The School of Education Science of Hunan Normal University is located near the beautiful peach lake, which is known as "the gateway of Hunan Normal University". The predecessor of the School, theeducation department of National Normal College, was founded in 1938. In 1995, under the overall arrangement of our university, the Department of Education merged with the Audio-visual Teaching Department to set up the School of Education Science of Hunan Normal University. And then, the Department of Education of Hunan EducationInstitute joined in it in 2000.
The School has five departments (Department of Education, Department of Psychology, Department of Preschool Education, Department of Educational Technology, and Department of Special Education), four research institutes(Institute of Education, Institute of Psychology, Institute of Curriculum and Teaching, and Institute of Higher Education), and one research center(Elementary Education Curriculum Reform Research Center of China's Education Ministry). The school offers seven different undergraduate majors (Education, Public Service Administration,Preschool Education, Educational Technology, Psychology, Applied Psychology, and Special Education), two master’s degree programs for first-level disciplines of education and psychology ( covers 13 master’s degree programs for second-level disciplines), one doctoral degree programs for first-level Education discipline, one doctoral degree programs for second-level psychology disciplines, one rotating post-doctoral posts of education, and one rotating post-doctoral posts of psychology. The Curriculum and Teaching is 211 Project national key discipline , the Education is national level characteristic major, the Psychology is provincial level characteristic major, both the Education and Psychology are the key disciplines of Hunan province. The " Teaching and Research Institute " was appraised as theexcellent teaching and research institute of Hunan province, the "Cognitive and Human Behavior Laboratory" is the key laboratory of Hunan province, the "Educational Science and Technology Laboratory " is the demonstration laboratory of basic courses in Hunan province.
Many famous educationist have been taught here. Mr. Liao Shicheng, the famous modern educationist and the founder of the National Normal College, is the first department director. Famous educationist Gao Jue, Liu Fonian, Zhu Youhuan, Yang Rongguo, Chen Xiaochan, Peng Zuzhi, Yang Jiben and so on, all of them have been taught here. Professor Zhang Chuting is the leader of Education discipline, who is known as "the most outstanding and most effective achievement schoolmaster in China today". At present, there are 97 full-time teachers in the school, including about 28 professors and 40 associate professors, 74 teachers with doctoral degree ,the proportion of senior teachers is 72%, 63 teachers with doctoral qualifications, accounting for 65% of the total number of teachers. Among the current teachers, there have one Hunan excellent social science experts, 2 Hunan young experts,2teachers enjoy the government's special allowances, 2 teachers are academic leaders of Hunan’s Universities, 13teachers are Hunan young backbone teachers. One teacher was selectedthe "New Century Talent Support Program of China's Education Ministry", 3 teachers were selected "Hunan Hundred People Project", 6 teachers were selectedthe “New Century121 Talent Project of Hunan province”.
The school gained a lot of achievements in teaching and scientific research. Academic research is considered to be the life of the school, reform is the motive force of the development of the School, and cultivating the characteristics of the discipline is the direction in the future. At present, there have 11 national level research projects are being carried out, 80 provincial and above level research projects, 7 research results were awarded by the national government, 20 research results were awarded by provincial government. There have 4 national top-quality courses, 4 provincial top-quality courses, 14 school top-quality courses. There have More than 2000 students, among them, about1100 graduate students and 900 undergraduate students, at least 60 students were awarded the National Awards.
There have many advanced facilities and academic exchanges with other schools in and out of the province. The School has a teaching building more than 10000 square meters, in which there are many teaching facilities, including Academic Report Hall, Microteaching Room, Multimedia Teaching, Educational Technology Laboratory, Psychological Laboratory, Teachers CAI Courseware Making Room, Natural Observation Room for Children, Physique Training Room, Art Education Room, Piano Practice Room, and a library information center with more than 30 thousand volumes of books, journals and magazines. In addition, the School pay attention to promote broad cooperation and exchange, having signed cooperative agreements with nearly 50 famous universities and research institutes at home and abroad , and exchanging students through cooperative programs. The School has more than 80 teaching practice bases distributing around the excellent primary, secondary schools and kindergartens of Hunan province. Up till now, the School also pay attention todevelop cooperative education with about 20 vocational colleges, and provide high quality education training for 10 other provinces.