Contemporary European and American educational thoughts
The fifties and sixties was an important turning point in the development of western capitalism, as well as in the development of western education. The theory of human capital and the theory of functionalism education have been put forward one after another, and the education investment fever has swept the west and the third world countries. However, the economic development in the 1970s showed that education investment did not bring economic prosperity, and hope turned into disappointment, and disappointment turned into a comprehensive investigation of the real education system and a reflection on the history of western education. The main ideological trend introduced in this section is the product of this kind of investigation and reflection.
The contemporary western educational thoughts involved in this part include existentialism, new behaviorism, structuralism, analytical educational philosophy, lifelong education and humanistic education.
1. Existentialist educational thought is consistent with the emergence and development of existentialist philosophy. Existentialist education thought and practice first appeared in Europe before World War I, such as Nietzsche's On the Future of German Education System and Somerset School founded by 1926, but it was after World War II that existentialist education thought had a great influence on education theory and practice.
Existentialism itself contains an educational thought. This educational thought includes two aspects: on the one hand, existentialism fundamentally opposes education, especially hates and denies existing school education; On the other hand, existentialism puts forward a unique view of education. Only by combining these two aspects can we fully understand the existential educational thought.
1. Denying school education First of all, it emphasizes the opposition between individual uniqueness and freedom and the socialization function of education.
Existentialism insists on the irreconcilable opposition between individual uniqueness, freedom and educational socialization function. They insist that schools should be abolished if they cannot promote the free development of individuals. This view is essentially the same as ilych's "unschooling" thought. It denies school education.
Secondly, it emphasizes the opposition between human tragedy and happiness education. For existentialism, the world is absurd and cold, and human existence itself is a tragedy. He will face loneliness, fear, death and so on, and the meaning of life is produced in loneliness, fear and death. Pain is the keynote of life, and there is no happiness without pain. Therefore, existentialism believes that education aimed at happiness is dangerous education. It educates people with fantasy, rather than letting students know about real life. This kind of education is illusory, divorced from reality and irresponsible for students' future life. Education should be about real life, which can help students experience pain and encourage them to devote themselves to life bravely. It should tell students that all happiness and freedom come from their own struggle and creation.
Finally, it emphasizes the opposition between human self-growth and education.
Existence precedes essence, which means that everyone designs, creates and defines himself in his unique existence and "existence". The highest purpose of existentialism is to realize the unique self, that is, self-realization. This is a self-growth theory formed by human beings.
Irrationalism and antisocial ultra-individualistic existentialism distrust or even oppose education in their bones. But what we are most concerned about is the formation of personal living environment and personal living consciousness. Education can create a living environment for students and stimulate their awareness of survival. Taking this as a starting point, existentialism has formed a set of unique educational thoughts. 2. Existentialist education view Existentialist education can be said to be a kind of survival education, which aims at human survival, human survival consciousness and self-realization.
First, cultivate self-awareness.
Existentialism resolutely refuses to demand students by social standards, and also opposes the establishment of personal freedom on the basis of "ideological correctness", intellectual training or vocational training. Existentialism focuses on the cultivation of people's self-consciousness, including survival consciousness (life and death consciousness), self-uniqueness consciousness, loneliness and fear consciousness, self-design, self-realization and self-commitment consciousness. Personal self-awareness, that is, self-will, is of decisive significance to the realization of self-essence. Therefore, existentialism regards the development of individual self-consciousness as the only fundamental purpose of education. All the ideas of existentialism about education are based on this purpose. Second, education is moral education. Although previous education attached great importance to moral education, and even put moral education in the first place to guide the whole education, the content and process of education were all centered on knowledge education. However, existentialism has a completely different view. It is believed that schools must completely revise their views on knowledge, no longer take teaching materials as their internal purpose, but take knowledge as a means of self-cultivation. In the past, moral education was carried out in knowledge education, while existentialism canceled the teaching of systematic knowledge, knowledge became the material of moral education, and the whole education was moral education.
Third, the content of education-death, freedom and responsibility.
The educational content of existentialism revolves around survival and self-choice. Existentialism is a philosophy of life that explores the meaning of life. Existentialism begins with death, fear and loneliness, and so does existential education. We should help students experience death through literary works and various events. To make students feel that death is coming at any time, our daily choice is like the last choice. Schools should also teach students not to be afraid of death and educate them with lofty death examples-mothers die for their sons, soldiers die for their country, martyrs die for their beliefs and so on. Schools should also help students learn to reflect on themselves, whether their daily life is meaningful and what they are. Death education is the education of the meaning of life and the most profound education of life philosophy and moral philosophy.
A person's life is a life of self-selection, self-design and self-adjustment. Freedom and responsibility coexist. Choice, freedom and responsibility are the biggest problems in life. It is the unshirkable responsibility of the school to help students face this difficulty, form a sense of freedom and responsibility, and cultivate the courage and ability of self-choice.
Death education, choice education, freedom education and responsibility education are the core of survival education. Its essence is moral education about philosophy of life. Existentialism education is humanistic in educational content. It focuses on letting students experience life in the dramatic events of literature and history (art education is a beachhead). There are not many textbooks, and the key is whether it can inspire students. Existentialism education is positive and individual in form. Students think and choose in their own actions, and the freedom of personal action is the first. Fourth, the opportunity of education-"the moment of existence" Everyone has a "moment of existence" in his life. One day, we begin to realize our existence and know "I", which is the moment of existence. This moment of existence is centered on the discovery of "I". There are also many small moments of existence, also called epiphany, such as epiphany of death, epiphany of love and so on. These small moments of existence are also the key moments of education. The moment of existence is an opportunity for education. Promoting the arrival of educational opportunities and seizing them is the key to the success of education.
The educational method of existentialism education must be individual, free, democratic and heuristic. Because every student is unique, the educational method must be personalized; Because freedom and existence exist at the same time, freedom is the first place in education; The educational methods governed by these regulations are embodied in Martin Bubel's Dialogue between You and Me.
The educational method of existentialism education is a dialogue method-the dialogue between students and teachers, that is, the dialogue between "I" and "you". The dialogue between "I" and "you" is a dialogue between two subjects and two free men. If a teacher can really talk with students, he must sincerely gain the trust of students and become their friends. To do this, there must be a premise: the teacher is a noble person. Existentialism opposes using teachers as tools to impart knowledge. Such a teacher is the least popular with students. Existentialism regards teachers as people who have a lifelong influence on students, opposes the constant change of teachers, and hopes to establish an eternal connection (love and trust, etc.). ) between teachers and students.
Existentialist educational thought is one of modern humanistic educational thoughts. Existentialism is an extreme individualism philosophy characterized by anti-socialization, organization and mechanization. Accordingly, existentialism education thought is an extremely individualistic education thought characterized by denying the whole school education system. Although existentialism also puts forward a set of educational viewpoints, "obviously, it is actually impossible to build a school and education system based on existentialism." In fact, there may be existential teachers or students who strongly oppose those forces that deny his or her personal freedom. "
Second, the new behaviorism education thought
Neo-behaviorism education emphasizes that all education and teaching are aimed at shaping human behavior, advocates programmed teaching and allows students to use teaching machines in their studies. Educational research should pay attention to the behavior of teaching and learning. Procedural teaching is the main embodiment of behaviorism education school in educational practice. Neo-behaviorism education is a reform movement that uses behavioral psychology theory to solve educational and teaching problems. Advocates of new behaviorism education take classroom teaching as the basis of reform and procedural teaching as the means of reform to implement their whole set of educational ideas.
The new behaviorism education theory has the following characteristics in its educational view: (1) The general view is that good and capable people are the result of strict, scientific and controlled educational process. (2) The purpose is to shape citizens for the society by forming or correcting students' behaviors according to the obligations and responsibilities of individuals and social life in many aspects. (3) In terms of curriculum, it is believed that the content of education should include reliable knowledge organized according to the objectivity of behavior. (4) In terms of educational methods, it is considered that all learning is control, and the operation of conditions is realized through the control of students' behavioral responses. Program teaching is an effective way to shape students' behavior. B.F. Skinner (1904- 1990) is a famous psychologist and educator in contemporary America, and the main representative of the new behavioral psychology and the new behaviorism education school. The core of new behaviorism education theory is Skinner's operational learning theory, and program teaching is guided by learning theory from design to implementation. Skinner designed "Skinner's Box" and carried out relevant experiments with pigeons and other animals, thus summarizing his learning theories of "operant conditioning" and "active reinforcement". Skinner, based on his new behaviorism learning theory and with the help of the results of his operational response experiment, investigated the current situation of American education at that time, especially made a deep analysis of classroom teaching. Through investigation and analysis, he made a sharp criticism of the classroom teaching in the school. Skinner believes that the current teaching process is the least efficient in arousing the correct response under the control of stimulus, and its shortcomings are reflected in the following aspects: First, in the current educational practice, students' behavior shaping and control are mainly based on aversion to stimulus. Secondly, the interval between behavior and reinforcement is too long. Thirdly, in educational practice, "there is a lack of a clever procedure to advance to the required final complex behavior through a series of gradual approximate results". Fourth, in the current classroom teaching, teachers can provide too few reinforcement times. Skinner is convinced that from the perspective of reinforcement, in traditional classroom teaching, it is impossible to overcome the above four disadvantages only by relying on teachers' training, because people cannot provide such strict reinforcement, and to make use of the latest achievements of learning and research, it is necessary to have the help of mechanical devices. This mechanical device is the degree teaching machine advocated by Skinner. Based on reinforcement learning theory, Skinner put forward a set of basic principles of program teaching to guide the whole process of program teaching. The principle of running in small steps. Skinner believes that once the learning content is divided into many small steps according to its internal relationship and the learning process, students can get more reinforcement when completing each step. The principle of positive response. In program teaching, every student should learn by himself with a set of program teaching materials or machines, and make a positive response by choosing, "writing" answers, filling in, solving problems or pressing keys to answer questions. Immediate reinforcement principle. Skinner's law of acquisition tells people that when an operational response is followed by a stimulus, the intensity of operation will increase. Therefore, in order to improve students' confidence, improve the learning effect, and maintain and consolidate the existing knowledge, it must be strengthened immediately.
Self-paced principle. Program teaching should allow students to learn according to their own speed and potential, which is called self-paced. The principle of low error rate. Skinner believes that too many mistakes will affect the learning speed, and the consolidation of correct behavior will maintain learners' interest in response. Therefore, in the process of program teaching, we should try to avoid possible wrong reactions, which can increase the proportion of positive reinforcement and improve learning efficiency. Skinner designed his own teaching process model according to his own learning theory and program teaching principle, which is a linear program model called "classic program". The characteristics of this model can be summarized as follows: first, the linear model of program teaching makes students unable to choose other learning methods. Secondly, in the linear mode, learners have little information to learn or master, and the requirement for learners is to respond to this small amount of new materials. Thirdly, in the well-designed linear programming mode, students have almost no mistakes, so they can assume what is correct, which means that learners have learned. To sum up, although Skinner's whole research is psychological to a large extent, his research on education is relatively secondary. However, his efforts and contributions in educational theory and practice are universally recognized. Under his influence, some programmed teaching theories and methods suitable for national conditions and computer-aided teaching still promote the development of education. Third, structuralism education thought Structuralism education school is an important school in the contemporary west. It is the product of discussing the occurrence and development of children's intellectual structure and the law of knowledge structure, combined with the needs of educational reform. From this point of view, the initial germination of structuralist education school can be traced back to the work of Piaget, a Swiss psychologist and educator, in the 1930s. As an educational trend of thought that is more closely related to educational reality, its emergence and prosperity are marked by the structuralist curriculum reform movement promoted by a large number of cognitive psychologists and scientists headed by Bruner in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Jean piaget (1896-) is a famous psychologist and educator in the contemporary world.
According to Piaget, any level of human intelligence development must have its corresponding cognitive structure. It is through this internal structure that the human subject can interact with the object and understand it. Therefore, intelligence is essentially a structure of thinking, that is, the coordination between subject and object. From the perspective of human intellectual activity itself, intelligence is basically a structural "action" of subject to object. From its external function, the purpose of intellectual activity is to adapt to the object. It is in this adaptation process that children constantly form one cognitive structure after another, so that their intelligence develops from low level to high level. Piaget further explored the origin of human intelligence structure and the interaction between cognitive structure and object from the biological point of view. Piaget believes that the "schema" of human subject structure is not the physical and physiological structure of nervous system, but the functional structure of subject activity, that is, the functional structure of external action and internal thinking. He divided children's intellectual development into the following four stages:
(1) Sensory motor intelligence stage (from birth to about 2 years old);
(2) intelligence stage before operation (about 2 to 7 years old);
(3) Specific operational intelligence stage (about 7 years old to 12 years old);
(4) The intellectual stage of formal operation (12 to 15).
Piaget's theory on the occurrence and development of intellectual structure is of far-reaching significance. As far as education is concerned, his theory shows people a rich, complex and regular world of children's psychological development and provides a general model of children's intellectual development. These theories laid the core part of structuralist education theory and provided psychological basis for the later American structuralist educator Bruner to implement structuralist education. Piaget believes that teachers, as educators, should do the following work well: First, self-discovery teaching should be adopted in teaching, and only what children find themselves can be actively assimilated by individuals. Secondly, educators should make it clear that "in fact, assimilation is dynamic", not all intellectual materials can be assimilated by children, and children's specific interests and needs should be taken into account. In Piaget's view, the ultimate goal of helping children develop their autonomy is to develop their cognitive structure, that is, their intellectual structure. Based on this theory, Piaget believes that the activity method in teaching is the most important principle of children's education. While emphasizing activities, Piaget also attaches great importance to the interaction between children in schools. Piaget's pioneering work on the occurrence and development of children's intellectual structure and some basic educational ideas put forward on this basis are valuable wealth in the history of educational thought. It not only laid the theoretical foundation of structuralism education theory, but also provided a solid psychological foundation and structuralism direction for structuralism education movement. At the same time, it also affects the education reform in all countries in the world.
J·s· bruner (19 15 ~) is an American cognitive psychologist and a representative figure of structuralist education school. Bruner's theory about children's cognitive development stages and development motivation is an important part of his educational thought. Bruner's research on children's cognitive development comes down in one continuous line with Piaget's research. Based on the structural theory, after a lot of experimental research, he thinks that the law of cognitive development is continuous and phased, and divides the development of cognition into the following three stages: the first stage is the representation stage based on action; The second stage is the portrait reproduction stage; The third stage is the symbolic representation stage. The above three stages are uninterrupted and continuous. They appear in the above order in children's life, and the development of each representation depends on the former. On the motivation of cognitive development, Bruner tends to take meaningful conditions as the main force to promote cognitive development, in which language plays an important role.
His structuralist educational thought is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
(1) knowledge view and knowledge structure In Bruner's view, organizing the discipline structure well and enabling students to master the basic structure of the discipline are the core of teaching work and the source of students' understanding. In the process of discussing the subject structure, Bruner also developed the transfer theory in educational psychology.
(2) the development of cognitive structure and cognitive ability Bruner also believes that the development of children's individual intelligence is manifested in the reorganization and expansion of internal cognitive structure. Bruner believes that teaching should focus on the expansion of children's cognitive structure to promote the development of cognitive ability. Bruner also noticed that different children have different ways of thinking, and the teaching methods and textbooks provided should develop their cognitive ability on the basis of adapting to their respective tendencies.
(3) About early learning Bruner emphasized the basic structure of learning subjects and the development of cognitive ability, and at the same time showed his clear position on early childhood education. His early learning theory is based on his theory about the stages of children's cognitive development, which is based on two inevitable premises, that is, "any concept can be correctly and effectively expounded by the way of thinking of school-age children;" Moreover, these concepts expounded for the first time will become easier, more effective and more accurate in later learning because of this early learning. "
(4) Discovery method.
Bruner believes that the teaching process is similar to the process of human seeking knowledge. The teaching method should be to encourage students to discover, answer and solve problems by themselves. Students should explore the mystery of knowledge and master the basic structure of the subject by means of discovery. As a representative of the structuralist school of education, Bruner had an important influence on the educational reform in the United States and many countries in the world with his unique educational thought, which made the structuralist educational trend of thought once sensational all over the world.
Structuralist schools of education have exerted great influence on world education in theory and practice. The research on the psychological basis of education and teaching, the occurrence and development of children's intelligence structure, the curriculum structure and teaching methods in structuralist education theory have enriched and developed the theoretical treasure house of educational science to varying degrees. However, the most representative curriculum structure reform movement in the structuralist education movement has not achieved the expected results, which is inseparable from the defects of the structuralist education theory itself and the lack of implementing the theory in concrete educational practice. Curriculum writing overemphasizes the differences of knowledge in various disciplines. Ignoring the universal connection and mutual penetration of knowledge in various disciplines is the basic feature of the continuous differentiation and integration of the development of various disciplines in the era of knowledge explosion. Taking "discipline structure" as the principle of compiling teaching materials has increased the theorization and abstraction of teaching materials, which has brought great difficulties to teachers' teaching and students' understanding of teaching materials. Its positive points have been affirmed by people, and its shortcomings have been corrected by educators.