A Case Study Of School Improvement By School-based Curriculum Development

School improvement is inexorable trends with the development of the times for schools. It is also the only way which must be passed for the school to seek changes in the dilemma."Reform is own thing for every school."(Goodlad, J.I) Facing the different development status, each school should mobilize internal dynamics and think independently to improvement itself. School-based Curriculum is from school. It bases on the specific circumstances in school. The whole members of the school join this activity. So it’s in accord with the essence of the school improvement. Every member play an important role in the curriculum development process. Such as, the schoolmaster can show their power of leadership, and teachers can be curriculum developers. Even, the parents, students and community can share their ideas. In this process, the internal and external energy is constructing and the students are enjoying the achievements of curriculum development. This causes students to improve academic achievements and the school to respond to changes better. So, school-based curriculum development is a key entry point for the school improvement.This thesis J primary school in Chongqing as a case, describes and analyzes the whole the process of school-based curriculum development to improve the school in detail by using the method of literature analysis, observation, interview and questionnaire, summarizes its experience and ponders its achievements and inadequacies, then puts forward the corresponding countermeasures.The paper is divided into five parts:The first part is introduction. It includes selected topic reason, research status, research review, research significance and related concept definition.The second part is the research design and process briefly. It includes the purpose and hypothesis, research thought, the cause of cases are described, research methods and finishing process of data analysis, and the background of Chongqing J primary school’s school-based curriculum introduction. This part is providing methodological basis for the following parts.The third part is the theory and assumptions of research. In this part, it investigates the relationship of values, actors, school vision between the school-based curriculum development and school improvement. This proves the theoretical feasibility for school improvement by school-based curriculum development.The forth part is the study found. In this part, it firstly describes the school’s overview. Secondly, it describes and analyses the situational analysis of whole process of school-based curriculum development. It includes target determination, establishing organizations, formulating development program, implementation of school-based curriculum, curriculum evaluation. Thirdly, it proves the practical feasibility by summarizing the progress of H primary school, including teacher professional development, headmaster’s capacity improvement, student’s personality growth. Finally, it finds H primary school’s problems and shortcomings:course objectives are expressed unclearly; some teachers are not enthusiastic; H primary school pays not enough attention to the actual demands of students.The fifth part is implications and suggestions. Based on the case school practice and related theory, it gives some implications and suggestions. The implications include updating the school culture, constructing learning school, and enhancing the ability to improve. The suggestions include clearing the system structure of school-based curriculum based on the school’s vision, giving priority to cultivate teachers’ capabilities of creating curriculum, establishing school headmaster’s awareness of curriculum leadership and allowing students to become an important subject in school-based curriculum development.