A Comparative Study: Career Education In Chinese And American Secondary Schools

Career education greatly meets the need of the people's free and all-round development.Meanwhile it is an important part of life education and also an organic component of the lifelong education system.Middle school students are at the stage of career growth and exploration, which is the key stage to the implement of career education.The first part of the paper expounds the development course and the present situation of both Chinese and American career education.The development of Chinese career education twists and turns, while the American one is relatively smooth.The development differences, to a certain extent, cause the differences between the current situations.The second part is mainly focused on comparison of career education's conception ideas and educational approaches between Chinese and American secondary schools.It can be seen that there is a better basis of concepts for the development of career education in the American secondary schools. In China many schools and teachers are not familiar with career education. For China and USA, it tends to be similar in career education concepts, while different significantly in practice.The third part compares the goals, content and basic methods of career education in Chinese and American secondary schools.The career education goals for America is human-oriented and puts more stress on practices, while the Chinese one stresses theoretical teaching and emphasizes the whole social benefits. As for the career education content, the American's is more flexible and has been integrated into the curriculum system, while the China's is outside and attached to the curriculum system; American schools'implementation approaches and methods are also diversified and put more stress on practical teaching, while the Chinese ones are more single and more theoretical.The fourth part mainly compares the external support conditions for career education in Chinese and American secondary schools. The success of American career education mainly lies in the support of laws and regulations, while the laws and regulations are deficient in China. It is people's continuous researches and experiments on career education at the cost of things and much money that develop the American career education for secondary schools, while the Chinese career education research for secondary schools is just beginning. There is a professional teachers'team to do research on career education in American secondary schools, which has not been found in China at present.There are also many specialized organizations in U.S., which are playing a great role.But they are still relatively less in China, and most plays no real roles.The fifth part firstly analyzes the successful experiences of American career education in secondary schools, and then reads the confusion faced by Chinese career education for secondary schools. Based on that, the operational measures for Chinese career education development are probed, which is aimed at advancing the development of both theory and practice. Due to American career education's mature theory and practical successful experiences, it is necessary for China to learn and follow. Chinese researchers should also accelerate the localization speed of theoretical and practical studies and explorations, establishing and perfecting the Chinese career education system.