二次世界戰後，兒童就學率遽升，初中學校數不足，導致升學競爭激烈、惡性補習、教育與生活脫節的嚴重教育問題。教育部除逐步規劃延長國民教育方案外，於1953年起，指定臺灣省立臺北成功中學進行生活中心教育的實驗，期能找出解決為升學準備而偏重分數、灌輸零碎知識等中學教育缺失，並為延長國民教育後，滿足所有學生需要的課程內容做準備。試實驗雖因「省辦高中、縣辦初中」的政策而終止，但其不僅是臺灣引入國外新教育課程實驗的重要指標，前後達十一年的實驗紿驗，也成為高雄五福國中續辦實驗的基礎，為政府修訂國民中學課程標準，改進中學教育內容之重要參考。本文藉由歷史研究，探討其理念淵源和相關理念、實驗的重要過程與成果，藉以省思臺灣教育改革的相關問題，以為今日之警惕。

Abstract After World War II, the number of elementary school students dramatically increased, with insuffi cient capacity in junior high school. This has caused many problems, like keen competition for admission, cram schooling and misconnection between curriculum and real life, etc. In addition to the projects to extend the compulsory education and design new curriculum, the Ministry of Education entrusted the Taiwan Provincial Taipei Cheng Kung High School then with an experiment plan of life-centered education in 1953. It was hoped that the plan would develop measures to deal with the defects found in education, like over-emphasis on academic grades and entrance examination preparation, and implanting fragmentary knowledge. This plan continued for 11 years. It was a landmark of curriculum reform, and also laid the foundation for another project at Wu-Fu Junior High in Kaohsiung later. It provided very important information for education reform and junior high school curriculum revision. The purpose of this article is to investigate the ideas, purposes, and actual measures adopted in the plan so as to serve as reference in future educational reform endeavors.