| Advanced Placement (AP) Program that originated from 1950s in U.S. has become widely accepted and implemented in more and more countries in the world. As one of the most important subjects of AP Program, AP Chemistry has gradually entered into several high schools in eastern developed cities in recent years as AP Program's tentative implement in China. Against this background, this dissertation attempt to analyze AP Chemistry Course and investigate its start practice in China Mainland, with the aim of facilitating Chinese AP Chemistry teachers and researchers interested in this area to better understand AP Chemistry Course, as well as to provide insights for more successful implement of AP Chemistry Course and the change of current chemistry curriculum in China.The dissertation is consisted of six chapters.As an introductory chapter of this dissertation, Chapter One is summary of the background, the technology method, and the description of some key words of this research.Chapter Two traces the development context that over the past half century of AP Chemistry Course, analyzes the policy framework supporting the development of AP Chemistry Course, discusses the theoretical foundation of its design and development.In the third chapter, this research focuses on some related research on AP Chemistry Course among the world, attempting to access rich research insights and diverse research findings as well as to construct a more hard foundation for this dissertation research.Chapter Four constructs a framework for analyzing the AP Chemistry Course that includes five dimensions:educational purposes, teacher professional development, teaching strategies and methods, course organization, evaluation. Some cases derived from AP Chemistry Course have also been presented for illustrating the "big ideas", course arrangement, and evaluation of AP Chemistry Course.The fifth chapter conducts an investigation on the implementation of AP Chemistry Course in four high schools in China. By means of lesson study, questionnaire, and interviews, this research mainly explores teachers' views and understanding of the teaching materials, teacher professional development, evaluation, and curriculum principles of AP Chemistry Course. Finally, this research analysis some primary crucial reasons in its implement in China and suggest several valuable implications for its more successful implement in the future.Chapter Six is a conclusion chapter, emphasizing the features of AP Chemistry Course from four aspects, summarizing the major issues and crucial reasons of its current implement in China, and providing suggestions and implications for the better implement of AP Chemistry Course in China. |
