A Study On The Curriculum And Management Of General Education In Taiwan Universities

Over the last decade, general education has become a hot research area in mainland China. And many Chinese universities had put theory into practice. However, the reform needs theory as a pilot, and the existing research about general education mostly concentrated in the general education of American universities and Japanese universities. In contrast, Taiwan’s universities have implemented general education for decades, and have explored some different modes. The process of implementation of general education in Taiwan is a process of combining general education philosophy with traditional Chinese culture, which is a localization process. And Taiwan’s universities have accumulated many beneficial experiences in curriculum provision and management of general education.This paper is based on the curriculum and instruction methodology. By using many education scientific research methods, such as case study and so on, this paper takes four Taiwan’s universities as the research objects. At first, it reviews the history of the general education curriculum of universities in Taiwan. And then it introduces theiridea of general education and their curriculum provision. Next, it introduces the general education curriculum management of universities in Taiwan. At last,it gives a summarization of Taiwan’s experience based on the study, andput forward some suggestionscombining with the current situation of the curriculum provision and management of general education of Chinese universities.The author suggests that,for the curriculum provision of general education, the universities should have a clear concept and specific objectives of general education, and the objectives should focus on literacy and ability of students to embody the meaning of general education.The content and structure of the general education curriculum should be designed around their philosophy and objectives.General education curriculum should get rid of the modeling, andbe designed based on the best fitness forthe development of universities.And the categories of general education courses should also be divided based on the concept of general education. Universities should take into account the development of formal general education courses and informal general education courses, and combiningthe general education courses with the professional courses. In addition, the proportion of common compulsory courses and general education elective courses should be adjusted, and the credits proportion between them should be reasonable arranged. For the general education curriculum management, the curriculum management powers should be diversified,and the education authorities should delegate the general curriculum management powers to universities.And it is required toestablish a specialized general education curriculum management agency to provide an institutional guarantee for the general education curriculum, through the establishment of some appropriate rules and regulations.Ageneral education curriculum external evaluation system is also required. General education curriculum management measures need to be further improved, and it isrequired to developaseries of special general curriculum management measures. What’s more,a strict course access mechanism as well asa exit mechanism should be established. In a word, the experience of general education curriculum provision and management in Taiwan’ universities is the experience of general education localization, and it is more worthy for Chinese universities to study, for they have a common cultural background.The paper consists five chapters.Chapter One is the introduction of this paper, which introduced the research background, the purpose and the research methods, as well as the definition of some basic concepts of this paper.Chapter Two describes the history of general education in Taiwan.Chapter Three use four cases to investigate the philosophy and purpose of general education in Taiwan, as well as the current situation of the curriculum provision and management of general education of those four Taiwan’s universities, then summarizes their characteristics.Chapter Four study the management systems and institutions of general education in Taiwan, as well as the specific management measures and the evaluation of general education.Chapter Five summarizes the experience of the curriculum provision and management of general education in Taiwan’s universities. Then combining with the current situation of general education in mainland China, put forward some proposals.