General education itself originated in19th century. At that time, many European and American scholars thought that the academic disciplines of modern universities were too specialized and their knowledge was seriously divided, so they founded general education, with the aim of cultivating students to think independently and have knowledge of different disciplines, so that they could master different knowledge, with the ultimate goal of cultivating complete and complete people. Since the 20th century, general education has become a compulsory subject in European and American universities.
Extended data:
The nature of general education determines the rationality of the existence of general education. However, the neglect of general education in the current education system and a series of social problems caused by it increasingly show the necessity of general education. The necessity of general education in higher education is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
1, cultural conflicts and collisions brought about by the globalization trend urgently require general education in universities. With the rapid development of social economy, the whole world is becoming more and more integrated. In the process of integration, first of all, we will encounter a very thorny problem, which is the conflict and collision between different cultures.
2. The long-term specialized education mode of China University urgently calls for the emergence of general education in universities. Specialized education mode is the choice of higher education in China in a specific period and social background. Although this choice was reasonable at that time and played a positive role in the social development of China, its defects were obvious. Too much emphasis on the division of majors and limiting students' learning to narrow knowledge fields is not conducive to students' all-round development.
Baidu encyclopedia-general education