A Comparison of the Chinese and American Undergraduate Syllabi in Regard to Their Content and Style

DOI

10.2991/icmess-17.2017.55How to use a DOI?

Keywords

syllabus components; syllabus style; course syllabus; undergraduate syllabus; comparison of syllabi

Abstract

This paper aims to compare the Chinese and American syllabi for undergraduates in regard to their content and style. 36 syllabi of various majors in different universities were collected and compared. It was found that the common components in both Chinese and American syllabi are heading, course introduction, course aim, course requirements, textbook, course plan, teaching methods, homework and assessment, etc. The special components for American syllabi are academic integrity and course evaluation. As for style, the American syllabi are more self-contained and resourceful than their counterparts. With higher standards, they are also more specific, operational and practical. Their teaching methods are more flexible and interactive. Their assessments are various, evenly distributing through the whole semester while the Chinese syllabi depend more on the final exam. The American undergraduate syllabi are more morality-oriented while their Chinese counterparts are more skill-driven.

Copyright

© 2017, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhencong Liu
AU  - Tong Jia
PY  - 2017/06
DA  - 2017/06
TI  - A Comparison of the Chinese and American Undergraduate Syllabi in Regard to Their Content and Style
BT  - Proceedings of the 2017 International Conference on Management, Education and Social Science (ICMESS 2017)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 228
EP  - 234
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icmess-17.2017.55
DO  - 10.2991/icmess-17.2017.55
ID  - Liu2017/06
ER  -