Structuralist educators generally have three common characteristics. First of all, they originated from the concern about the education crisis and even national security in the 1950s. Secondly, they advocate exploring the causes of those crises or dangers, and then show their educational thoughts, educational processes and subject structures; Finally, they seek or plan to correct the problems and crises in education. In short, the above three characteristics can be expressed in a popular way: What's wrong with education? Why are there those disadvantages? How to correct them?

The main problem in education in 1950s is that, influenced by pragmatism education thought, behavioral psychology and life adaptation education movement, they advocated practicality and neglected theoretical study, and were too diversified to ignore the real academic foundation in order to yield to reality. In this regard, structuralist educators put forward improvement views from different aspects.

Destination view

J. S.Bruner, a structuralist educator, said: "Every generation has a new desire for how to design their unique education. A sign of our generation that is forming is the general reappearance of concerns about the quality of education and the goal of intellectual education. " He proposed: "The so-called education, in the final analysis, is to develop mental ability and sensitivity. ..... Education must give full play to its intelligence, open up even a little new situation and create its own culture in a cultural way that individuals transcend their own social world. " (Note: Bruner, J.S. (1962). About understanding. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p98. )

Feniks replaced the essence of rationality with the concept of "meaning", and expressed the whole connotation of rationality or mind with "meaning". He put forward: "If the essence of human nature lies in a meaningful life, then the proper purpose of education is to promote the growth of meaning. (note: Feniks, P. (1964). The field of means. New york: McGraw Hill Company, p. 25. )

Obviously, structuralist education advocates education as a means to cultivate harmonious citizens in a democratic society, but the rationalism in its purpose view is hard to hide.

Knowledge view

According to Bruner's understanding, knowledge is a model formed by people in order to give meaning and structure to the rules in experience. Knowledge structure is a constituent concept discovered by simplifying and correlating experience, and a concept conceived by sorting scattered observation results. The comprehensive foundation of knowledge should be found in the field of knowledge itself. In knowledge education, the structure of knowledge should be related to children's learning process. This requires the stage of studying appearances. Bruner emphasized that imparting knowledge is not to remember the results, but to let children participate in the process of knowledge formation.

(Note: Bruner, J.S. (1962). About understanding. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p98. )

Page (abbreviation of page) Hearst believes that education must develop people's minds. Only by mastering the basic rational structure, logical relationship and criteria for judging truth and falsehood of knowledge can a rational mind get the best development. When answering "What knowledge is the most valuable", he put forward seven forms of cognitive knowledge to understand the world, including mathematics, natural science, knowledge about people, literature and art, morality, religion and philosophy, which meet the following four criteria? Some concepts are unique to a certain form; Each form has a unique logical structure, which can link various concepts; Form, with its terminology and logic, has statements or conclusions that can be tested; Form has exploratory experience and methods to test its statement.

Structuralist education advocates a structuralist view of knowledge, which holds that knowledge is a structural model constructed by people actively, giving meaning and strength to people's experience. This is a "constructivist view".

Curriculum view

Bruner emphasized that the course content should be the basic structure of the subject. Basic structure refers to the basic concepts, formulas, principles and other theoretical knowledge in various disciplines. He believes that learning is the continuous construction process of people's subjective cognitive structure, and through the interaction with cognitive objects, people's cognitive structure is constantly improved and perfected. The study of basic structure is most valuable for the development of learners' subjective cognitive structure. Moreover, the basic structure has universal significance and wide portability.

J.J.Schwab believes that scientific knowledge is not the model or reflection of objective things, but the result of human rational inquiry. "The new line of scientific research should not only proceed from objective facts, but also from ideas, that is, the prudent construction of the mind." (Note: charles schwab (1962). The concept of discipline structure. inch

giro UX h . a .( 198 1)。 Curriculum and teaching. This is a constructivist view of curriculum.

Therefore, compared with the empirical view of education, structuralist education is based on respecting the independence of knowledge field and reflecting the internal logic of the discipline (the structure and law of the discipline). It is in this sense that the value of the logical experience of the discipline itself and its role in promoting the development of civilization have been fully exerted.

Teaching view

Bruner thinks that the basic structure can't be simply taught by teachers, because learning is the process of constructing the cognitive structure of the subject, and the basic structure can only be obtained through the active role of learners. Therefore, he put forward the famous discovery learning, that is, learners discover and obtain the learning content and basic structure through a series of discovery behaviors (such as transformation, combination, understanding, etc.), rather than presenting the learning content directly to learners. ).

Hearst insists that knowledge can be constructed. Knowledge? A well-founded statement, conclusion or truth? It is based on the inquiry system of a specific subject or cognitive form. Therefore, he advocates inquiry learning, that is, encouraging learners to ask questions, discuss problems and find answers themselves.

Both discovery learning and inquiry learning pay more attention to the independence of learners' personality (but Bruner's independent personality is centered on extraordinary intelligence), and regard learners as a mind with understanding, development and individuality. Although influenced by the environment, everyone has his own unique inner culture.