美国研究生教育起源探析

American Graduate Education in Its Early Stages: A Historical Review

美国研究生教育最早源于殖民地时期学院颁发的荣誉性质的硕士学位。美国研究生教育形成受到美国建立本土大学的理想和德国大学的双重影响。19世纪上半叶,美国大学开始为大学毕业取得学士学位的毕业生开设学士后课程,这种高级知识学习成为美国研究生教育的开端。在研究生教育形成阶段,美国吸收德国培养研究生的经验,广泛采用德国大学的讲座制、习明纳和实验法,鼓励科学研究,同时抛弃德国大学"师徒式"研究生培养方式,在大学建立研究生院,把研究生教育与本科生教育结合起来,强调独立学习与科学研究是培养研究生的主要途径,研究生教育最终摆脱传统学院培养本科生方法的影响和局限,地位得以承认。研究生教育发展促进了美国研究型大学的产生和科学研究职能的确立。

Back in colonial days,colleges in what is now the United States,conferred honorary master’s degrees on resident graduates,and that is the very first beginning of American graduate education.Later,in the mid-19th century,American universities started providing post-baccalaureate programs to Bachelor graduates.During its early stages,graduate education programs in the United States were often modeled after German universities,which attached great importance to scientific research(rather than knowledge transmission).New approaches,such as lectures,seminars and laboratory experiments,were introduced to train postgraduates,while the German mentorship was replaced by the establishment of separate graduate departments in American universities.With the rapid development of graduate education in the in the U.S.,there had emerged quite a few research universities,where creation of new knowledge via research was also regarded as one of their main roles.