國小兒童自治活動，由最早是小學訓育實施的一種訓練方法，漸進為國民學校公民訓練的團體活動、團體指導的方法之一，民國五十一年轉進為國民學校增訂之團體活動課程中的一大類，至民國六十四年國民小學團體活動課程標準所示，兒童自治活動與各項分組社團活動平分秋色，使團體活動課程之實施與發展，顯現三個不同的階段。第一階段公民訓練時期的兒童自治，教師的指導訓練多於兒童的自主自治，個人的行為表現重於團體組織活動，事後批評檢討多於事前設計規劃。第二階段過渡時期，公民訓練與團體活動並行的兒童自治，教師由指導說明漸轉為輔導鼓勵，由重視個人行為結果漸進為重視團隊執行工作，兒童在團體組織完成後可獲得自主自治，而漸成為教師工作或活動的助手。第三階段社團活動時期的兒童自治，中高年級兒童同時參與級會及分組活動社團兩類組織與活動，教師之指導以過程重於結果，事前策劃重於事後批評，重視每位兒童之民主生活習慣和態度。是為今日國民教育中不可缺少的群育課程。

The demand of democracy and progressive education, which place students in the hub of educational activities, has brought students' self-governing activity to a place of prominence in Chinese education. This study, set to review its historical development, has two purposes. One is intending to tackle a histori-cal understanding of the activity concerned; the other is trying to draw inspirations from the past so as to shed new light on current educational practices. There are four parts in this study. The first part concentrates on the curriculum objectives of children's self-governing activity in the last 40 years. The secon□ part focuses on the content of the activity that had been devised according t□ the declared curriculum objectives. The third part pays attention to the concrete measures taken to conduct the self-governing activity of children in school con-text. In the final part, a holistic perspective is taken to examine the different stages of the development of the activity in the last four decades.