通识教育是高等教育的一种理论和实践，侧重于学生获取知识的方法，关注学生的价值判断能力和正确的人生观。把培养学生成为完整的个人、负责任的社会公民作为其教育目标。一个人接受了完整的大学教育，也就是其既接受了通识教育，也接受了专业教育，二者是不可分割的。通识教育在培养大学人才中有着很重要的作用，所以世界上有许多大学都在积极地探索怎么有效地实施通识教育。而在这一方面，哥伦比亚大学积累了丰富且宝贵的经验教训。 自1919年开设当代文明课程起，至今已有百年之久，从雏形发展为一套完备课程体系的规模，历史悠久，对美国和世界其他各国的通识教育产生了深远影响。哥伦比亚大学通过核心课程的实施来落实其通识教育理念，然后达到“塑造全人”的目的。本文在查阅哥伦比亚大学核心课程一手文献和相关研究的基础上，采用历史研究法和文献分析法对哥伦比亚大学核心课程变革发展过程进行研究，以期动态呈现哥伦比亚大学如何因应时代变化，以及课程自身发展的要求，及时调整完善课程体系，从而形成独具特色的核心课程体系。 本文认为，哥伦比亚大学开设核心课程是内部的和外部两方面因素一起发挥作用的结果。从内部来说，是哥伦比亚学院的推动；从外部环境来看，就是第一次世界大战的直接推动。一战的爆发，使哥伦比亚大学的一些教职员意识到，他们的新生缺乏文化与知识根底，以致于无法妥适地迎接第一次世界大战带来的政治与意识形态挑战。为了回应学生的这种无知，哥伦比亚大学为学生提供当代文明课程，以让他们了解所处的物质环境与社会环境，从而能够凭借所学知识进行自我判断，并以合适的角色参与当时的文明化过程。在20世纪30年代的时候，教职员又面临学生文学无知的问题，随后哥伦比亚大学就开设了人文学科课程。当代文明课程和人文学科课程是哥伦比亚大学核心课程的两大支柱，其开设之后经历了一系列变革，在20世纪40年代基本建立了完备的核心课程体系。到了20世纪60年代，美国社会动荡不安，哥伦比亚大学核心课程遭受了一系列冲击。哥伦比亚大学及时作出调整，从而克服了危机。 本文通过对哥伦比亚大学核心课程发展历史的考察，发现哥伦比亚大学核心课程建立与改革的时期和美国大学通识教育的形成和体系化的时期基本属于同一时期。1945年哈佛大学委员会发表的《自由社会中的通识教育》报告，使美国大学的通识教育变得理论化和体系化。通过对哥伦比亚大学核心课程的考察，可以发现二者有着一脉相承的关系。可以说，哥伦比亚大学核心课程是美国大学通识教育形成与体系化过程中的一次重要实践，为美国大学通识教育的发展积累了宝贵的经验。

General education is a theory and practice of higher education. It focuses on students' methods of acquiring knowledge, paying attention to students' value judgment ability and correct outlook on life. It is the educational goal to train students to become complete individual and responsible social citizens. To say that a person has received a complete university education, he must accept general education and professional education, and the two are inseparable. General education plays an important role in cultivating university talents, so many universities around the world are actively exploring how to effectively implement general education. In this respect, Columbia University has accumulated rich and valuable lessons. Columbia University has long been known for its core curriculum. Since the opening of the contemporary civilized curriculum in 1919, it has been a long-standing development from a prototype to a complete curriculum system with a long history, which has had a profound impact on the general education of the United States and other countries in the world. Columbia University implements its general education philosophy through the implementation of the core curriculum, and then achieves the goal of “shaping the whole person”. Based on the first-hand literature and related research of Columbia University's core curriculum, this paper studies the development process of Columbia University's core curriculum by using historical research method and literature analysis method, in order to dynamically show how Columbia University responds to the changes of the times and the development of the curriculum itself. Requirement, timely adjustment and improvement of the curriculum system, thus forming a unique core curriculum system. This paper argues that Columbia University's core curriculum is the result of both internal and external factors. Internally, it is the promotion of Columbia College; from the external environment, it is the direct driving of the First World War. The outbreak of World War I made some faculty members of Columbia University realize that their new students lacked the cultural and intellectual roots, so that they could not properly meet the political and ideological challenges brought about by the First World War. In response to this ignorance of students, Columbia University offers students a contemporary civilized curriculum that allows them to understand the physical and social environment in which they live, so that they can judge themselves by their knowledge and participate in the civilization at the time with appropriate roles. Process. In the 1930s, faculty members faced the problem of ignorance of student literature, and Columbia University opened a humanities course. The contemporary civilized curriculum and the humanities curriculum are the two pillars of the core curriculum of Columbia University. After the opening of the course, they experienced a series of changes. In the 1940s, a complete core curriculum system was established. In the 1960s, American society was in turmoil, and Columbia University’s core curriculum suffered a series of shocks. Columbia University made timely adjustments to overcome the crisis. Through the investigation of the history of the core curriculum development of Columbia University, this paper finds that the period of the establishment and reform of the core curriculum of Columbia University and the formation and systemization of the general education of American universities are basically in the same period. In 1945, the Harvard University Committee's "General Education in a Free Society" report made the general education of American universities theoretical and systematic. Through an examination of the core curriculum of Columbia University, we can see that there is a continuous relationship between the two. It can be said that the core curriculum of Columbia University is an important practice in the formation and systemization of American university general education, and has accumulated valuable experience for the development of American university general education.