Stuart’s Thoughts On Curriculum

In the first half of the 20 th century,Chinese society changed dramatically and western powers stepped up their aggression against China in order to turn China into their colony.Missionaries came to China as pioneers to preach and set up education,and missionary universities emerged quietly as a special educational institution.The missionary universities were different from the modern new-style universities which were founded on the idea of "Chinese style and western style" at that time.Yenching University,where John Leighton Stuart served as President,was one of the famous missionary universities at that time.John Leighton Stuart(1876-1962)was an American born in hangzhou county,zhejiang province,China.He grew up in a traditional American missionary family,but he lived and worked in China for 50 years.John Leighton Stuart has played many roles in his life.When he graduated from university,he returned to China to be a missionary.After his mission was blocked,he was employed as a professor of theology.In 1919,John Leighton Stuart was appointed as the President of Yenching University.In the past 27 years,Yenching University has been greatly improved and a large number of outstanding talents have been cultivated.Combined with the social background at that time,the development of the early church universities and Stuart’s personal growth experience,this paper systematically elaborated Stuart’s curriculum thought,and analyzed the reasons,connotation and reference significance of Stuart’s curriculum thought for today’s curriculum construction,so as to provide some enlightenment for the new curriculum reform.Literature,historical research and comparative research are mainly used.Focusing on Stuart’s educational achievements in Yenching University,this paper studies the reasons for the formation of Stuart’s curriculum thoughts through extensive collection and literature review.Combined with the curriculum practice of Yenching University at that time,the connotation of Leighton Stuart’s curriculum thought was summarized.At last,it puts forward the corresponding reference to the curriculum reform and construction of Chinese universities.This paper mainly includes four parts:The first part: introduction.This paper introduces the reason of topic selection,research status,research significance,research methods,and innovation of this research and the definition of core concepts.The second part: from the two aspects of social background and cultural education tradition,expounds the reasons for the formation of Stuart’s curriculum thought.In terms of social background,in the 1920 s and 1930 s,in order to turn China into a colony,the western powers stepped up their cultural aggression as well as their military,political and economic aggression.Under such circumstances,China’s missionary universities flourished,but with the upsurge of the May 4th movement,intellectuals realized the importance of the independent right of education.In this context,John Leighton Stuart aims to make Yenching University’s curriculum meet the needs of Chinese society and promote the development of Yenching University.In terms of individual cultural and educational tradition,Stuart was influenced by Chinese traditional thoughts and paid attention to the inheritance of Chinese traditional culture in the curriculum.John Leighton Stuart studied in the United States,and was influenced by the advanced educational thoughts of the west.John Leighton Stuart introduced the western credit course system and advanced educational ideas of general education into Yenching University,and carried out the curriculum construction of Yenching University.At the same time,the influence of Christian thought made Stuart weaken the religious atmosphere in the curriculum of Yenching University,give more consideration to social needs,and cultivate talents to serve the society.The third part: take Stuart Leighton’s curriculum practice in Yenching University as an example to analyze the connotation of Stuart Leighton’s curriculum thought.For the better development of Yenching University,Stuart separated religion from teaching in the curriculum,reduced students’ resistance,and designed and developed vocational courses to meet the needs of the society.At the same time,Leighton Stuart also opened new subjects,introduced tutorial system,attached importance to students’ sports and art activities,and established a complete credit course system in the curriculum practice,so as to promote the better realization of educational goals.In the aspect of recessive curriculum construction,Stuart exerts a subtle influence on students by creating a good school spirit,combiningChinese and western campus construction and building harmonious school interpersonal relationship.The fourth part: This paper analyzes the connotation of Stuart’s curriculum thought,and puts forward some Suggestions on the problems and shortcomings of curriculum construction in modern universities.The study of Stuart’s curriculum thoughts can not only enrich the study of missionary universities but also provide useful reference for the current curriculum reform.