Research On American Garden Education Project

Preschool education is the foundation of basic education and the beginning of an individual life-long education, which occupies indispensable position in the national education system.United States is a developed country and a world leader in preschool education. In 1980 s, the United States included kindergarten into the K-12 national education system, thus achieving universal preschool education aged 5. Subsequently, the United States developed the universal preschool education movement. Many states established prekindergarten programs to provide free preschool education for 3-4 years old children, so as to promote their cognitive, emotional and skill development and help children do better in school readiness. Currently,there are 40 states and the District of Columbia implement prekindergarten programs in total. The establishment of prekindergarten programs plays an important role in promoting universalization of preschool education and improving the development of United States preschool education.This research takes "Georgia’s Pre-K Program" and "Abbott Preschool Program" for example, exploring the content, characteristics and challenges of United States prekindergarten programs, providing reference to promote our preschool education.First, the research reviews the evolution of United States preschool education from the initial establishment stage, development stage, promotion stage and universalization stage.Second, the research explores the backgrounds of United States prekindergarten programs from the promotion of the great wave of education reforms, the support of research about high-quality preschool programs and the demands of school readiness. Third, the research takes Georgia "Georgia’s Pre-K Program" and New Jersey "Abbott Preschool Program" for example and summarizes the characteristics and challenges of United States prekindergarten programs. The characteristics of prekindergarten programs contain: free, voluntary and non-mandatory nature;take poor children as the main target; multi-channel sources of funding; high-quality preschool teachers; flexible preschool curriculum model; parental involvement. Now prekindergarten programs are facing many challenges such as uneven development, the lack of capital investment and the low quality. Finally, the research compares China preschool education with United States preschool education and analyzes relevant enlightenment of the prekindergarten programs on our preschool education: increasing financial input in preschool education; focusing on the development of rural preschool education; managing the developing private kindergartens actively; strengthening the construction of preschool teachers team; developing preschool curriculum model; promoting parental involvement.