美国大学课程改革史上的三大矛盾冲突与启示

Three Conflicts in the History of Curriculum Reform in American Higher Education and Its Implication

综观美国高等教育发展的300多年间,课程改革也一直都是美国大学教育改革争论的中心,其间充满了各种冲突与矛盾,主要表现为必修与选修、保守与革新、稳定与增长之间的较量。透过这些矛盾冲突,可以发现,美国大学的课程改革既与整个社会经济、政治环境的变迁相连,又与知识的分化联系在一起,既受到各种社会运动的影响,但其核心课程又将会继续保持相对稳定。当前,我国大学更多地关注学科建设,课程建设仍未被提到教育教学的应有重要地位上,发展相对迟缓,应加强对大学课程的研究,在必修与选修、通识与专业之间寻求平衡点,并加大大学课程建设的创新,使大学课程更为敏捷地反映社会思潮和社会变革所带来的变化。

In the past 300 ＋ years of the history of the development of American higher education,curriculum reform has always been the controversial focus of the education reform in American universities. There have been all kinds of conflicts and contradictions,including compulsory and optional courses,conservativeness and reformation,stabilization and quantity increase. Through these conflicts,we could find that the curriculum reform in American universities always went along not only with the changes of the society,but also with the knowledge differentiation,not only impacted by all kinds of social movements,but also kept comparatively stable for its core courses. Nowadays,Chinese universities pay more attention to discipline construction rather than curriculums construction,which leads to a slow development of the later one. It is strongly encouraged to enhance researches on curriculums construction,to keep balance between compulsory and optional,between general and professional,to strengthen innovation.