However, teaching care is still a vague concept. Exploring the significance and function of teachers' teaching care is of great significance for improving the quality of teacher-student relationship and strengthening the construction of teachers' professional ethics.
First, the meaning of teachers' teaching care
The study of caring began with the emphasis of moral philosophers gilligan and Noddings on caring ethics and women's caring.
Gilligan's caring moral reasoning is the further development of Kohlberg's moral development. Noddings thinks that female care or ethical care is a kind of moral experience with female experience as its core. In her later research, she believed that caring is not a unique phenomenon for women, but a relationship that exists for all people. She pointed out that not everyone is interested in mathematics, science or literature, but everyone will care about others, the world and mankind in their lives. Female concern or ethical concern is put forward because it opposes Kohlberg's theory of moral development stages based on fair ethics, but subsequent research holds that ethical concern is an important supplement to Kohlberg's theory.
1. Teaching care is a kind of interpersonal relationship.
Gilligan believes that women have the characteristics of need and responsibility to maintain relationships, and caring tendency/ethics emphasizes maintaining relationships. When Noddings uses the word care, he thinks that care describes not attitude or personality traits, but a moral relationship, and moral care is centered on interpersonal relationships. Noddings also distinguished two kinds of care: natural care and ethical care. Natural care is driven by the deep affection of the mountain for the loved ones, while ethical care is driven by the loving people of the mountain trying to strengthen their moral ideals. Ethical concern requires them to strive to be a moral person. Therefore, natural care does not require active efforts, and ethical care requires individual will efforts. Both begin with a sense of responsibility-a commitment to meet the needs of loved ones; Both are sources of happiness and satisfaction.
Hargreaves' view is very consistent with Noddings' natural concern. He believes that many teachers choose teaching career because of their love for children, and forming a caring relationship with children is an important source of job satisfaction in their career. Mcdermott believes that caring includes building meaningful relationships, the ability to keep in touch, and the belief of being very sensitive and flexible when responding to others. A caring classroom environment can create an atmosphere of trust. Unzer clearly pointed out that the caring relationship between teachers and students is reflected in two aspects: academic support and social/emotional support of teachers. Students' perception of these two aspects has become the main index to measure teaching care. Lockwood and Sekada proposed that caring needs trust and support between teachers and students. Du (D o) and Schaller suggested that when studying classroom discussion strategies, they found that the relationship between students' reports and teachers' questions was warm and enthusiastic, and they felt that it was very comfortable and safe to discuss problems in class.
2. Teaching care is the behavior process that teachers take the initiative to pay.
The application of caring proposed by Noddings is an interaction between teachers and students about love in the field of education, and the essence of teaching is the interaction of caring. Every interaction provides an opportunity for individuals to establish caring relationships. Caring means a choice, a responsibility and an obligation, which includes emotion and will. She also believes that the process of acceptance, concentration and motivation transfer is the core requirement of ethical care system. Acceptability means that a caring person must try his best to empathize with others and try his best to feel their feelings. Accepting others into one's inner world is twofold. Once the caring person accepts the caring person, he has the obligation to respond; In this way, acceptance produces love. Motivation displacement is the direct result of acceptance: when the caring person and the caring person feel the same way and accept it completely, the other person's motivation becomes their own. Noddings pointed out that motivational displacement needs to "jump out of one's own frame of reference and enter the other's frame of reference". In order to strengthen the interaction of caring, it is necessary for caring people to show concentration before accepting and replacing motivation. Noddings believes that in the field of education, teachers' care can be reflected in the following two types of activities: showing students the example of care, participating in students' discussions in a democratic way, choosing students' views, having good expectations for students and encouraging students.
Collins pointed out that care refers to personal expression, emotional care and empathy, which is the core of ethical care. Rogers and Weber believe that care in classroom teaching can be reflected in encouraging dialogue, showing sensitivity to students' needs and interests, and providing attractive, rich and meaningful materials and activities. Unzer put forward four main characteristics of caring for teachers: exemplary, democratic interaction, expectation and cultivation based on individual differences. The indicator that the model pays attention to is the teacher's hard teaching. The index of democratic interaction is that teachers pay attention to listening, trusting, asking questions, giving feedback and praising when communicating with students. The indicator of teaching expectation based on individual differences is to regard students as individuals with different academic and social pursuits and as learners with different cognitive and emotional differences. The index of cultivating attention is to check students' homework and pay attention to students' academic performance. On this basis, Unzer put forward the basic characteristics of teaching care, including two main aspects: concern for students' learning and emotional care. Laursen and Birmingham summarized seven characteristics of caring relationship through an ethnographic study.
Trust, concern (attet1t1t1), empathy, usability, affirmation, respect and virtue. Walker and Herteler investigated 805 subjects and distinguished justice, courage and caring. The results show that caring is positively related to warmth, agreeableness, education (support) and sympathy. In the cluster analysis, it is found that the main contents of caring are love, altruism, honesty and reliability. Love and empathy reflect the positive feelings of others' standards, and the responses are warmth, care and obedience. Altruism refers to helpfulness, generosity, sharing and selflessness. Honesty and reliability are related to sincerity, which embodies the characteristics of sincerity and integrity, and may eventually lead to self-sacrificing care.
3. The main meaning of teachers' teaching concern
To sum up, we believe that teachers' teaching care is the main component of teachers' professional ethics, which is both a relationship and an action process. Specifically, teachers' teaching care refers to the trust and support relationship that teachers establish and maintain with students through empathy, care, obedience, respect and affirmation.
The action process of teachers' empathy, care, obedience, respect and affirmation for students represents the main characteristics and measurable basic dimensions of teaching care. According to the views of other scholars and the semantic analysis of laursen and Birmingham, we sorted out the teachers' behaviors and beliefs represented by various characteristics of teaching care, and the results are shown in the table on the previous page.
Second, the role of teachers' teaching care
Research shows that teaching care has a direct or positive impact on students' learning motivation and academic performance, unlike the traditional view that teaching care only has a positive effect on students' non-academic fields; Teaching care can also significantly improve teachers' job satisfaction and investment, unlike the traditional view that teaching care is a kind of unpaid pay until emotional exhaustion or "self-sacrifice." Some studies also show that teaching care has a positive effect on students at all levels of basic education, unlike the traditional view that teaching care is only effective for teenagers. The caring relationship between teachers and students can not only be a protective factor for students' psychological resilience, but also a protective factor for teachers to cope with challenges.
1. Teaching care is the protective factor for psychological resilience.
Resilience refers to the process that individuals adapt well to stress events, which is a dynamic process. It can make individuals recover and adjust quickly from difficulties, setbacks and misfortunes. Psychological resilience consists of two parts: internal protective factors and external protective factors. The so-called internal protective factors refer to the psychological ability and characteristics of individuals with protective factors. The school protection factor is the main component of the external protection factor in psychological resilience.
The factors of school protection often mentioned by researchers include all kinds of support provided by teachers. Caring relationship between teachers and students, high expectations and opportunities for participation are all important protective factors for psychological resilience. Laursen and Birmingham conducted a study on 23 young people with little interest, and found that they felt that caring relationship with adults was helpful when they were in trouble. Teachers who are full of teaching care will give more supportive guidance to students in a disadvantaged position, and if they have to criticize students, they will also provide more cognitive and emotional training. When studying the attitude of high school teachers towards students' cheating, researchers found that teachers with low teaching care are more likely to blame students, while teachers with high teaching care are more likely to provide a safer atmosphere to guide students. In reforming schools, TAP will be implemented as a way to show teachers' concern for teaching, which is more likely to make surprising achievements for young people with little interest. Teachers' behavior and teacher-student relationship are the key to create a good learning atmosphere. When a person feels that he belongs to a certain group, or feels the concern of others in the group, he will feel that he is a part of the group and is safe in the group. Students' perception of teacher support is positively related to their prosocial goals and values, civic responsibility, self-concept and seeking help. When students perceive teachers' concern, they will better respond to teachers' expectations and reduce behaviors that violate school regulations, such as dropping out of school.
2. Teaching care is the motivation for students to learn.
Teaching care can have a positive impact on students' non-learning areas and a significant effect on students' learning areas. Students perceive that teachers are caring, fair and respectful, which is positively related to learning motivation; Students are more likely to stimulate internal motivation; Emphasis on mastering the goal. It is also positively related to the degree of learning engagement, which encourages students to participate more in school activities. When students feel the emotional support of teachers, they are more likely to devote themselves to learning tasks, including studying harder. This relationship is positively related to academic performance, which makes it easier for students to use self-regulated learning strategies and achieve good academic performance.
Many studies pay attention to the influence of the relationship between students and adults, especially teachers, in classroom situations. People who don't study attach great importance to the care and intimacy in the teacher-student relationship. In kindergarten, teachers' self-reported intimate relationship with students can better predict children's school performance, love for school and self-development direction. In primary schools, the quality of teacher-student relationship can also predict their sense of control, positive coping, relative autonomy and investment in schools. Among younger teenagers, they think that teachers' support can predict their grades and values, as well as their efforts, devotion and performance in school. In junior high school, under the premise of controlling students' previous academic performance and sense of control, students' reported teaching care can predict the change of motivation for more than two years. The research thinks that the relationship with teachers is very important, because teachers play many roles at the same time, such as a dependent, a teacher, a subject defender and the final judge of students' academic performance.
3. Teaching care is the "spiritual reward" in teachers' career.
Although some studies believe that caring for some teachers is particularly difficult, researchers who are optimistic about caring for teachers' teaching believe that caring for the teaching relationship is not only helpful to the growth of students, but also helpful to the growth of teachers. Levitt pointed out that sometimes many teachers feel that loving efforts make them exhausted. He believes that this is mainly because of the inherent inequality of teacher-student care. It is because students can't understand the caring relationship of teachers well, which may lead to teachers' emotional tension, anger and subsequent changes. When teachers are overwhelmed by this way, they will turn love into emotional exhaustion. Out of strong caring belief and sense of responsibility, teachers spend a lot of time and energy to care for students. When teachers can't meet the needs of all students, they may feel depressed and guilty, and then they may be easily injured until they are exhausted.
However, more research is more optimistic about teachers' teaching care. Lortie found that primary school students' caring relationship is a significant predictor of teachers' professional satisfaction, and caring in education is a kind of "spiritual reward" in the profession. Both Nias and Hargreaves have provided sufficient evidence to prove that teachers will feel satisfied and beneficial when they find themselves deeply integrated into their students. Teachers who care about their students will think, "I should think that I am just a giver, and I know that many people will love me deeply one day." Hargreaves also put forward a similar view. Many teachers choose teaching career because of their love for children, and forming a caring relationship with children is an important source of job satisfaction in their career. Teaching care is just a warm and vague emotion, which can make people more kind and amiable. Caring means pursuing the growth of ability. A responsible and talented teacher will understand the social, emotional, physical and intellectual development needs of teenagers. When facing various challenges in the teacher's career, he has a tough psychological resilience (self-resilience) and is enthusiastic about teaching.
Third, enlightenment.
Although there are different voices about teachers' teaching care, many researchers still emphasize the necessity of teachers' teaching care. Cole ((Koh 1)) pointed out that "a teacher has the responsibility to care for every student". Rogers and Weber emphasized that "good teacher care and good teaching are closely combined with specific caring behavior". Teaching care is one of the core components of teachers' professional ethics, and its development is also regarded as one of the core contents of teachers' professional development. Clarifying the connotation and function of teachers' teaching care has important enlightenment for strengthening the construction of teachers' professional ethics in China.
First of all, the content of teachers' professional ethics is structured, hierarchical and refined. Although the content of teachers' professional ethics in China has always emphasized specific moral requirements such as teaching according to law, loving their posts and dedication, loving students, rigorous scholarship, unity and cooperation, respecting teachers and attaching importance to teaching, and being a model for teachers, it cannot answer the question whether these moral requirements are basic requirements or goals for teachers. From the process of literature review, we can find that Kohlberg's theory of stages of moral development is based on justice, while the moral development of gilligan and Noddings emphasizes care. As an ethical level, care and harmony are based on justice, but both justice and care have a development process from low to high. Fortunately, the content of teachers' professional ethics in China has always been constructed from two basic levels: justice and care, which has a good moral content structure, but it needs to be expressed more clearly in logic. On this basis, we can theoretically construct the levels of professional ethics requirements according to social norms and the development stages of justice and care, and distinguish different levels of requirements. As far as caring is concerned, it can be layered and refined from the aspects of teacher-student relationship and teacher behavior, such as empathy, care, obedience, respect and affirmation, so as to answer the specific content of "teacher love" at a measurable and operational level, which has been an unresolved issue in the field of teachers' professional ethics in China for a long time.
Secondly, teachers' professional ethics is related to teachers' professional development. In China's teacher education system, the quality requirements of teachers' professional fields have been emphasized, but the quality requirements of teachers' moral fields are not clear. On the one hand, the content of teachers' professional ethics is unclear, on the other hand, the role of teachers' professional ethics is insufficient. As far as teachers' teaching care is concerned, research shows that it is a protective factor for students' psychological resilience, which can stimulate students' learning motivation, invest in learning and improve their academic performance. It is also a kind of "spiritual reward" for teachers to engage in teaching work, encouraging teachers to devote themselves enthusiastically to teaching work and find themselves in the process of encountering various pressures. From the transformation from "professional ethics" to "professional ethics", teachers' professional ethics is closely related to their professional development. From the practice of teachers' professional development, the cultivation of teachers' professional ethics is operable, which has become an important content of pre-service teacher training and in-service teacher training.