Chen Heqin is the founder of modern preschool education in China. In the early 1940s, he put forward the theoretical system of "living education", which had a far-reaching impact on education in China. His life education theory and methods are still of great significance to contemporary preschool education.
The main content of life education: The thought of life education is the summary and summary of Mr. Chen Heqin's long-term commitment to the exploration of new education in China under the influence of Dewey's pragmatic philosophy. He tried to use it to change the phenomenon of "teaching, teaching, reading and reading" in the old education.
Teleology of life education: Chen Heqin pointed out that the purpose of life education is to be a man, a China person and a modern China person. The purpose of life education is to be a person, a real person. He must love mankind, regardless of nationality, race, class and religion. He must love the truth, which is above everything else.
He should take the idea of "one world" as the ultimate goal of mankind. Secondly, we should come from China. When there are all kinds of countries in the world, as a China person, we must love our country, which has a long and glorious history, and try our best to improve China's status among the countries in the world.
He must also love his compatriots, who grew up in the same land and share the same fate. They work for the same goal, that is, for the prosperity of the country. Finally, we should be modern China people. He must have a strong physique, the ability to build, the ability to create, the spirit of cooperation and the enthusiasm to serve the society.
The teleology of "living education" starts from the universal and abstract human emotion and cognitive rationality, and gradually endows national consciousness, national concept, spirit of the times and realistic needs with meaning, which makes the educational goal gradually concrete and expresses Chen Heqin's pursuit of human development, education and social change.
Curriculum theory of life education: In view of the traditional classroom teaching with books as the only textbook, Mr. Chen Heqin proposed that nature and society are "life education" courses with life textbooks.
He clearly pointed out: "the knowledge in books is indirect and dead, and nature and society are our living books and direct books." He also said: "The course of life education takes nature and the big society as the starting point, so that students can learn directly from nature and the big society."
The course content of life education should come from nature, society and children's life, and its organizational form must also conform to children's activities and lifestyles, and to the way children communicate with nature and social environment.
Therefore, the course of "Life Education" breaks the usual discipline organization system and takes the form of activity center and activity unit, which can reflect the integrity and inertia of children's life. Namely, children's health activities, children's social activities, children's science activities, children's art activities and children's literature activities.
According to the idea of "five fingers activity", children's activities have replaced classroom teaching as the basic form of school education. It pursues the complete life of children, and the metaphor of "five fingers" is because these five activities are like five fingers of a hand, which are connected as a whole.
Although Mr. Chen Heqin advocates learning directly from nature and society, he does not absolutely emphasize experience and categorically denies books. Although "living" and "direct" knowledge is much better than book knowledge, "books are useful" as long as they are used properly as reference materials. The problem is that books can't be used as the only materials for school study as usual.