recent chinese experiences in curriculum reform

M u j u Z h u

Abstract

Although it seems obsolete to analyse and criticise a curriculum from the point-of-view

of ‘‘subject-centredness’’, this is the situation we face during the Chinese basic education

curriculum reform. This article gives a brief introduction to the ideas behind the

development and practice of the Chinese curriculum reform and the progress of the

reform since 2001. Several aspects of the reform are introduced: 1. Re-examining and

revamping academic courses; 2. Adding general practical courses; 3. Diversifying the

curriculum with local and school-based courses; 4. Providing elective courses for all

students. We also give two examples to present the idea of the new curriculum and

practice.

C U R R I C U L U M C H A N G E A N D

C O M P E T E N C Y - B A S E D A P P R O A C H E S :

A W O R L D W I D E P E R S P E C T I V E

R E C E N T C H I N E S E E X P E R I E N C E S

I N C U R R I C U L U M R E F O R M

Original language: English

Muju Zhu (China)Deputy Director-General of the Department of Basic Education and Director-General of the

National Center for School Curriculum and Textbook Development, Ministry of Education,

Beijing. She serves as Vice-Chairwoman of the Master�s Degrees Subcommittee of the Academic

Degrees Committee of the State Council and is a Permanent Member of the China Pre-School

Education Society. Ms Zhu is the chief designer and organiser of China�s basic education

curriculum reform, which was launched nationwide in 2001. From 1991 to 2005, she was

National Director of several UNICEF projects in China. Author of 10 books and numerous

articles. E-mail: [email protected]

Prospects, vol. XXXVII, no. 2, June 2007

In t roduc t ion

Education develops and innovates under given political and economic circumstances. In

2001, China�s reform of the basic education curriculum was introduced in the wake of

dramatic social transformations that had taken place in the 1990s. With the economy

burgeoning and the democratisation process picking up speed, the nation�s initiative to

universalise 9-year compulsory education and ensure fairness in education had moved

beyond dispensing schooling opportunities on such essential issues as educational quality

and the need for education to prepare each and every student for society and the future.

In June 1999, the government issued the call to ‘‘deepen educational reform and

advance essential qualities-oriented education in an all-round way’’, insisting that

‘‘education should serve all students’’, that ‘‘the basic right of school-age children and

youngsters to education should be guaranteed according to the law’’, and that ‘‘the old

curriculum and syllabi must be restructured and transformed and a new curriculum

established for basic education’’ (CCCPC, 1999).

In June 2001, the Ministry of Education issued the Programme on the Reform of theBasic Education Curriculum (Experimental), along with 22 syllabi for compulsory edu-

cation (grades 1–9), 16 syllabi for regular senior middle schools (grades 10–12), and a

document concerning revamping the evaluation and testing system for middle and

primary schools. The Ministry also put forward a whole array of goals and strategies to

impel the curriculum reform. According to plan, it took the entire 2001–2005 period to

bring the new curriculum for compulsory education into effect nationwide. The cur-

riculum reform programme stated:

The curriculum for compulsory education must be conducive to the universalizing of nine-year

compulsory education, be attainable for the overwhelming majority of the students, embody

the basic requirements for citizenship, and be focused on fostering the students� motivation and

ability to undertake lifelong learning. Under the prerequisite that all students should achieve

the basic requirements, the curriculum for regular senior middle school has been arranged in

several optional levels to give students more choices and development opportunities, and to lay

a solid foundation for them to cultivate competencies in life skills, hands-on practice and

creativity (China. MOE, 2001a).

The ultimate goal of education in China is to achieve broad and balanced moral,

intellectual, physical and aesthetic student development and a high level of character

building. The inculcation of various competencies is a specific aim under this goal. In

both design and practice, this round of curriculum reform played down excessive

emphasis upon book knowledge, and set the central task as cultivating student compe-

tencies. In China, the term ‘‘competencies’’ is interpreted in many ways and, as a matter

of fact, no one has been able to find a unique definition to describe the term that satisfies

all linguistic, cultural, temporal and social backgrounds. This article1 tries to show how

the development and application of the new curriculum reflects the idea of encouraging

student competencies in practical situations.

Muju Zhu224


Deve lop ing a curr i cu lum tha t t ranscends‘ ‘ sub j ec t - c en t r ednes s ’ ’

For decades, the curriculum in China was dominated by academic courses, while

practical courses were almost overlooked. Compulsory and single-discipline courses held

sway, while electives and cross-disciplinary studies were few and far between. State-

mandated courses were favoured everywhere, with little opportunity for the development

of locally- and school-based courses (Zhu, 2002). In short, the curriculum demonstrated

all the characteristics of a ‘‘subject-centred’’ one.

This curricular framework put formal education at odds with students� need to learn

from experience and to know the real world, as well as becoming familiar with local

situations, traditions and social development. Students were locked in intense test-score

competition, and college-entrance examination scores became almost the sole enrolment

criteria. To achieve high scores, schools went so far as to drill their students time and

again in test skills suitable for examinations. Book learning was instrumental in impelling

students through the education process, and reduced examinations to tools for social

stratification. As a result, the value of book learning was favoured to the maximum,

despite the common-sense attitude that academic excellence alone is not enough to fulfil

a person in reality and in society, and that modern schools should not become places that

rely entirely on book learning.

Faced with this situation, the present round of curriculum reform is intended to enrich

courses by adding integrated practical activity,2 school-based courses and elective courses.

The ratio of class hours between the courses has been readjusted by cutting the hours for

academic courses and increasing the hours for practical courses. Course contents have

been upgraded as well, so that they are more relevant to the students� experiences, to

social development and to advances in science and technology. The idea is to transcend

the ‘‘subject-centred’’ perspective in the curriculum, thus freeing basic education from

subservience to elitist culture, and shifting its focus to the sound development of each

and every student.

R E - E X A M I N I N G A N D R E V I S I N G A C A D E M I C C O U R S E S

Emphasis on the inculcation of basic knowledge and basic skills has long been something

of a tradition among educators in China. Knowledge and skills are embodied in a wide

range of facts, concepts, propositions, principles and methodology, and taught through

‘‘subject-centred’’ classroom instruction. This has resulted in the notion that knowledge

can be imparted only by the teacher and skills can only be learned through the school. All

this betrays a narrow-minded understanding of ‘‘competencies’’ and demonstrates our

schools� inefficiency in cultivating these competencies in students.

With the advent of the knowledge explosion and the Internet towards the end of the

20th century, the ‘‘subject-centred’’ curriculum structure and content was inexorably

shown to be antiquated, narrow, cumbersome, boring and unresponsive; schools came

under the onslaught of new knowledge and new issues resulting from social, scientific

Recent Chinese experiences in curriculum reform 225


and technological development. The combat against AIDS and drug abuse, environ-

mental protection and resource conservation, insurance, law enforcement, road safety,

disaster prevention and alleviation, the war against terrorism and cults – these and other

issues show that profound changes are taking place in the basic knowledge and skills that

people need to master in order to survive in the contemporary world. This has prompted

the demand for the educational authorities to incorporate these issues in the curriculum

for basic education.

While examining the drawbacks of the former curriculum�s ‘‘subject-centredness’’, its

benefits must not be overlooked. These include its contributions to fostering a logical,

sensible and systematic body of knowledge for students as individuals, and its value in

developing advanced thinking. Nevertheless, it had to be transformed in conformity with

the demand of the times and the norms governing student development. In a country

with more than 200 million grade-school students, 10 million teachers and 600,000

schools, basic education curriculum reform is a complex process that requires systemic

changes. It involves not only obvious issues, such as content, structures and institutions,

but also affects deep-seated cultural issues, including educational concepts and values,

and cultural traditions. When choosing our strategy for this reform, we must recognise

the diversity and complexity of concepts, values and methods and, by rejecting preju-

diced ways of thinking and espousing dialogue and tolerance, embrace a type of edu-

cation that is imbued with new ideals.

For this reason, the reformed curriculum has retained the basic structure of past

academic courses, but deleted the complicated, difficult, obscure and antiquated ele-

ments. Meanwhile, goals in respect of ‘‘knowledge and skills’’, ‘‘process and method-

ology’’ and ‘‘emotions, attitude and values’’ have been introduced to the syllabus for each

discipline. The text of syllabi is no longer bristling with a long list of items to be learned;

rather, it embodies the restructuring of the subject courses in line with the reform�sguidelines. The curriculum gives prominence to the relationship between teaching

contents and student experience, social development as well as scientific and technical

progress, and lays emphasis upon the learning process, methodology and the fostering of

values. Here, for example, is an account of the compulsory education syllabi for physics,

biology and geography:Physics: (1) Emphasising the process from life to physics and from physics to society. This

syllabus is designed to develop in students a lifelong interest in discovery, logical ways ofthinking, and the initial ability to apply science in practice by exploring physicalphenomena, discovering the laws of physics and applying them to production andeveryday life; (2) Enabling students to experience the process of scientific exploration andresearch methods; and (3) Developing students� imagination as well as analytical andgeneralising abilities by combining scientific imagination and scientific reasoning (China.MOE, 2001b).

Biology: What a person needs to learn about in biology are scientific concepts of biology andthe associated curiosity that he/she needs in order to participate in social life, economicactivities and production, and to make personal decisions. These include an understandingof relationships between science, technology and society, the essence of science, and thecultivation of scientific attitudes and values (China. MOE, 2001c).

Muju Zhu226


Geography: Learning about geography that will be useful for a person�s lifelong development.The contents to be learned include those reflecting global changes, with prominence givento population, resources, environment, regional differences, land and resource develop-ment, global changes and sustainable development. Students proceed from everydaypersonal experiences to an interest in geographical issues while acquiring their ownabilities to learn about geography (China. MOE, 2001d).

A D D I N G I N T E G R A T E D P R A C T I C E A C T I V I T Y C O U R S E S

Compulsory experience-building courses based on integrated practical activity have been

added to the reformed curricula for both compulsory education and senior middle

(upper secondary) education. They represent 8% of the total number of school hours in

compulsory education, and 24% of compulsory credits in senior middle education. The

integrated practical activity will serve five goals for students: (1) Acquiring rich and

positive personal experience through fieldwork; (2) Cultivating an all-round under-

standing of the inherent relationship between nature, society and oneself, and fostering a

love for nature, and a sense of responsibility for the society and oneself; (3) Developing

attitudes and abilities to discover problems in one�s life and to address them indepen-

dently; (4) Developing practical skills and abilities in comprehensive knowledge appli-

cation and innovation of the mind; and (5) Cultivating useful personal qualities, such as

collaboration, communication and positive ambition (Guo, 2001). Research-oriented

studies, community service and hands-on work experience are the three forms of inte-

grated practical activity.Research-oriented studies. ‘‘Transcending the old academic courses� limitations restricted to the

presentation of facts and rules, research-oriented studies are concerned with children�sliving environment, backgrounds and experiences, and thus break the barriers of studyingin the mould of academic knowledge’’. ‘‘They foster an intense sense of reality and life inchildren’’ (Cui, 2004). Under the teacher�s guidance, students choose a certain topic,make a research plan of their own, and through a series of activities – research, obser-vation, surveys, interviews, collection of reference materials, empirical study and experi-ments – discover problems and solve them. For example, students at Xichang MiddleSchool, a rural school in Hai�an County, Jiangsu Province, finished 345 fieldwork projectsin 3 years, with the topics ranging from ‘‘automatic irrigation sprinkler’’, ‘‘extra-light-dutyradio’’ to ‘‘a study of modern poetry’’, ‘‘the basketball gap between China and the UnitedStates’’, ‘‘local customs and folklore’’, and ‘‘rural medical insurance’’. Every studentcarried out a research process until he or she completed a research paper under theteacher�s guidance. In the process, they formed research teams on a voluntary basis, electedteam leaders, chose research topics, divided up the workload among them; and then theyresearched, experimented, compared notes, debated and summed up the outcomes. Theymobilised what they had learned to acquire new knowledge and experience. With themotivation to get to the bottom of things, they also devised individual learning strategiesand took advantage of the opportunities to personally experience the virtues of exchangingand sharing research results, teamwork, mutual understanding and tolerance.

Community service. Community service is designed to enhance students� social adaptability,and sense of social participation and responsibility as citizens. In the past 5 years, urbanand rural schools in China took an interest in local situations and organised students to



meet local communities, where they studied ageing and care for the old, environmentaland community ethics and other issues, and provided services to local residents. Thisenabled them to experience life in society, understand the significance of social norms, andbecome more conscious in observing and maintaining social norms and public ethics. Inthis way, they also perfected their abilities to understand and empathise with others, andbecame pro-society citizens imbued with affection and responsibility for fellow citizens. AsJohn Dewey said on this subject, one step away from the classroom means transcendenceover knowledge and to choose a type of education is to choose a way of life.

Hands-on work experience. Participating in hands-on working activities enables students tounderstand the meaning of physical labour, to be more concerned with the learning ofeveryday life skills, and to master basic techniques and skills. The fieldwork associatedwith work experience activities ranges from handicrafts and the assembly of models totechnical design and experimentation, evaluation and appreciation of finished work,marketing, information retrieval, fact-finding tours, discussions and debates.

If student competencies can be carried out through actual situations and activities, then

the establishment of integrated practical activity projects is of irreplaceable value. In the

meantime, incorporating these projects also diminishes the curriculum�s emphasis on

academic courses, promotes the transfer of knowledge, enhances the fair distribution of

opportunities for participating in social affairs, ensures the students� right to learn and

shows them how to learn to learn, to do, to live together and to be. In short, these

fieldwork projects embody the orientation of the curriculum reform, that is, the culti-

vation of student competencies.

D I V E R S I F Y I N G C U R R I C U L U M W I T H L O C A L L Y -

A N D S C H O O L - B A S E D C O U R S E S

The Programme on the Reform of the Basic Education Curriculum (Experimental) states, ‘‘to

ensure that the curriculum is adapted to the requirements of localities, schools and

students, a three-tiered curricular administrative system involving the State, the localities

and schools shall be established’’ (China. MOE, 2001a). For many years, the basic

education curriculum was managed exclusively by the central authorities until a

two-tiered administrative framework between central and provincial governments was

introduced in the early 1990s. This highly centralised and uniform curricular policy

made it difficult to adapt the curriculum to the diverse and complex needs of China, a

populous, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation with seriously uneven economic, social and

educational development. Thus, to place the curriculum under a multi-layered admin-

istration, lowering the level of policy-making in curriculum development and manage-

ment, and using diversity to cope with the complex situation has become the norm.

This three-tiered curriculum policy has at least two implications. On the one hand, from

an administrative point of view, it helps to clarify the curricular administrative

responsibilities and obligations of educational authorities at all levels, sets up an insti-

tutional framework for curricular administration, and expands the ranks of decision-

makers and administrators for curriculum development. On the other hand, this policy

allows more class hours for locally- and school-based courses to be introduced, with

State-mandated courses comprising 80–84% of the total number of class hours, and

Muju Zhu228


locally- and school-based courses making up 16–20% of it. This can be compared with

the pre-reform years when State-mandated courses accounted for up to 92% of total class

hours. Thus, the quantity of locally- and school-based courses in the curriculum has been

significantly increased.

However, the improved position of locally- and school-based courses is significant in

other ways.

First, it helps to preserve and carry forward the nation�s diverse regional cultures and

traditions. Schools are the foremost of all social channels and instruments for the con-

tinuation of these cultures and traditions. The contents of State-mandated syllabi and

textbooks are limited to a specific number of class hours and the coverage of explicit

contents. Take Chinese history for instance. It may cover the general framework of the

5,000-year history of China and major events and figures involved in it, but it cannot

present the history of different localities. However, this does not mean that the study of

local cultures and histories should become the exclusive specialty of certain cultural

professionals, nor that they should be overlooked. On the contrary, they are indis-

pensable tools to instil in our students patriotism, values and a sense of identity with the

nation.

Second, the cornucopia of rural knowledge, production techniques and community

lifestyles are such important vehicles for students to learn and perfect their competencies

in situational ways that nobody can afford to miss them out when it comes to what

knowledge is the most valuable and by what means knowledge should be learned.

Third, curriculum development experts are no longer the chief designers of school-

based courses. Other people – teachers, skilled farmers and workers, cultural personalities

and even students – are playing a greater role in this field. This diversity of participants

means that big strides have been made in educational democratisation regarding the

principles for the choice of formal education contents and the organizational approaches

to it. It also enables people to transcend ‘‘subject-centredness’’ for a better understanding

of formal education.

The policy to facilitate the development of locally- and school-based courses has

drawn a warm response from across the country. Localities have come up with vast

numbers of courses that reflect local history, culture and economy. A course on grafting

technology of watermelon seedlings devised by a rural school in Ning�an County,

Heilongjiang Province, enabled local farmers to increase earnings from watermelon

planting and sales. A history course offered by schools in Mengjin County, Henan

Province, re-examined the history course on why the city of Kaifeng turned from a

booming city into a pile of underground ruins during the Northern Song Dynasty (A.D.

960–1127). A course adopted by schools in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, examined that

city�s historical contributions as the starting point of the celebrated seaward Silk Road

during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618–907). All of these school-based

courses give local students opportunities to learn what has happened in their homeland

through lessons that are not included in State-mandated courses covering local social,

economic and cultural issues and traditions. The establishment of these non-State courses

puts an end to the monopoly of uniform State-mandated courses. More importantly, it

steers the curriculum away from its excessive focus on academic courses to become



adapted to the reality of society and to students� learning needs. In fact, education always

represents a series of cultural choices, the curriculum always chooses and presents all sorts

of realistic knowledge of a given period, and we should strive to connect the choice and

organization of knowledge in the curriculum with the general development of society

and its structure.

P R O V I D I N G E L E C T I V E C O U R S E S F O R A L L S T U D E N T S

The elective courses featured in the new curriculum for senior middle schools focus on

the idea of facilitating the development of each and every student. This curriculum has

been adopted in 10 of the over 30 provinces and autonomous regions since the autumn

of 2004, and will be universalised nationwide by the end of 2007.

The senior middle-school curriculum is three-tiered, namely fields of study, subjects

and modules of courses. To be specific, there are eight fields of study: language and

literature; mathematics; humanities and social science; science; technology; physical

culture and health; arts; and integrated practical activity. Each field of study comprises a

number of subjects and each subject consists of a number of course modules. The fields

of study are instituted in the new curriculum to better reflect the trend of integration

between different disciplines of learning, and to explore cross-disciplinary teaching. The

modules of courses, also a new creation, are arranged in different categories and at

different levels to furnish varied choices for students to tap their potential learning

abilities in each subject. These modules are independent but logically linked to each

other; each with well-defined learning goals. Tables 1 and 2 illustrate compulsory and

elective modules of courses for biology as a subject in the field of study of science.

TABLE 1. Modules of compulsory courses

Compulsory Course I:

Molecules and cells

Compulsory Course II:

Heredity and evolution

Compulsory Course III:

Stability and environment

1. Molecular composition

of cells

1. Cellular foundation

of heredity

1. Hormone regulation

of plants

2. Structure of cells 2. Molecular foundation

of heredity

2. Regulation of animals�biological activities

3. Metabolism of cells 3. Basic rules of heredity 3. Internal environment and

steady state of human body

4. Proliferation of cells 4. Biological variation 4. Population and community

5. Disintegration, ageing

and demise of cells

5. Human hereditary diseases 5. Ecosystem

6. Evolution of living things 6. Eco-environment

Muju Zhu230


Mathematics as a field of study

Mathematics features five modules of compulsory courses and four series of elective

courses, totalling 21 course modules. Elective Series I is offered to students preparing

for further studies in humanities and social sciences; Elective Series II is designed to

groom students for future specialisation in science, engineering and economics; while

Elective Series III and IV are tailored for students who are interested and gifted in

mathematics.

Each academic year students are required to earn a certain amount of credits in each

field of study. In 3 years� time, they must earn a minimum of 144 credits to qualify for

graduation: 116 credits for compulsory courses, at least six credits for locally- and school-

based Elective Course II, as well as credits from State-mandated Elective Course I. While

altogether the students are required to earn 28 credits in elective courses, there are

elective courses available for schools offering a total of 73 credits.

The establishment of course modules makes the subject-centred curriculum more

open. This enables schools to shift their functions from obliging students to undertake

the coursework required of them to serving their needs through making their own

choices and pursuing individual development, and to restructure the logical framework

of courses by introducing topical affairs. These modules also prompt schools to set up

frameworks to help students select courses. In spite of difficulties in providing institu-

tional arrangements and experience, the establishment of elective courses and frameworks

for students to take what they want to learn gives schools autonomy in terms of offering

courses. As a result, school campuses are bustling with activity, and teachers are happy

about their newly gained space and opportunity for innovation in teaching. Most

importantly, with the hard-earned right to make their own choices, students have begun

to hold themselves accountable for what they are going to do in school.

TABLE 2. Modules of elective courses

Elective Course I:

Applications of biotechnology

Elective Course II:

Biological science

and society

Elective Course III:

Modern bioscience

and biotechnology

1. Utilisation of micro-organisms 1. Bioscience and agriculture 1. Genetic engineering

2. Utilisation of enzymes 2. Bioscience and industry 2. Cloning technology

3. Applications of biotechnology

in foodstuff processing

3. Bioscience and health 3. Embryonic engineering

4. Applications of biotechnology

in other fields

4. Bioscience and

environmental protection

4. Safety and ethnics issues

in biotechnology

5. Eco-engineering



Apply ing the new curr i cu lum: ph i lo sophy and prac t i c e

In the process of the 5-year curriculum reform, teachers came to realise the necessity and

urgency to apply ‘‘student-centredness’’ and ‘‘approaches by competencies’’ in the design

and execution of their teaching by emphasising situation, real issues, inquiry and

dialogue.

E X A M P L E I

In designing a science lesson on ‘‘the existence of force’’ for junior middle first-graders,

Wang Suhong of the Lianhua Middle School of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, gave

up the old way of doing things in which it was up to the teacher to design the lesson and

get the message across through laboratory presentation and instruction. Instead, she

encouraged her students to ask questions and make their own presentations. By giving

her students more opportunities to ponder and share their ideas among themselves, she

was able to present her instruction in line with the process of ‘‘from life to science and

from science to society’’. Later, Suhong said the experience had transformed her from a

pedagogue and controller of the learning process into a willing helper and guide for her

students. ‘‘My students� growing interest in learning, their spirit of participation and

strong desire to show their talent took me by surprise’’, she said. ‘‘They just used

everything at hand – balloons, pencils, desks, and even their own bodies – to show, in

convincing ways, that force does really exist’’ (Teaching Research Office, 2006).

E X A M P L E I I

In designing ‘‘Earthquake’’, a science lesson for junior middle first-graders, Su Jianmin of

the Haiwan Middle School, also of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, divided his students

into three groups to collect information on three relevant topics in after-school hours: the

major earthquake that razed the city of Tangshan, Heibei Province, to the ground in

1976; Zhang Heng3 and the seismograph he invented in A.D. 132; and the proper ways

of protecting one�s self and carrying out an evacuation in the event of an earthquake.

Each group was asked to finish its assignment within a week, compile detailed text and

illustrations, and prepare a presentation that was to last from 3 to 5 minutes (Figure 1).

Behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism were much analysed and criticised

while introducing the new curriculum. However, through the process of criticism and

practice, people began to realise the limitations of each school of thought while coming

to appreciate its advantages. The principle of behaviourism tends to judge learning

according to the mastery of competencies; the principle of cognition tends to observe

learning from increases in the general strategies for understanding and comprehending

concepts; and the situational principle tends to see learning from the practice of more

effective participation in questioning and dialogue. Evidence has shown that teachers will

not act mechanically just because they believe in a certain school of thought. Rather, they

will digest and incorporate these classical principles into classroom teaching.

Muju Zhu232


It is no easy task for teachers to carry out teaching reform in China. Their efforts are

subject to interference from all quarters. First, the country�s huge population obliges

middle and primary schools to enrol far more students in a class than their European and

American counterparts would do. In some cases, the number of students in a class reaches

80, and even in economically developed areas the average number of students per class

may be as high as 50. Second, traditional Chinese culture views teachers as intellectual

and moral authorities, and the teacher/student relationship is one in which the teacher is

to be revered by his students. Thus, for a teacher to maintain his/her dignity in front of

his students is not so much a matter of personal feelings as of cultural identity. Third,

severe competition for college and school entrance establishes the enrolment rate as the

sole benchmark for society and government in evaluating schools� teaching efficiency.

Nevertheless, we are heartened to see what happens in provinces where the new

curriculum is implemented on a trial basis. An atmosphere of mutual respect prevails in

During these processes, the teacher intervenes from time to time, summarizing and introducing the concepts concerning earthquakes, the geographical distribution of earthquake belts, and the causes behind them.

Summary, consolidation of what has been learned, and feedback

Homework: After-class research

The end

Group I reports on the information on the

Tangshan Earthquake, 1976, China

Videotape Show: Kobe Earthquake, 1995,

Japan

Students conduct the experiment as required on page 147 of the textbook, andsummarize the causes of an earthquake.

Group II reports on Zhang Heng and his seismograph, and read about the precursors and forecasting ofearthquakes.

Group III reports on self-protection and evacuation.

Courseware: A game that replicates an

earthquake scene.

Beginning

FIGURE 1. The teaching and learning process on the subject of ‘‘Earthquake’’.



the classroom, where the teacher is attentive to whatever questions the students have to

ask. The classroom is also becoming a community in which dialogue takes place among

students and between the teacher and his students. The teachers� role has evolved into

one of designing the classroom situations, engaging students� participation in classroom

interaction, cultivating new understanding, and monitoring the formation of students�personalities and learning strategies. However, this transformation calls for a profound

and long-term process, a process that is a part of the cultural metamorphosis of a society

in transition.

Conc lus ion

The design and implementation of a new curriculum invariably assumes the mission

entrusted to it by the era in which it finds itself. This article has touched upon some of

the issues involving the recent curriculum reform in China. For reasons of lack of space,

it has left unmentioned a number of major issues, such as teachers� professional devel-

opment, the organization and strategy to advance the curriculum reform, and trans-

formation of the evaluation and testing system. Nevertheless, what has been written in

this article suffices to show that the curriculum reform has provided an opportunity for

numerous families, schools and the public to become more concerned with the existence

and values of students as human beings, values that are not based exclusively on wealth,

power and other types of so-called happiness obtained through the utilitarian mastery of

book knowledge or through examination-room competition. Imbued with exuberant and

idealistic concepts, this reform has enabled the public to assess, in a critical way, the old

curriculum�s overly utilitarian and mundane structure. As John Dewey put it: ‘‘Educa-

tion, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living’’. By the same

token, how can one achieve a fabulous future at the expense of happiness in everyday life

while at school?

Notes

1. The author thanks Wang Yong and Wang Daoyu for their assistance in preparing this article.

2. The integrated practical activity courses [zonghe shijian huodongke] are compulsory courses

that include research-oriented learning, social practice, community service, ICT education

and hands-on labour skills.

3. Zhang Heng (A.D. 78–139), an astronomer of the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D. 25–220),

known for his invention of the seismograph.

References

CCCPC. 1999. Zhonggong zhongyang guowuyuan guanyu shenhua jiaoyu gaige quanmian tuijinsushi jiaoyu de jueding [Decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of

China and the State Council on Deepening Education Reform and Advancing Essential-

Qualities-Oriented Education in an All-Round Way]. Beijing: People�s Press.

Muju Zhu234


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