The Study On The Promoting Effects Of School-Based Curirculum Development In Senior High English Learning

School-based curriculum development(SBCD) dates from the1970s in some developedwestern countries such as the USA and the UK with an aim to reform the centralizedcurriculum planning on the base of each individual school and make the curriculum moresuitable to meet the demands of both the students and teachers. This curriculum reform wasmeant to change the over-centralized national curriculum and better promote the students’overall development and teachers’ professional development..Most countries are trying tokeep a balance between school-based curriculum development and national curriculumdevelopment so as to seek a new model for the curriculum reform.With the formulation of a documentary on secondary educational curriculum reform inJune,1999, an attempt is being made to establish a new curriculum system of secondaryeducation in China. One of the major tasks of secondary educational reform is to implement anew policy of “three-level curriculum administration”, which is expected to gradually changethe over-centralized curriculum system to a more democratic one, with local andschool-based curriculum as an indispensable supplement to the national curriculum planning.Therefore, the SBCD is in the spotlight in the new round secondary educational curriculumreform. More and more researchers are trying to devote themselves to the studies of SBCD.In recent years, the curriculum reform of senior high schools has attached importance onspecialized curriculum based on the specific school situation to meet the individual student’sneed and promote their overall development. A couple of key schools have pioneered in thereform of SBCD and achieved good results and gained rich experience. However, theresearches into school-based English curriculum at senior high school level are rare. Theauthor of this thesis tries to explore the promoting effects of school-based English curriculumdesigned on the theoretical basis of Constructivism learning theory on the students’ Englishlearning in present situation through studies of previous SBCD. The research is designed tosort out the practical experience, do some rethinking and in return, put it back to practice. It ishoped that the results of the research would provide more theoretical foundation and practicalexperience for future similar study.In accordance with the situation of the school where the author of this thesis works, theresearch was carried out among200students from both Grade One and Two, of whom100were students of two classes in Grade one and the other from the optional English class fromGrade Two. The courses contained oral English for students of Grade One and comprehensive English for students of Grade Two, which covered knowledge of English vocabulary andtheir cultural connotation, English idioms, comparison of the differences between Chineseand Western cultures, and writing practice, etc. Teaching modes designed on the basis ofconstructivism learning theory were widely used in the courses such as the group work,cooperation work, and inquiry learning. In such learning environment, students could enjoytheir success in the process of achieving their tasks and aims. They were expected to learn tocontrol their emotions, come up with learning strategies, and form positive attitudes towardsstudy. Moreover, the author also made interviews as well as investigations by questionnaireswith English teachers who participated in the school-based curriculum and students so as toget information and their attitudes toward SBCD.The course, on the one hand, is testified to be feasible and can arouse most students’interest of learning English to a certain extent. Teachers can help students to foster the ideasof intercultural communication, develop their integrated competence of learning and usingEnglish, guide them to study in cooperation and set up the preliminary concept of lifelonglearning. But for a few students who lack good learning habits and have a relatively low levelof English, the effects were not so obvious. On the other hand, with the limitation of theauthor’s practical experience and time, the courses have a few deficiencies as well. Theresearch can be more systematical and more perfect if further investigations can be made.