A Study On The Interdisciplinary Curriculum Of Elementary And Middle School In The U.S.

Interdisciplinary activity first arose in American at the 1920s. With its rapid development in the 1960s, movements to create interdisciplinary curriculum have ebbed and flowed in American education, both in higher school as well as at K-12 levels, and these phenomena became more prevalent when it came into 1990s. In this dissertation, the author started from the backgrounds when the interdisciplinary curriculums appeared, and then expatiates the interdisciplinary curriculum theory of American's elementary and high school systematically. All about this is expected to provide a wider perspective for the current curriculum reform in our country.This dissertation includes seven parts. The firs part is introduction, in which the author explains the research context and the significance as well as methods and frame of the study simply.The first chapter discusses the basic meaning of interdisciplinary curriculum. About the discussion of interdisciplinary curriculum, the author begins with the analysis and definition of relevant terms. Before she defines the meaning of "interdisciplinary curriculum" the author analyzed the terms about "curriculum", "subject", "interdisciplinary" firstly.The second chapter explores the history of interdisciplinary curriculum. The interdisciplinary idea has been perused in the whole history of education. In western educational history, Rousseau and Dewey are considered the representative figures in the field of interdisciplinary curriculum. This chapter discusses the interdisciplinary curriculum thoughts in a historical point of view.The third chapter deals with the theoretical foundation of interdisciplinary curriculum. The author expounds the thought of psychology, educational philosophy, knowledge theory and information technology which is related to interdisciplinary curriculum. These thoughts consist of associational psychology, Gestalt psychology, constructive psychology, multi-intelligence theory, progressivism, holisms. knowledge theory and information technology.The forth chapter explains modes and types of interdisciplinary curriculum. Firstly, the author introduces some usual classification about interdisciplinary curriculum, and then she describes three styles of them which are widely used in American elementary and middle school.The fifth chapter is about the framework of the interdisciplinary curriculum. In this part, the author presents five main elements of interdisciplinary curriculum, includes objects, contents, design, management and evaluation. At last, she gives an example to illustrate the process of the design.The sixth chapter concerns the reflection of interdisciplinary curriculum and its use for reference. The author sums up the merits and limitation of the interdisciplinary curriculum so as to give some useful suggestions for our new curriculum reform and at the same time avoiding the disadvantage aspects.