Mainland China Basic Art Education Development Survey And Outlook (1978-2002)

The Art Education of elementary and middle school has developed dramatically since the adoption of reform and opening-up policies two decades ago. The author briefly goes over the development of Art Education at Mainland China in the latest 24 years after Reform and Opening. The Art Education in both elementary and middle school went through two periods, "Return and Construction" and "Development and Improvement"."Return and Construction" of Art Education started from 1978 and ended in 1992, Started from middle 80's, different levels of Art Education research organizations were build both central and locally. Unionism and systematism of Art Education are the features of this period.During the period of "Return and Construction", three Teaching Principles were published from the Country, everyone was suitable for the certain historic condition and each made progresses from the previous one. All kinds of textbooks arose after the policy of "One Principle More Textbook" issued by the Department of Education in 1988. Most of the textbooks have their own feature. On the other hand, the teachers' training did not make dramatically improvement between 1978 and 1992,and greatly influenced the development of Art Education.The Art Education stepped into "Development and Improvement" period in 1993, which lasted to 2002. The development of Art Education was considered as one of the most important parts of quality-oriented education. The "Proposal of Offering 'Art Appreciation' Course in High School" was published by the Department of Education on July 12, 1994. The system of Art Education was gradually built. At the turn of the century, The Curriculum reformation of Elementary Education was star up. The "Standard of Art Education in Full-time Compulsory Education (Tentative Version)" was published by the Department of Education at the same year. The textbook editing made great progress. The "Gardener Project" built by the Department of Education marked as the set-up of Art teacher training system.With the recall of history and the prospect of future, the Art Education will make greater progress. The Art Education administration system will get perfect. The teachingprinciple will combine both knowledge goal and human being goal so that to be more comprehensive. The textbook edition will be unimpaired. The improved teaching's training will provide higher quality teaching team. Above all, the Art Education will make great progress in the near future.