A Comparative Study on the Values Education and Late Start Effects on Education in Asian Countries : A Review on the 'Catch-up Advanced Country' Policies

本研究旨在探讨文莱、不丹、新加坡、中国等亚洲国家的现代化和融入世界经济市场对教育制度和课程形成的发展过程和模式的所谓“迟起效应”。这些亚洲国家的教育在其政府为追赶发达经济体而制定的国家发展政策或愿景下经历了快速转型。本研究侧重于价值观教育，包括道德教育、公民教育、宗教教育和思想教育，与少数民族对价值观和要素的接受程度有关。在该项目下，1998年10月访问了中国人民共和国，1999年7月访问了文莱达鲁萨兰国。在不同研究项目下访问的新加坡和不丹的情况也提供了类似的信息。本研究发现，在文莱、不丹和中国学校的正式和课外活动中，价值观教育的引入存在一些共同的模式。他们将宗教/意识形态价值观、对国王/执政党的取向和文化/民族因素纳入单一主题--价值观教育。这可以理解为国家起步晚的影响的一部分。新兴发展中国家和现代化国家可能需要一个强大的国家离心式象征，以增强其政治和经济凝聚力，这构成了其价值观教育的核心。由于这一标志不可避免地需要对他们的宗教/意识形态和民族/政治传统进行教育，因此课程倾向于进行一体式的价值观教育。

This study is aiming at examining the so called 'late start effects' of modernization and involvement into the world economic market of the Asian countries like Brunei, Bhutan, Singapore, People's Republic of China, on the process and patterns of development of education system and curriculum formation. Education of these Asian countries undergo fast transformation under the national development policies or visions being set forth by their government seeking to catch up developed economies. This study puts focus on the values education, including moral, citizenship, religious and ideological education, in a relation to the level of acceptance of values and elements of minorities. Two visits were made under this project to People's Republic of China in October 1998 and to Brunei Darussalam in July 1999. A comparable information was also given from the Singapore and Bhutan situations where I visited under different research projects.This study revealed that some common pattern of introduction of values education exists in the formal and extra curricula activities in the schools in Brunei, Bhutan and China. They put religious/ideological values, orientations to the King/ruling party and cultural/ethnic elements into single subject, values education. This can be understood as a part of result of the late start effects of the countries. Newly developing and modernizing countries may need a strong centrifugal symbol of the country for their political and economic cohesion which forms core of their values education. Since this symbol inevitably requires education of their religion/ideology and ethnic/political tradition, curriculum tends to have 'all-in-one type' of values education.