The Study Of Harvard College’s Core Curriculum

General education plays an important role in higher education. Together with professional education, they constitute a complete university education. General education and professional education supplement each other, they are inseparable. As Harvard’s representative education ideal, general education has been changing its curriculum forms to meet various social needs in different times ever since the foundation of Harvard University, thus cultivated a large number of outstanding talents.In 1978, Harvard College of Arts and Sciences implemented the "core curriculum". The aim of core curriculum is to cultivate "educated men and women". While retaining the concept of "liberal education", the core curriculum constantly changing its curriculum arrangement to meet the needs of social development, and it becomes a model general education curriculum in the United States and around the world. Through the study of Harvard College’s core curriculum, the thesis summarizes useful experience of the core curriculum, hence providing reference for the further development and improvement of our country’s general education curriculum structure as well as teaching practiceIn the introductory part, the thesis illustrates the reason for choosing this topic, defines the concepts, summarizes research status that associated with this topic at home and abroad, and introduces the research methods.The first part illustrates the history of Harvard’s general education curriculum, the social background of Harvard College’s core curriculum reform, then analyzes the the practical reasons of the core curriculum reform.The second part introduces the theoretical basis for Harvard College’s core curriculum, including Derek Bok’s curriculum reform ideal, Henry Rosovsky’s curriculum reform thought, and the education goals of core curriculum.The third part presents core curriculum’s areas, elective system, teaching practices, class evaluation and management, and its development and change over the years. The thesis tries to show how the core curriculum achieves its goal of "cultivating educated men and women" in its course structure, teaching materials and teaching practice.In the conclusion part, the thesis summarizes the characteristics and advantages of Harvard’s core curriculum, reveals the reasons of the effective implementation of the curriculum, thus providing enlightenment for the further development and improvement of our country’general education:establish clear and appropriate general education curriculum goals; build systematic and suitable general education curriculum system; change the curriculum according to the needs of the times.