A Comparative Study Of ED.M Education In China And America

As an important aspect of postgraduate education system, as well as an important stage of teacher education, Master of Education degree has become an important means for education—a specialized vocation—to cultivate senior and professional talents, and is given an universal attention increasingly.China has set up and experimented on Master of Education degree since 1996, so far, in spite of many significant achievements, the problems and difficulties encountered are also considerable. For example, what are the differences and commons between professional degree and academic degree? How to display its professional characteristics? How to implement the management and organize the teaching effectively? At the same time, as an important stage of teacher education, how to play its proper role on cultivating high-quality teachers? The United States is the first country to establish the Master of Education degree. Although inevitably there are still some problems, compared to ours, it has accumulated a lot of successful experiences, and also worked out their own characteristics, in terms of management, teaching, faculty etc., has already formed a relatively complete systems, which provides useful lessons for our own development.Therefore, this paper is based on the method of literature research, by using the means of historical research, case studies and comparative study. And combining with the developmental tracks of postgraduate education and teacher education, we clarify and sort out the developmental histories of ED.M degree in China and in the United States. Through introduction, integration and analysis of the status, a comparative study on various links of ED.M education in these two countries is made, all these aspects of the similarities and differences of which are analyzed in depth on educational institutions, professional orientations, educational objectives, entrance examinations, educational forms, curriculum and implementation, awarding of degrees and faculty. And further more, we recognize the various problems of our ED.M education, and meanwhile draw on the useful experiences of ED.M Education in the United States. Finally, some constructive comments and suggestions are made for China's ED.M education, so as to promote the building, reform and development of our ED.M Education, as well as teacher education system.