A Research On The Development Of Information Sociology Curriculum In Schools

The main goal of information technology subject in schools is to promotestudents' information literacy and the formation of ideal citizens in the informationsociety. Considering the present status of information technology curriculumimplementation in China, it was born out of computers curriculum, so that it has beenstrongly branded with the instrumentalism and has a tendency to technologyparamountcy, consequently, there is inadequate content such as information rights andobligations, information ethics, information laws and regulations, social informationsystem etc, which result in a neglect of science and human spirit. Nevertheless, acomprehensive development of students' information literacy definitely is thesynthesis of information science, information technology and information societywhose relationship is closer and transmission speed is faster than ever before, that isalso the driving force to a combination of STS in information technology curriculum.Based on the understanding above of information technology curriculum, theresearch makes information sociology as a starting point and tries to explore themodel, goals, content and its organizing, teaching and learning strategies as well as itsevaluation so that it can make a reasonable integration with information science,information technology as a whole, meanwhile it can also enhance a culturalimplication of information technology curriculum in schools.The research applied various quantitative and qualitative methods includingliterature review, comparative study, questionnaire, Delphi, teaching experiments,interviews, observing and so on.This paper consists of6chapters that sorted, analyzed and explored the basictheories, values, developing models, curriculum content and its organizing as well asits teaching and learning. This paper makes a literature review on curriculumdevelopment theories, information sociology ontology and the current status ofinformation sociology development and discusses their applicability.The international comparative research on information sociology curriculum inschools compares the curriculum goals, contents, structures, implementations andevaluations from the four countries including the USA, the UK, Japan and India witheach other through their contexts such as official curriculum documents, textbooksand classroom teaching.The theoretical basis and value analysis of information sociology curriculum inschools through the literature review on related philosophy, psychology and sociology.It proposed three traditions of social curriculum that are culture continuity, socialscience and reflective inquiry. It also analyzed the values from the dimensions ofsociety, individual and subject This paper made a further analysis about the difference and categories andidentified three basic developing models: related curriculum, core curriculum andexperienced curriculum. It proposed a KPRC model: K(Information SociologicalKnowledge)?P(Information Processing)?R(Social Relationship)?C(Cultures). TheKPRC model located its goal in “the cultivation of a digital citizen” and set up athree-grade objects system. The fields of information ethics, information laws, socialinformation systems, information safety and security and information science andtechnology developing history have made up its contents and they are organizedthrough3levels of self, self and others, self and society and it was divided by4stages.Based on the work above, three different types of curriculum resources(relatedcurriculum, core curriculum and experienced curriculum)are developed and a teachingexperiment was made in Grade5in primary and Grade2in junior after identifyingthose resources through Delphi. The teaching experiment shows that there is not asignificant difference; students can fully think over the information social problems;both teachers and students confirmed its necessity; parents' awareness and industrialself-discipline can be the influential factors to students' information social behavior,related curriculum is effective. Suggestions from teaching, learning contents,evaluation and future study are given in the end.