Biology Teacher Preparation in the People's Republic of China

Abstract

Paul DeHart Hurd was leader of the U. S. delegation on science education to the People's Republic of China in 1979 he is Professor Emeritus of Education, and currently a Fellow in the Stanford Northeast Asia-United States Forum on International Policy Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. Edward J. Kormnondy was a member of the U.S. delegation on education research to the People's Republic of China in 1980; he is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Profeso of 1 Biology, Califrni STat Un vest-os Angeles, CA 90032 This a ..icl isbae o heosevainsmdeb t h auhos dur in[tei trips. . . In earlier articles, Hurd (1981a and b) described biology education and Kormondy (1982) described higher education in the People's Republic of China. This article focuses specifically on the preparation of secondary school teachers of biology. That preparation is specific to biology only in the portion of the curriculum that involves courses in the biological sciences and is otherwise identical to that for teachers of other middle (=secondary in the U.S.) school subjects. Secondary school biology teachers in China are educated in teacher universities, normal universities, normal colleges, or teacher institutes. Teacher institutes and normal universities also train teachers for the normal colleges and institutes. In key universities such as Beijing Normal University and Shanghai Normal University, there are graduate programs in education as well as educational institutes. Compared with other types of universities, institutions for teachers offer only limited programs in research in the sciences. For example, Shanghai Normal University has research programs in environmental science, cell biology, and studies of the brain, and Beijing Normal University focuses on low energy physics. Teacher education is the central activity of a normal or teacher university.