It is brave to know that you can't. Reading often requires external coercion, and you can't read it without borrowing it. This kind of reading returning to pedagogy is another kind of pressure: the tutor's book list and homework tasks. In these books, Bruner's views on education and culture are impressively listed. What I am interested in reading is not the book itself, but its background and history.
First of all, the "Cold War" gave birth to American education reform.
If we want to ask and summarize the human history of the 20th century macroscopically, we should use three words: war, "cold war" and change. The two world wars profoundly changed the world pattern and the balance of power, and affected the course of history; Post-war local wars and war crises have occurred from time to time, but they are all in the shadow of the "cold war". In the exploration of war, peace and development, change is always on the way. Education is related to the inheritance of human beings and civilizations, and it is naturally in the process of deep change.
Bruner (1915-2016), a famous American psychologist, educator and doctor of psychology at Harvard University, has been teaching at Harvard University for a long time. Bruner's view of educational culture is compiled from two books, Educational Process and Educational Culture, both of which are representative. The first series of "Educational Process" was published in 1960, and the background came from the changes of the Cold War.
The two world wars profoundly changed the world. In the "Cold War" era, the US-Soviet arms race escalated. 1957, the Soviet satellite was successfully launched, which shocked the western world. The ruling and opposition parties in the United States agree that it is necessary to improve their own scientific education, gain a leading position in scientific and technological competition, and "consolidate national defense" through educational reform. 1958 In September, the US Congress passed the National Defense Education Act, the central idea of which is that the government should allocate a large amount of education funds, strengthen science and technology education, cultivate first-class scientific and technological talents, and enhance national defense capabilities. 1959 The Education Committee of the American Academy of Sciences was established, with Bruner as the chairman. Thirty-five scientists attended the meeting of this committee to discuss the teaching quality and reform of mathematics, natural science and other subjects in ordinary schools. It is considered that the teaching quality of primary and secondary schools is inferior, the curriculum lacks a strict scientific system, and the teaching materials cannot reflect the latest scientific and technological achievements. It is pointed out that it is necessary to reform the curriculum system and compile new teaching materials. The educational process was released as the result of the meeting, which not only represented Bruner's point of view.
As we all know, the core of the post-war world power competition is the strength contest in the fields of armament, economy and culture, and the core of the contest is the level of science and technology, which gave birth to the third scientific and technological revolution to some extent. The core factor of scientific and technological competition is talents, especially scientific and technological talents and innovative talents. The source of competition between science and technology and innovation is education. Therefore, after 1957, one of the important strategies for the United States and the western world to win the competition is education. People are reflecting, people are changing. People reflect and even criticize Dewey's children's center, school life and curriculum activity center, which has been continuing in the educational field of the United States and the West since the 1920s. They believe that such educational ideas and methods seriously restrict the discovery and development of talents, and make the science and technology of the United States stagnate, especially behind the Soviet Union. Moreover, the post-war scientific and technological development has made great progress in many fields, such as atomic energy, computers, bioengineering, aerospace and so on. The core elements of school education are nothing more than these aspects: teachers, students, courses, organization and management. So leaving the children's center and activity center will naturally favor teachers and courses-especially top-down courses led by expert teachers.
"Today, many Americans are beginning to care not only about the actual effect of education, but also about the content and quality of education-what is education? What could it be? Several factors have contributed to this trend: we are entering a new era of science and technology; The second industrial revolution, perhaps more violent than the first industrial revolution a hundred years ago: control system, automation technology, new energy, space to be developed-all these make us interested in the nature of schools and what our young people can learn in schools. Another reason is the sudden realization, because we feel that national security is threatened.
The Soviet Republic's conquest of space, its ability to manufacture powerful weapons and its ability to establish an efficient industrial society greatly weakened the self-confidence of the United States. Going back ten years ago is almost unimaginable. Part of the reason for paying more and more attention to education is that college graduates account for a high proportion of the American population. We also have good luck to get rich. The proportion of young people who graduated from college is higher than that who graduated from high school forty years ago. All these factors have rekindled our education, as have students and parents. (Chapter V Learning Motivation in the Process of Education) "
He advocates that the best experts in all fields should participate in the design of courses, the determination of structure and the compilation of teaching materials.
"The primary goal of any learning activity is to serve our future, not the happiness that learning itself brings us. Learning can not only lead us to where we want to go, but also make us go further and more easily in the future.
With regard to the design that is faithful to the basic structure of the curriculum, the experience of the past few years has at least taught us an important lesson, that is, we must let the best talents in all fields join the work of curriculum design. What should be taught in American history and mathematics in primary school? Only with the help of people with foresight and extraordinary talents in these fields can we make better decisions. ..... Only by letting the best people participate in the course can we bring our academic and intellectual achievements to the students who have just embarked on the road to study. (Chapter II? The importance of structure) "
In Bruner's view, the educated must know, know and understand the internal basic structure of the learning subject.
Knowledge of any subject can be taught to children of any age.
This assertion still surprises us today. It ignores students' age, learning period, cognitive level, life background and various differences, and emphasizes "one step in place" and "consistency" in cognitive structure. This reminds me of the experience of studying and teaching history. Although history does not belong to natural science, it is not a science, but of course the feelings of learning should also have something in common. That is, the content of history learning is arranged in the order of general history and time order, highlighting the integrity of knowledge structure. What does this textbook arrangement and history teaching mean to underage students? The first lesson in the history of China is to understand Yuanmou ape-man (6,543.8+7,000 years ago), and the first lesson in the history of the world is naturally about the more distant Kenyan ape-man site (2.5 million years ago). There is no problem with the structure and arrangement of knowledge, but it is too far away from the real world and cultural background of students, at least in the arrangement of knowledge, students' lives are not taken into account. Of course, I don't deny that in real teaching, teachers often use auxiliary tools and vivid metaphors to approach the time, space and perceived distance between teaching content and objects. At the same time, it should be noted that there is no absolute affirmation or negation of any educational reform. This design, taking history as an example, allows students who have a natural interest in history courses from the beginning to establish their own historical knowledge structure systematically, clearly and step by step. However, this success comes at the cost of many students losing interest in history learning and getting bored in the process of learning.
We should understand that education must serve the reality and future development. The dream of education lies in the expectation, establishment and confidence in the future.
"Every era has dreams of developing education and giving these dreams new forms. A new round of widespread concern about the quality of education and the goal of intellectual education may be becoming a symbol of our times-but we will not give up the ideal that education should be used as a means to cultivate citizens with balanced development in a democratic society. " What should we teach and what should we achieve? "Not long ago, this was only a concern of experts, but now public education in the United States has reached such a level, and a large part of the American people have begun to pay attention to these issues. This new spirit may also reflect the profound scientific revolution of our time. This trend is strengthened because the problem of national security will almost certainly exist for a long time, and the solution of this problem will depend on well-educated citizens.
This renewed concern for the quality of education and the goal of intellectual education is mainly reflected in the curriculum of primary and secondary schools, and remarkable progress has been made in some aspects. (Chapter 1, Introduction of Bruner's View on Education and Culture) "
Of course, in the process of implementing Bruner's educational theory, the cold war situation cannot be alleviated immediately. Its complexity also lies in that the domestic and international situation facing the United States continues to undergo profound changes, and major events emerge one after another. In the 1960s, the Vietnam War escalated and the anti-war movement surged from time to time. The domestic black civil rights movement continues to rise; The process of western European integration has accelerated, and the economies of the Federal Republic of Germany and Japan have taken off; The bad relationship between China and the Soviet Union has brought opportunities to the adjustment of the US Asia-Pacific strategy and the Cold War pattern. The implementation of Bruner's educational thought is not smooth. Then, as Bruner thinks, the whole education is not only supported by schools, but also by the whole cultural system.