美国名校通识教育的价值导向

Value Orientation of Liberal Education in Prestigious American Universities

通识教育是美国大学本科教育的基础,是大学教育质量的重要保证,核心课程是其主要的组织形式。各个大学的历史不同、条件各异,决定了不同大学教育理念和人才培养目标的差异,从而使得各具特色的核心课程百花齐放、百家争鸣。考察哈佛大学、芝加哥大学、斯坦福大学、耶鲁大学和哥伦比亚大学的通识教育理念及核心课程的组织与实施,可以看出美国大学通识教育体现了以学生为本的价值导向,强调了要立足基础知识的信念,贯彻了服务社会的理念。

Liberal education, with its core curriculum as its main operational method, is the basis of American undergraduate education and a guarantee of the quality of higher education. The differences among universities in their history and conditions decide the diversity of their educational ideas and objectives in producing talents, which leads to the diversity of the core curriculum. Based on an analysis of the current practice of liberal education in Harvard University, Columbia University, Chicago University, Stanford University and Yale University, we come to a conclusion that liberal education in American universities embodies the value orientation of humanism, emphasis on the basic knowledge and the idea of serving society.