Preschool education curriculum is an important factor to achieve the goals of preschool education, and it is the intermediary to implement the goals of preschool education to every child. It directly affects the quality of preschool education and the healthy development of children's body and mind, and will have an important impact on children's life. The development of preschool education curriculum is an important part of the development of preschool education. As Wang Chunyan scholars said, "It has been a hundred years since the first preschool education institution in China was born in 1903. Throughout the development history of this century, it can be clearly seen that the development and reform of preschool curriculum is a main line that runs through the development of preschool education for a hundred years. "

First, the development stage of preschool education curriculum in China

1.Before 1930s: from birth to China. At the beginning of the 20th century, kindergartens in China began to be established. At this time, the early childhood education is copying foreign models, and the curriculum is completely imitating foreign models. 1903 to 19 18 preschool education curriculum mainly imitates the Japanese model. 1904 65438+1October 13 China's first pre-school education regulation "Formulating the Constitution of Children's Home and Family Education Law" was promulgated, in which Children's Home's curriculum objectives, curriculum contents and teaching methods were specified in detail, but its main content was Japanese "Kindergarten Care" promulgated in 1899.

19 19 After the May 4th New Culture Movement, advanced western educational ideas poured in. Early childhood educators in China, such as Chen Heqin, Tao Xingzhi and Zhang Xuemen, on the one hand, borrowed western ideas, on the other hand, explored localization, put forward many new ideas, and formed curriculum models such as "unit-centered curriculum" and "behavior curriculum". From 1932 to 10, the government of the Republic of China officially promulgated the first curriculum standard in the history of preschool education, which opened a new era of preschool education curriculum in China and ushered in the first peak and reform period of preschool education curriculum development in China. From the 1920s to 1930s, the kindergarten curriculum reform theoretically confirmed children's dominant position, and determined that kindergarten curriculum should come from children's daily life. At this time, the scope of kindergarten curriculum content has been relatively extensive and practical. In addition, the China and scientific kindergarten curriculum has always been the theme of curriculum reform.

2. 1950s to mid-1960s: Learn from the Soviet Union and develop through exploration. After the founding of New China, the government developed new preschool education on the basis of learning from the experience of preschool education in the old areas. Influenced by political factors, preschool education in this period is a model of comprehensive study of the Soviet Union. Under the guidance of Soviet experts, the Ministry of Education formulated the Provisional Regulations on Kindergarten and the Provisional Education Outline of Kindergarten in 1952, which stipulated that the preschool education curriculum includes six subjects: physical education, language, understanding the environment, cartography, music and calculation, and clearly defined the specific subjects and education outlines of each subject.

In 1950s, the most remarkable feature of kindergarten curriculum reform in China was to use the experience of Soviet Union for reference and implement the subject teaching and subject curriculum model. Since the introduction of China, subject teaching has been fully developed. It can be said that the subject-based curriculum model at this stage initially laid the pattern of preschool education curriculum in New China.

3. sixties and seventies: suffered serious setbacks. From 1966 to 1976, the "Cultural Revolution" dealt a great blow to education in China, and the development of education was basically at a standstill, as was preschool education. The order of preschool curriculum is chaotic, and even the original curriculum system has been seriously damaged, which is a blank period for the development of preschool education curriculum.

4. Since 1980s (1976 to present): further reform and improvement. After 10 years of turmoil, education in China has been fully restored since 1976. From 1976 to 1990, the development of preschool education curriculum changed from the Soviet-style model to the initial reform stage, especially the promulgation of 198 1 year, which promoted the reform of preschool education curriculum. In 1980s, various foreign theories about children's development and education were gradually introduced into China, especially the ideas of Montessori, Dewey, Bruner and Piaget were widely spread in China, which had a great influence on the curriculum concept of preschool education in China.

Since 1990s, China's preschool education curriculum has been reformed as a whole. In the early 1990s, "the theme of preschool curriculum reform became more distinct, and many curriculum practices appeared, such as game curriculum, emotion curriculum, domain curriculum, survival curriculum, Shanghai new curriculum and so on." In the late 1990s, with the strengthening of international communication, the curriculum reform of preschool education showed a trend of diversification and individualization. In short, after the 1990s, the intensity and scope of preschool education curriculum reform have gradually expanded, and the situation of preschool education curriculum research has also taken shape.

Second, the overall characteristics of the history of preschool education curriculum development in China

1. Reform and development will always be a main line. Throughout the development history of preschool education curriculum in China, preschool education curriculum has developed steadily from scratch, from completely copying foreign models to preliminary exploration and independent exploration in China. In the development of preschool education in China, there are mainly three kindergarten curriculum reforms, which occurred in the 1920s to 1930s, 1950s and 1980s respectively. Especially since 1980s, China has implemented the reform and opening-up policy, which has greatly promoted the kindergarten curriculum reform. 1989 The State promulgated the Working Rules for Kindergartens (for Trial Implementation), which was revised and officially promulgated in 1996 after seven years of trial implementation. Its content "embodies the spirit of preschool education facing the world, the future and modernization". 200 1 The Ministry of Education promulgated the Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education (Trial), which provides macro guidance to kindergarten education including kindergarten curriculum at the national level, stipulates the overall educational objectives, educational contents and implementation principles of kindergarten education, and requires local governments to formulate corresponding guiding opinions. On this basis, kindergartens can determine the curriculum according to their own needs. In terms of curriculum content, the Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education (Trial) does not make uniform provisions, but the document takes five fields of "health, language, society, science and art" as examples to explain the curriculum objectives, contents, requirements and guiding points respectively. It is in this curriculum reform that the curriculum system of preschool education is becoming more and more perfect.

2. From copying foreign experience to gradually changing China. At the beginning of the 20th century, China's preschool education curriculum achieved a breakthrough from scratch by simply copying foreign countries. For example, "from the content and methods of education to facilities and toys, we must imitate Japan first, and then imitate the West." Imitation is also an important learning method, so this kind of reference has promoted the development of preschool education curriculum in China to a certain extent, but it is inevitable that it will not achieve rapid development if it is completely copied in a "model" way without considering China's national conditions. Especially when referring to the Japanese preschool education curriculum, it is simply transplanted without considering the differences between China and Japan. By the 1920s, the development of preschool education curriculum in China had broken through the model of copying foreign experience. Under the background of the May 4th New Culture Movement, Dewey's ideas were introduced, and the older generation of preschool educators in China have realized the disadvantages of copying foreign models. On the one hand, they draw lessons from western educational ideas, on the other hand, they combine the reality of China to explore localization. For example, 1925, Chen Heqin suggested that kindergarten curriculum should pay attention to nature and society and implement unit teaching, that is, "unit-centered curriculum"; According to Dewey's thought that "education is growth", Zhang Xuemen conducted a research on "behavior curriculum", which are all important achievements in the exploration of localization of preschool curriculum. In the 1980s and 1990s, international academic exchanges became increasingly frequent. On the basis of inheriting predecessors' experience and absorbing foreign ideas, China preschool education curriculum has been further localized and absorbed in educational practice, and the development of preschool education curriculum has entered a brand-new stage.

3. Change from subject courses to diversified courses. China was deeply influenced by the pre-school curriculum model of the Soviet Union in 1950s and 1960s, and the subject-specific curriculum has always occupied a deep-rooted position. Since the start of a new round of curriculum reform in 1980s, people have deeply realized that the subject-based curriculum has overemphasized the knowledge and skills of a single subject, neglected the internal relations among various subjects, and even neglected children's own activities and direct experience. Therefore, comprehensive theme education in kindergartens is sought after, and theme courses are gradually emerging. In addition, under the guidance of different educational theories, activity courses, game courses and domain courses have also risen simultaneously, and the diversified pattern of preschool education courses has taken shape. Especially since 1980s, the value orientation of preschool education curriculum has shown a diversified trend. Kindergarten curriculum arrangement does not follow the principle of "universal application", but fully respects the differences of kindergarten curriculum in different regions, because the curriculum adopted by kindergartens in economically developed areas is usually not suitable for kindergartens in poor areas. In addition, some ethnic minority areas have also opened some courses with ethnic characteristics, especially the application of ethnic minority games in kindergarten activity classes, which greatly enriched the content of preschool education courses in China. The diversification of preschool education curriculum is to provide suitable courses for different groups of children, which reflects the concept of educational equity to some extent. The diversified orientation of preschool education curriculum has become an inevitable trend of preschool education curriculum development.