The Development Trend Of Citizenship Education In Britain: Cultivating "Active Citizenship"

With the development of time and society, modernization, globalization and rising of new media swept every corner of the world and brought great changes for social lives. Therefore, How to adapt to the changes and follow up the trends are unavoidable challenges for each citizen; how to cultivate the citizens who can meet the requests of society is an urgent issue for each country. As it is known that teenagers are the future of a country, how to help them adapt to the new environment, shape the society and further drive social development are priorities of education for every country.Britain is representative in terms of citizenship education, the action it takes when faced up with the changing circumstances is especially impressive. Even though England does not have the long history of citizenship education, it has made clear plan about citizenship education and its practice has been proved to be successful in the recent years. The paper pays highly attention to the trend of England’s citizenship education, namely, "active citizenship", and especially considers "active citizenship" in secondary school of Britain, one of the reasons is the experiment Britain takes and effort it puts may enlighten the practice of moral education in china as we are also confronted with the similar problems.The paper studies the background and meaning of this selected topic both theoretically and practically in the Introduction part, also, it compiles literature review from home and abroad. Moreover, the paper uses the method of comparative analysis and historical approach which aim to analyze "active citizenship" of secondary schools in Britain a step further. Basically, the content includes four parts as below:In the first part, it introduces the progress of citizenship education in Britain. This part illustrates the historical development of citizenship education in Britain according to who is the dominant force, and then it specifically analyzes the status quo and existing problem of England’s citizenship education, which includes education objectives, course content, evaluation, resources and teachers training.The second, third and fourth part are the most important parts of the paper. In the second part, it points out the trend of citizenship education in England and influencing factors as well. The influencing factors contain globalization and modernization, juvenile problems and changes on citizenship education policies and so on. Moreover, it introduces the policies and practice of "active citizenship" education in Britain and discusses the detailed information of the practice.The third part illustrates the characteristics of "active citizenship" cultivation in England including education policies, teaching method and teaching ideas etc. These factors also explain why "active citizenship" in England can be effective and successful.In the fourth part, it discusses the insights and meaning of "active citizenship" education to china, especially to the moral education in secondary schools of china. Firstly, timely adjust objective and content of moral education in secondary schools according to reality; secondly, encourage students participating in activities in and out of schools; thirdly, build a democratic campus life which conforms with what they are taught in the class; fourthly, cultivate critical thinking and reflective ability of students; last but not least, improve teaching skills by taking advantage of information and communication technology.All in all, we will benefit from illustrating and analyzing the policies and practice of "active citizenship" cultivation in England’s secondary school, which will supports and enlightens the moral education of secondary schools in china.