Comparative Research On Career Education And Guidance In Secondary Schools In Uk And United States

The “National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan(2010-2020)” pointed out that we should establish the student development guidance system in high schools in China,and strengthen the guidance on students’ ideals,psychology,academic performance and other aspects,and then career education and guidance in secondary schools began to receive more attention.Subsequently,the launch of the new college entrance examination reform in 2014 broke the traditional examination subject selection mode and brought about the advance of students’ career decision-making,which forced schools to think about how to provide students with career education and guidance and help them make career decision and planning.However,due to various reasons,there are some difficulties in the process of developing career education and guidance in middle school.When the educational reform activities of a country encounter a "bottleneck",the mature experience from advanced countries can usually offer a different perspective to solve the problem.From the international perspective,career education and guidance in English and American secondary schools started early,had a long history,and are relatively systematic and mature,which had a lot of valuable experience in the process of development.This study attempts to explore whether the successful experience of career education and guidance in England and American schools can be used by us,so as to provide enlightenment and reference for the development of career education and guidance in secondary schools in China.This research adopts the historical research,literature research and comparative research methods.The historical development of career education and guidance as well as its practice of the status quo and typical problems in secondary schools in Britain and America are discussed in this paper.With an eye to the difficulties of the development of career education and guidance in secondary schools in our country,this research draws lessons from the mature experience of the two countries,and thinks of the possible future development direction in our country.This research finds thatThese three paradigms have differences in the understanding of career and educational objects,educational objectives and educational strategies.The evolution of career education paradigm also promotes the historical development of career education in secondary schools in England and America.After a systematic review of the historical development of career education in secondary schools in England and American,several basic rules can be drawn.Firstly,the development of career education and guidance in secondary schools has experienced three paradigms,including match-oriented vocational guidance,developing-oriented career guidance and constructingoriented career education and guidance.Secondly,government leading and support is an important source of motivation for the development of career education in secondary schools.Thirdly,the development of career education and guidance in secondary schools is closely related to the change of political,economic and social environment,and it evolved from static and isolated to developmental and systemic.Lastly,the requirements for career education and guidance teachers in secondary schools have been constantly improved,and their training has become increasingly professional.In terms of the status quo of practice,this research focuses on the micro level,and makes an in-depth analysis of the goals,contents,implementation,evaluation and teachers of career education and guidance in secondary school in the two countries.On the basis of presenting the status quo,it makes a comparison,explores the common experience and explains the differences.In terms of goals,the formation and expression of the goal system of secondary school career education in Britain and the United States are influenced and shaped by social environment,national educational goal,professional organization and school education goal.The goal systems of secondary school career education in both countries highlight constructivism and regard students’ career development as a subjective construction process led by themselves.Career management skills are regarded as the common core of career education goals in British and American secondary schools.The content selection centers on students,and contains the content elements of self-cognition,career cognition,career planning and management.The organization of content presents the characteristics of progressive and spiral.In terms of implementation,career education and guidance in both two countries has multiple implementation paths,and emphasizes the buy-in and support of the whole school,the joint participation of multiple forces,strengthening the connection with the working world and the justice of career education and guidance.In terms of evaluation,both countries emphasize that the overall design,process and results of career education and guidance should be evaluated by multiple evaluation subjects,and emphasize the combination and balance of formative evaluation and summative evaluation,and the appropriate data and information collection for different evaluation purposes through diversified evaluation tools.In terms of teachers,the composition of career education and guidance teachers in the two countries has the same characteristics of diversification and multiple professional roles.This research also puts forward some opinions on the six basic problems of the development of career education and guidance in secondary schools.It is believed that the object of career education and guidance in secondary schools should be all students.The key goal of career education and guidance in secondary schools is to cultivate students’ career management ability.In order to give full play to the role of career education and guidance,a variety of curriculum setting methods should be used in combination.Career education and guidance teachers should have four kinds of basic abilities to fulfill the five professional roles of career education and guidance.In order to better meet the needs of students,a hierarchical and progressive implementation model can be adopted.The effective operation of career education and guidance needs policy support and financial input,the collaborative participation of multiple participants and the standard-oriented quality assurance.Finally,based on the problems of career educationa and guidance in secondary schools in China,and combining with the common experience from UK and U.S.,this research puts forward some suggestions,including reshaping the recognition of career education and guidance,building the national standards for career education and guidance,improving the implementation and evaluation of career education and guidance,building a team of full-time and part-time teachers and encouraging multiple forces to participate.