Chinese And American Universities General Education Courses Is A Comparative Study

General education combines educational ideal with curriculum practice. As an educational ideal, it runs through the process of education. As a curriculum practice, integrated intensely with specialized education ,it aims at cultivating students who have fine judgment and insight. In the times of knowledge exploration and disciplines separation, general education has played a more and more important role in higher education and become the key to solve the specialized education crises.This thesis mainly compares the general education courses in the universities of the United States and China by applying the methods of comparison, document analysis, history study and theoretical argumentation. The author compares two countries' development history of the general education, introduces the foundation of the general education ideals and analyzes the present situation of the general education courses both in China and United States. Then the author chooses the general education courses of Harvard University, Peking University and Wuhan University as examples to conduct comparison from both macro and micro dimensions. The thesis summarizes the differences of the general education courses between China and United States and tends to put forward some quotable suggestions which could improve general education courses in our colleges anduniversities, that is, firstly fixing the goals of courses and establishing a well-matched management system, secondly consistently reforming and innovating the curriculum design, lastly seting up strict regulation to guarantee the practice.