A Comparative Study On Chinese And American Primary School Science Curriculum Standards

With the rapid development of science and technology,people have realized that the importance of science education,especially the science curriculum of basic education.It has become the main object of national reforms in order to improve the citizens’ scientific literacy and train a large number of talents engaged in science and technology to promote the nation’s international competition.The science curriculum of basic education continues to reform and one of the concrete manifestations is that each country has revised his curriculum standards several times.This study took China’s "Primary School Science Curriculum Standards of Compulsory Education"(referred to as "Primary Science Curriculum Standards" for short hereinafter)and American’s "Next Generation Science Standards"(referred to as NGSS hereinafter)as the objects,mainly using the literature,comparison and statistical analysis methods to compare and analyze the two documents.The first part of the paper elaborates the connotation and value of the science education,introduces the study background,reviews the history of many science education reforms in China and America since the 19th century,and discusses the study meaning,study methods and ideas.The second part has combed the previous study results and study status of previous studies on China’s "Primary School Science Curriculum Standard",American’s NGSS,and the comparative study between them.The third part is the qualitative analysis and comparison of the two countries’ structural framework,curriculum standards,curriculum objectives,basic concepts,and implementation recommendations.Each part of it firstly analyzes the respective content of the standards in China and America,and then comapre their similarities and differences.In the fourth part of the quantitative analysis,the curriculum contents of 4 scientific areas in the two countries’ standards are analyze the breadth and depth of the curriculum content of the four disciplines in the two countries are counted and analyzed from breadth and depth.Then compare them with each other finally and come up with their own characteristics.The fifth part is a summary of all the above-mentioned studies,and a statement of five enlightenment points for primary school science education in China.Through the combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis,it analyzes and compares "Primary School Science Curriculum Standard" of China with NGSS of America aiming to play a role in the implementation of new curriculum standards and the development of primary school science education in China.Through the study results,it is concluded that the status of science practice and engineering practice in China’s "Primary School Science Curriculum" need to be improved,the setting of major concepts is logical,and the arrangement of curriculum content is in line with the advanced learning but lack of coherent interdisciplinary concepts.Teaching evaluation system is more comprehensive.Based on the results,five reflection ideas are put forward on primary school science education in China.