation of thinking process.Finally,we should increase the paper quantity,in order to improve the representative of proposition-content.However,there are still many issues to be discussed in this process,such as the test of comprehensive ability,the conception of proposition,the fairness of content,the way of reform and so on.It can be said that the reform of the subjects and contents of college entrance examination has a long way to go.