Designed by the Editorial Board

Wrote by Chen Yan, Zhang Jinying

From late 1970s to early 1990s, secondary vocational education in China welcomed a period of comprehensive recovery and fast development.

From middle and late 1990s, secondary vocational education in China underwent distribution restructuring and steady development.

Since the 21st century, secondary vocational education in China has completed its initial historic transformation and entered a new phase of connotation development.

The development of secondary vocational education in Hangzhou not only represents the education of the same type in Hangzhou, but also epitomizes the secondary vocational education nationwide.

The breakthrough and emphasis of connotation development of secondary vocational education has been confirmed as the curriculum reform in the new period. Reforms, conducted on various fields like curriculum thoughts, curriculum development, course programming, course evaluation and course management, are a long-term and systematic project, which will have a direct bearing on the sustainable development of secondary vocational education.

In 2008, the “Opinions on Further Deepening Teaching Reform of Secondary Vocational Education” and the “Guidance on Pressing Ahead with Curriculum Reform of Secondary Vocational Education” were issued respectively by the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education of Zhejiang Province.

The reform has transformed from the stage of “spontaneous exploration, standardized setting and independent practice” which takes the regional textbook compilation as the main approach, the specialized teaching plan as the focus and the practice of curriculum reform as the major form to the stage of “diversified promotion and gradual advancement” which is mainly based on the professional qualification standard.

The transformation has been realized from “three-step” curriculum mode and clustered curriculum mode of “wide basis and flexible models” to the curriculum mode of “taking vocational capability as the basis, vocational practice as the major link and project curriculum as the main part”.

The systematic and updated curriculum standard and structure should be established which can match the progress of modern industries and meet diversified demands of the society for secondary vocational education. The teaching standard and education quality of regional secondary vocational education should be promoted to lay a solid foundation for the rejuvenation of the city and the province through the development of vocational education.

All the reforms in secondary vocational education will influence and result in curriculum reform. The practice in Hangzhou has provided a practice sample for reference as well as a case for theoretical reflection.（Annex）