1. Educational reforms promoted by the May 4th New Culture Movement (1) Restore the educational purposes of the early Republic of China, abolish Bible reading, and promote a democratic and scientific new education. After Yuan Shikai’s fall, Fan Yuanlian became the director-general of education. Expressed the need to earnestly implement the education policy announced in the first year. In September 1916, the Ministry of Education revoked the "Education Outline" promulgated in 1915. In October, the Ministry of Education promulgated the "Detailed Implementation Rules of the Elementary School Order", deleting "reading the Bible" and related content. In May 1917, the Constitutional Review Conference rejected the proposal to establish Confucianism as the state religion and revoked the clause in the 1913 draft constitution that "national education shall use the teachings of Confucius as the basis for self-cultivation." School teaching began to strengthen scientific education, attach importance to experimental assignments, and increase practical and vocational teaching content. The educational policy formulated in the early years of the Republic of China was realized to a certain extent. (2) Establishing the equal rights of men and women to education. While opposing old ethics and old morals, the New Culture Movement actively promoted ideas such as equality between men and women and the liberation of individuality. It advocated that men and women have equal rights to education and education, and advocated for male and female students. According to the academic system established in 1912, only elementary schools could have boys and girls together. By 1915, Yuan Shikai promulgated the "National School Today", which only allowed boys and girls to attend classes in the first and second grades of primary schools. In the third grade and above, boys and girls could only attend the same school. Not allowed to be in the same class. After the rise of the New Culture Movement, due to the influence of democratic ideas, the issue of equal rights for men and women in education was gradually solved. In October 1917, the third session of the National Federation of Educational Associations proposed a bill to the Ministry of Education to promote women's education, requesting the establishment of additional women's higher primary schools, women's middle schools, etc. In June 1918, the Ministry of Education, through various provinces and regions, took into account local conditions and handled the National Federation of Education Association's "Request to Promote Women's Education Case" respectively. In the summer of 1920, Peking University, chaired by Cai Yuanpei, admitted girls for the first time, and Nanjing Normal University also began to admit girls. After 1921, all universities admitted female students, and male and female students were admitted together. Although middle schools were relatively slow to implement co-educational education, some relatively progressive middle schools, such as the Provincial Middle School in Guangdong and the High School Affiliated to Beijing Higher Normal School, have also implemented the method of co-educating boys and girls, even in the same class. Although these measures are still far from achieving true equal education between men and women, they have largely changed the situation of inequality in education between men and women for more than two thousand years. They are a significant event in the history of China's educational development. (3) The New Culture Movement adopts Mandarin and vernacular Chinese in school teaching, advocating the use of vernacular Chinese instead of classical Chinese, and promoting new literature such as national literature, realistic literature, and social literature. Many excellent works have appeared, and many Chinese language teaching materials and extracurricular readings have been provided for school education. . As a result, people in the education sector strongly demanded that schools use Mandarin and vernacular Chinese in teaching. In October 1917, the annual meeting of the National Federation of Educational Associations resolved on the "Proposal to Promote the Phonetic Alphabet for Language Unification," requiring the Ministry of Education to quickly establish the standards for the Chinese language and to try to implement the phonetic alphabet in all provinces and regions to prepare for the future change of primary schools to Mandarin. In November 1918, the Ministry of Education officially announced the phonetic alphabet. At that time, in Beijing, the Confucius School founded by Cai Yuanpei and others compiled its own Mandarin textbooks, and Jiangsu Province passed the "Mandarin Teaching Case in Various Schools" on its own and began to use Mandarin textbooks. The "New Textbook" published by Zhonghua Book Company also uses some vernacular texts. Under this situation, the Ministry of Education issued an order in 1920 to change the Chinese language textbooks for the first and second grade of primary schools to the language style text, and stipulated that by 1922, all classical Chinese textbooks compiled in the old days would be abolished and changed to the language style text. Textbooks for various subjects in middle schools were gradually adapted to use colloquial texts, and lecture notes in colleges and universities also adopted colloquial texts. In this way, classical Chinese teaching materials in universities, middle schools and primary schools were gradually eliminated. This is a major reform in the history of Chinese education. (4) Restructuring of the University After Cai Yuanpei took over as the president of Peking University in 1917, he immediately began to reform Peking University.
He proposed a school-running policy that included grand ceremonies, recruited many scholars, free thought, and was inclusive; he hired famous scholars such as Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, and Li Siguang to teach at the school; he reformed preparatory courses, adjusted majors, and changed the academic system to a department system; Change the grade system to a selective subject system and implement a credit system; reform the school management system, set up a council, and implement democratic management; prepare for the establishment of research institutes, organize various research conferences, and encourage scientific research; first recruit girls and implement male and female students; adopt Vernacular lecture notes, helping students run publications, establish various societies, etc. These reforms have made Peking University ideologically active and new. The restructuring of Peking University aroused repercussions from higher education institutions across the country, and some of the practices were adopted at a meeting of principals of vocational schools in Beijing. Later, various universities gradually followed the system of Peking University. (5) The emergence of various educational trends and the establishment of various educational groups. Instigated by the democratic and scientific banner of the May 4th New Culture Movement, the educational circle is also very active, with the emergence of civilian education, work-study education, vocational education, and pragmatism education. and other progressive educational ideas, and established many educational groups. The main ones include the "Chinese Science Society" which was established in the United States in 1915 and moved back to China in 1918. In 1915, the "National Federation of Educational Associations" was composed of representatives of provincial education federations and special administrative region education associations. In 1917, it was composed of domestic education and practice associations. The "China Vocational Education Society" was initiated by well-known figures in the industry, the "China Education Improvement Society" was established in the winter of 1921 by the merger of the Practical Education Research Institute, the New Education Research Institute, and the New Education Editorial Office, and the "China Education Improvement Society" was established in 1923. Civilian Education Promotion Association" etc. These educational groups carried out educational reform movements from different aspects and responded to the 1922 academic reform. It had a great influence on the development of school education at that time. 2. Teaching reform experiments in the 1920s and 1930s (1) Trial implementation of intelligence tests and educational tests. Intelligence tests and educational tests are methods used to measure students' intelligence level, learning ability, and academic performance respectively. Originated in Europe and America, it was introduced to China during the May Fourth Movement. In 1918, Yu Ziyi, director of the Primary School Affiliated to the Jiangsu Provincial Normal University, compiled the "Brush Calligraphy Test", which was the beginning of the compilation of tests in China. In 1920, Liao Shicheng and Chen Heqin used intelligence tests to apply for students at Nanjing Higher Normal School. In 1922, McColl, a professor of educational psychology at Columbia University in the United States, came to China and collaborated with teachers and students from Southeast University and Beijing universities to compile about 30 types of intelligence and educational tests. Later, Lu Zhiwei revised the French Binet-Simon Scale, which finally included 65 tests. At the same time, intelligence tests and educational test experiments are held across the country. In 1923, the China Educational Improvement Society established a "Seminar on the Implementation of Educational Psychological Tests" within the society. In 1928, the China Vocational Education Society set up a testing department, and the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education set up the Jiangxi Children's Intelligence Test Bureau and held tests in Nanchang, Jiujiang and other places. In June 1931, the "China Testing Society" was established and issued a "Testing Magazine". However, due to “The expenditure was so detailed that the work could not be completed as scheduled” [1]. Later, activities in this area, except for the "Educational Testing and Statistics" courses in normal colleges, had already declined in the 1930s. (2) Promote design teaching method and experimental Dalton system. Design teaching method and Dalton system are both introduced as new child-centered teaching methods. The design teaching method was created by Kerberk, the director of the Department of Philosophy of Teacher Education at Columbia University in the United States, and others, and was imported into China in 1917. In 1921, the National Federation of Educational Associations passed a bill to promote design teaching in primary schools. In 1927, the China Educational Improvement Society invited Keboqu, the central figure in design teaching methods, to visit China. He gave lectures in Shanghai, Beijing and other places and vigorously introduced design teaching methods. This teaching method was quite popular for a while. At that time, the design teaching method experiments were mainly carried out in two forms: "large unit teaching in the homework center" without dividing subjects, and "design-based teaching method for each subject" divided into subjects. The Dalton System was created by American educator Burke Hurst at Dalton Middle School in Dalton City, USA. In 1922, China began to introduce the Dalton System. Shanghai Wuhu Middle School was the first to experiment with the Dalton system, and the experiment at the Middle School Affiliated to Southeast University is the most famous. According to statistics, by 1925, there were 57 primary and secondary schools across the country experimenting with this method. In 1925, Burkehurst came to China to give lectures, which expanded the influence of Daltonism.
In 1931, the American educator Hua Xupeng came to China and introduced the Wennate card system, which was a teaching system that mixed the Dalton system and the design teaching method. It was tried out in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau Primary School under the chairmanship of Chen Heqin at that time, and it was good for some schools. has had a certain impact on his teaching. (3) Changing the teaching method to the teaching method. Since the late Qing Dynasty, the issue of school teaching methods has been called the "teaching method". Tao Xingzhi first proposed changing the teaching method to teaching method at Nanjing Normal University. Tao Xingzhi believes that the teacher’s responsibility is not to teach, but to teach and teach students to learn. The method of teaching must be based on the method of learning. Teachers should teach and learn at the same time. It is not that just by selling some knowledge, they can sell it for life. Tao Xingzhi's view later developed into the "integration of teaching and doing" based on Dewey's teaching views. However, the question he raised at that time was a universal one. As a teaching law and scientific concept, "teaching method" can better reflect the essence of the teaching process than "teaching method", so it was accepted by the education circle. Since then, it has been The teaching method was renamed as "teaching method". In addition, some schools also carried out research on teaching methods in various subjects at this time. In 1927, each province and city established dedicated implementation schools, whose mission was clearly to experiment with new teaching methods. However, these experiments are relatively fragmented and the results are not significant. 3. The Rural Education Movement in the 1920s and 1930s (1) The Rural Improvement Experimental Area of ??the China Vocational Education Society The first person to propose dividing areas for experimental rural education was the China Vocational Education Society. In August 1925, Huang Yanpei proposed a "Shanxi District-based Pilot Rural Vocational Education Plan", and then the Vocational Education Society proposed a "Trial Rural Improvement Plan". The purpose is: "To use the power of education to improve general rural life and lay the foundation for the reform of the whole society." Among the 2i listed undertakings, the first is "to research and improve farming and promote experimental and effective farming methods." The second is “research to improve process efficiency”. Third, "promote compulsory education and make every effort to make all children, regardless of gender, attend school." The fourth is “to provide civilian education to the elderly and lost scholars” etc.[2]. In July 1926, Xugong Bridge in Kunshan on the Shanghai-Nanjing Line was chosen as the first trial area. The method is to establish a rural improvement association in Xugongqiao, which is divided into seven departments: general affairs, construction, agronomy, education, health, entertainment, and publicity, with a trial period of 6 years. Experiments began in 1928. The main tasks were: establishing an agronomic test site, setting up a display room for farm tools and agricultural products, distributing improved seeds, organizing credit cooperatives, lending low-interest loans to farmers, establishing public clinics, etc.; in terms of education, four public hospitals were established. Primary schools, 2 private primary schools, 2 mobile classrooms, open night schools (the teaching material is "Farmers' Thousand-Character Course", and additional knowledge of farmers, citizens, and rural creeds), as well as a reading room, motto boards, and open-air literacy and Lectures etc. The experiment was completed in 1934 and handed over to the local government for processing. In addition, China Vocational Education Society has also set up rural improvement experimental zones in Zhenjiang Huangxu, Wuxian Shanrenqiao, Shanghai suburbs and other places. In order to cultivate talents engaged in rural transformation work, the Vocational Education Society set up a training center in Xugongqiao. In the autumn of 1933, the Rural Service Specialty Course was founded in Qinghejing, western Shanghai, and the "Zhejiang Zhujiaqiao Rural Improvement Experimental School" was established in Zhujiaqiao, Yuyao County, Zhejiang. The Chinese Vocational Education Society's attempt to solve China's rural problems through rural improvement is of course a reformist fantasy. However, the rural improvement zone of the Vocational Education Society puts the development of production and rural economy first, and adopts the policy of "integrating politics and education". This is its unique feature. (2) Rural Normal College and Shanhai Engineering Group founded by Tao Xingzhi. In 1926, Tao Xingzhi drafted the "Declaration on Transforming National Rural Education" for the China Education Improvement Society, proposing: "Our new mission is to recruit one million comrades. , create one million schools, transform one million villages”, “together they will create a great new life for the Republic of China” [3]. In order to realize this ideal, Tao Xingzhi in 1927