The purpose of this paper is ⑴ to examine the nature of development education, ⑵ to trace the historical development of development education, ⑶ to analyze the achievement of development education, and finally, ⑷ to suggest the future direction of development education. Development education is a field of study which examines the relationship between education and national development; emphasizing the role of education in order to bring the maximum national development. Thus, in the perspective of development education, education is understood in terms of its social context, with a special reference to social relevance and efficiency of education. Development education has deep relationship with post-war world situation. After World War Ⅱ, when many new countries in. Africa and Asia emerged to the surface of the world stage, the problem of. modernization and national development attracted a worldwide attention. Many leaders of developing countries considered education as a fundamental means of modernization, and this resulted in the increasement of educational investment. Contrary to the general expectation, however, many developing countries, which increased educational investment, experienced massive unemployment of school graduates and political instability from youths’ frustration in the 1960's. This led to the new examination of the relationship between education and national development. Achievement of development education is remarkable. Their scholarly products may be summarized in the following way. The scholars in the 1960's tried to explore the scientific relationship between education and national development. They admitted the contribution of education to political development, economic growth, and to social development to a certain degree under a certain conditions. In examining the situations of the 1960’s and 1970’s, however, they found that education does not necessarily contribute .positively to development. Schools are sometimes dysfunctional. School leavers’ unemployment and frustration may cause political instability. If the school graduates cannot find suitable jobs, the thesis of “moreeducation-more national income” in Western societies is an argument under an “unwarranted and totally wrong assumption” in developing countries. Education may be socially used as a simple means to maintain the present social class system, not to foster social mobility in the social aspect. Although development education showed great advancement in exploring educationdevelopment relationship by social science approach, it has two important works to be done in the future. First, as an academic discipline, it must make a more efforts to formulate a systematic theory by empirical generalizations and laws about education and development. In doing so, it must integrate the fragmentary research findings produced by scholars of various fields such as political science, economics, sociology and psychology, so on. Secondly, as a practical subject, development education must seek a suitable form of education in order to bring maximum development. This includes the reexamination of educational purpose, curriculum, and teaching method.