Insight Into The Historical Study Of The American Basic Education Curriculum Reforms Postwar

After World War II, the American basic education curriculum reforms have undergone three drastic tides of reform, and thus promoted the tide of world curriculum reform on the basic education. At present, facing the 21st century, the basic education curriculum reform of America still plays a leading role in the curriculum reform of the world . Basic education, as a project of laying a foundation of improving national quality and bringing up talents, is attracting more and more attention all over the world, particularly curriculum reform, as the key content of the basic education, receives much more concern .At the turn of the century, under the push of the world trends, holding the flag of advancing quality-oriented education in basic education, our country has raised a new basic education curriculum reform, too. The topic of how to advance the harmony of the new basic education curriculum reform of our country presents itself distinctly and urgently to educators and the whole society. As a Chinese saying goes, stones from other hills may prove more valuable than jade herein. A study of the development of foreign basic education curriculum reforms can offer a good reference for our country's present basic education curriculum reform. That's why I choose this typical case of the American curriculum reforms as my research object. This thesis investigates three curriculum reforms in America from the point of view of it's historical background, theoretical foundation, content and measures of reform after World War II, summarizes its experience and lessons, points out the future development trend of its basic education curriculum reform, hoping to offer helpful insight to the promotion of a harmonious development of the new basic education curriculum in our country.This thesis first studies the present situation and the correlation concept on the topic, then discusses the development of the basic education curriculum reforms in America after World War II in five parts.First part: cognition structuralism curriculum reform between the late 1950's and the early 1960's. In this period, the basic education curriculum reform was carried out under Bruner's cognition structuralism thought, causing the following changes in school curriculum: The curriculum goal changed from the life adaptation education to the basicscience knowledge in the teaching; Promoted the elementary and middle schools curriculum content modernization; Initiated by "the method of discovery" in the teaching method. But this curriculum reforms came to an end because of it's neglect of teacher's function in curriculum and separation from teachers' and students' actual level as well as the establishment of teaching material.Second part: humanism curriculum reform from the latel960's to the 1970's. This time, the aim of self-actualizing is the core of humanism curriculum reform; Humanism curriculum proposed the principle of "relevance" in the curriculum content choice; In the organization of curriculum structure, the humanism curriculum's remarkable characteristic is "integration". Humanism curriculum also has carried on a remarkable exploration in the diverse teaching appraisal system. However, while humanism curriculum pays attention to the individual value, it has neglected the cognition development of pupils, encouraging the counter- reason principle, it resulted in rather low school record on the part of the students, the discipline is too lax.Third part: the stage of curriculum reforms under the comprehensive program since the 1980's. This time, guided by the constructivism theory, the curriculum reforms enter into a stage of reconsidering and building a comprehensive program. This part includes three parts. Fist, early 1980's, occupied basically by the report "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform ", America carries on the reform which focuses on the outstanding performance and high quality as the aim of the core curriculum reform; Second, mid and late 1980's, "Project 2061" starts further the American elementary and middle schools science a...