| The specialized agency of early childhood education has been developing for more than a century since the opening of Wuchang kindergarten in Hubei province in1903. As a part of the educational system, the Chinese preschool education program was officially established in1922, and this event opens up the modernization of Chinese early childhood educational system."The Standard of Kindergarten Curriculum" issued in1932was the first curriculum document in China. It also marks the first success of curriculum reform regarding the Chinese preschool education. That is to say, the development of Chinese preschool education is closely connected with the reform of kindergarten curriculum. Basically, any educational reform can be the reform of curriculum, and every curriculum reform is a choice of value for curriculum. Therefore, curriculum orientation is very significant in researching the history of the reform of Chinese kindergarten curriculum.Based on the history of curriculum value orientation as the main clue, this paper studies the development and changes of preschool curriculum in the modernization of Chinese early childhood education, in order to clarify the value orientation, the historical trend and the effective factors of preschool curriculum in different periods in the modernization process of Chinese preschool education, and to provide advices for the current reform of kindergarten curriculum.According to the research purpose and content, this paper uses literature analysis, historical comparison, and content analysis as the main research methods. Content analysis method is mainly used for the value analysis of the kindergarten curriculum standard and textbook. Quantitative content analysis is given priority to and supplemented by qualitative content analysis method.The paper is consisted of ten parts:The introduction part mainly elaborates on the background of the topic, the main content, the significance, and the innovation of the research, with literature review and research design.The first part of the present paper traces the historical sources of Chinese kindergarten curriculum value orientation in the past century by considering the Chinese traditional thought on preschool or primary school as the origins of the change of the kindergarten curriculum value orientation and taking the emergence of the new-style early childhood education and the shift of preschool curriculum value orientation in the early20th century as the historical turning point of the Chinese kindergarten curriculum value orientation.From the second part to the seventh part, the paper respectively discusses the background, formation and characterization of Chinese preschool curriculum value orientation in different historical periods, which refer to:"the unit center system" course period during the republic of China,"the differentiated course plan as used by the Soviet Union" at the beginning of the newly founded PRC period,"the revolution style" course period during the Cultural Revolution,"the compile for universal use teaching material" in the early1980s,"the field curriculum" period of1990s, and "the activity experience curriculum" period after the early childhood education guidelines issued in2001. The background of the course value is elaborated from political ideological, cultural ecology, basic theoretical trends of education, and the national education policy. Value formation is roughly discussed in the aspects of the research results of preschool curriculum theory from domestic academia, the reform and experiment of kindergarten curriculum, etc. Value representation is a content analysis based on the course documents and representative kindergarten textbooks in every period, including the value orientation and the narrating manner of curriculum goal, the choice orientation of curriculum content, the value orientation of the text books, the organizational form of curriculum and the teaching mode, etc.Based on the research results of kindergarten curriculum value orientation in the six periods, the eighth part of the present paper longitudinally compares the development of the curriculum value orientation in different periods and presents its changing state by using graph and other forms. The following conclusions will be reached through comparative analysis:(1) the change of the kindergarten curriculum goal orientation shows the following trends:first, the relationship between several value orientations sways from "the harmony" of "the unit center system" period, to "the harmony" once again up to now. Second, in several kinds of goal orientation, the "value indoctrination" presents the most dramatic ups and downs; the "basic knowledge and skills" presents the most stable changing status. Third,"value indoctrination" and "ability learning" present a game playing state in different periods, while the changing status of the "ability learning" and the "basic knowledge and skills" has convergence. Fourth, the value orientation of "self-actualization" basically shows a trend of continuously rising, except in the Cultural Revolution period.(2) The narrating manner of the curriculum target more highlights ideographic goal and the subject of children.(3) On the choice orientation of kindergarten curriculum content, it tends to value harmony, that is to say, it emphasized the richness and compatibility of the content sources.(4) Variations in the models of teaching appear to be related with the organization form of curriculum, and tend to flexibility and diversity.(5) The value orientation of textbook shows the following characteristics:first, value related stories have been in the dominant place, but non-value related stories are in a rising trend. Second, the "moral value" textbook is basically in absolute dominance, while ideological education showed a gradually reducing trend since the reform and opening up. The proportion of the value orientation of natural ecological education, scientific value and humanistic spirit accounts for less, but in slowly growing trends. Thirdly, since the reform and opening up, the moral value orientation tended to focus on personal moral traits and the focus of ideological orientation moves from the "leader" to the "love for the country and the people." Fourth, the characters in the textbooks presents richness and balance of role types in the stories, highlighting children’s image, subtracting the consciousness of "honoring men" and elite, etc.(6) On the types of course organization, the organization orientation of kindergarten curriculum in China has been essentially belonged to the discipline, and the difference lies only in the single subject or the blending of subjects, and discipline curriculum or activity curriculum.Based on the historical analysis, part nine is a summary and reflection of the historical flowing deformation trend:first it summarized the overall characteristics of the flowing deformation of preschool curriculum value orientation in China:the traditional thought of preschool or primary school is a cultural undercurrent influencing Chinese kindergarten curriculum value orientation. The trends of education theory are the indicator of the change in Chinese kindergarten curriculum value orientation. Strength and breadth of curriculum experiment determines the scientificalness for kindergarten curriculum value orientation. Spirit of the age is always obvious in the flowing deformation of kindergarten curriculum value orientation. The value orientation of Chinese kindergarten curriculum is showing the trend of "harmony" through one hundred years’flowing deformation.Reflection includes four aspects:first, based on the influence factor of kindergarten curriculum, on the political relationship with the early childhood curriculum value orientation the present paper puts forward the view that the kindergarten curriculum value orientation should be detached from politics, thus keeping the tension between politics and the kindergarten curriculum value. On the relationship between culture and the kindergarten curriculum, the paper suggests that attention should be paid to the value and significance of the traditional and the new cultures for the kindergarten curriculum. According to the essence attributes of kindergarten curriculum and the local "situation," harmony should be built between the "still water" and the "wave", thus forming the "living water." For the relationship between foreign education theory and local course experiment, this paper proposes to build indigenous early childhood education theory based on local kindergarten courses, in order to keep the stability and sustainability of the curriculum value orientation. The second aspect is about the reflection of "what should be taught in kindergarten", including the reflection on the fate of traditional knowledge. It puts forward that traditional knowledge should be treated correctly, in order to establish the scientific view of the knowledge value in kindergarten curriculum. The reflection of "what should be taught" also aimed at the problem of shortage of humanistic spirit, and it proposed to strengthen the humanistic spirit education in early childhood education by taking "the little girl at the window" as a classic example to illustrate the connotation of humanistic spirit, which refers to "truth, goodness and beauty." The third aspect is the reflection on several opposite orientations in the kindergarten curriculum value system, it pointed that the different orientations should be treated dialectically to build the "harmony" curriculum values. The last aspect, based on the reflection of the thinking mode of "binary opposition" in kindergarten curriculum value, argues to break the dualism and to build the point of view on kindergarten curriculum value system according to the development of children. |
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