Practice And Exploration Of School-Based English Curriculum Development For Junior Middle School

Specifically speaking, school-based curriculum is the kind of curriculum that is organized, conducted and evaluated by (a) certain teacher(s) in a certain school, according to both the general objectives in education of the nation and the concrete conditions of students. National curriculum only gives an overall prescription for educational objectives, but it overlooks the diversity among individual students and different areas. The development of school-based curriculum can make up for such weakness and help meet different demands and interests of different students, which will surely result in better achievement of the educational objectives.With the formulation of a document on secondary educational reform in 1999, China has taken her first step in this field. In China an attempt is being made to establish a new curriculum system of secondary education, which lays more emphasis on creativity, practical ability and healthy development of every student, and therefore to raise the general quality of the whole nation. One of the major tasks of elementary educational reform is to gradually change the over-centralized national curriculum system to a more democratic one, with local and school-based curriculum as an indispensable supplement to the national curriculum planning.School-Based Curriculum Development (SBCD), which was initiated in the United States of America in the 1960s, originates from the reflections on the trend of curriculum development in that period. As a reaction to national curriculum planning, and with each individual school as the basis, SBCD can be a more democratic procedure of curriculum development.Through studies of the background and theoretical basis of SBCD, the author of this thesis is trying to explore suitable ways to develop school-based English curriculum at secondary school. Moreover, the author investigates the progress of school-based English curriculum development in the secondary school. School-based English curriculum development faces quite a few problems. In the process of SBCD, school teachers need to undergo a shift from their traditional role of a conductor of national curriculum to not only a conductor but also an organizer and evaluator of SBCD, for which some teachers are still not very well prepared. It needs more understanding and support from headmasters, teachers and communities.