Italian educator Montessori once pointed out: "The purpose of education is to help the normal development of vitality, and education is everything that advocates the development of vitality." Indeed, education is based on educating people and making students become complete people in the true sense. This is the original intention of education, and it is also its most essential and highest value and goal. Whether college students have clear life consciousness and correct life values is related to their life destiny, the happiness and harmony of countless families and the future of the country. The so-called life consciousness is to make individuals aware of the existence of their own lives, the existence of others' lives, the existence of all life in the world, and the intricate connections and relationships between lives. Life consciousness is the unity of life cognition, life emotion and life behavior. When people have a sense of life, they will understand the value of life and cherish and protect it. Therefore, cultivating, developing and promoting life consciousness is the purpose of life education.
I. Research design
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This study is a combination of interpretive approach based on quantitative research and exploratory research. In the research process, objective description and macro prediction are realized by quantitative methods of questionnaire survey and literature analysis; At the same time, taking into account the rich flexibility of research facts, supplemented by free interviews, in order to achieve a thorough and detailed understanding of social facts.
2. Sample extraction, data collection and processing
The data used in this study comes from the survey of life consciousness of college students in Shanghai in June 2005. Questionnaires were distributed and collected in Shanghai 10 universities and interviews were conducted. The sampling method of the survey is to select all representative universities in 10, and then randomly select students from this 10 university. The questionnaire is anonymous, filled in by the respondents themselves, and then withdrawn by the staff.
This survey distributed1100 questionnaires in10 universities, and recovered 1008 questionnaires, with an effective recovery rate of 9 1.6%. After verification and coding, all the questionnaire data were input into Spss 13.0 statistical software package for logical error correction and statistical analysis.
3. Basic information of the sample
In the survey sample, the ratio of male to female is appropriate, covering freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students, and the ratio of liberal arts students is reasonable. Among them, 54.4% are boys and 45.6% are girls; Liberal arts students account for 38.5%, and science and engineering students account for 61.5%; Freshmen account for 15.0%, sophomores for 15.2%, juniors for 310.9%, seniors for 24. 1%, and postgraduates for 13.8%.
Second, the description of contemporary college students' life consciousness
1. Understanding of life phenomena
People always have to know an object, and only with certain knowledge can they be conscious. The core of life consciousness is life cognition. People's consciousness of a life object is always integrated into objective things to perceive and observe, so as to realize the meaning of this life object. But all life has a beginning and an end, and the basic cognition of life phenomenon is the cognition of life and death.
As for the phenomenon of death, the survey shows that 69.30% of college students think that "when a person dies, his life is over and he will never come back to life", 25. 10% of college students think that death is "disappearing in this world and going to another world", and even 5.60% of college students think that "a person can come back from the dead". Due to the increase of experience and the influence of various religious ideas, college students' thinking on this issue is more complicated and chaotic. College students no longer understand the abstract concept of death on the level of mechanical memory like primary and secondary school students. On the other hand, it also reflects our weakness and deficiency in educating college students on Marxist values and outlook on life.
Although college students have grown up, they have a certain ability to survive and protect themselves, and they are more mature and conscious than minors. However, with the development of economy, society and science and technology in today's world, college students are faced with unprecedented opportunities for development and have fallen into unprecedented difficulties in life. Even some college students lack due love, respect and treasure for life. Once you encounter setbacks and grievances, you will make extreme behaviors and even embark on the road of no return in life. The survey shows that 6.80% of college students often have suicidal thoughts, 25.40% occasionally, only 67.80% don't, less than 70%; When being seriously offended by others, 7.40% of college students often have the idea of killing, 27.20% occasionally have it, and 7 1. 10% don't.
The interactive statistics and tests between gender differences and the frequency of suicidal thoughts show that when something goes wrong, 7.7% of boys "often" have suicidal thoughts, and 5.9% of girls, slightly lower than boys. It can be seen that there is no significant correlation between gender differences and the frequency of suicidal thoughts.
The interactive statistics and tests between gender differences and the frequency of killing thoughts show that 10% of boys often have killing thoughts, 25.9% occasionally have them, and 64. 1% don't. Among the girls, 4.6% often have the idea of killing, 16.3% occasionally, and 79. 1% never. It can be seen that there is a significant correlation between gender differences and the frequency of killing thoughts.
The survey shows that the main cause of college students' suicide is "life pressure" (27.2%), followed by "no future" (26.6%), academic pressure (20.6%), lovelorn (15.4%) and "other" (65438+). College students are a special group between maturity and immaturity, independence and non-independence, and the specific background of the times makes them bear more acute challenges: they must work hard to complete their studies, and at the same time they should be concerned about whether the knowledge they have learned can meet the needs of the future; We should master the most basic professional knowledge and have the basic quality of acquiring new knowledge in the information age; We should have innovative consciousness and ability, and at the same time shape a sound personality that can be integrated into a harmonious society. Such high expectations will inevitably bring them psychological tension and pressure.
2. Perception of the value of life
The value of life, in short, is to live meaningfully. Social scientists at Hopkins University have investigated 7948 students in 48 colleges. When asked what is most important to them at present, 78% students replied that their primary goal is to find the purpose and meaning of life. The operational definition of "life value" in this study is firstly to affirm the value of one's existence, secondly to affirm the value of one's activities, and thirdly to affirm one's value to others. The items involved in the questionnaire are: self-confidence, evaluation of study life, friendship, subjectivity of life and so on.
(1) "Do you like yourself?"
Whether you like yourself or not is the basis of self-confidence. The survey shows that 67. 1% of college students like themselves, 23. 1% of college students are undecided, and 9.8% of college students say "they don't like themselves". Cross-analysis shows that there are gender differences between men and women on this issue, of which 68.8% are girls who like themselves and 65.6% are boys. Comparatively speaking, girls are more narcissistic, nearly 3 percentage points higher than boys.
(2) "What happens if you can't do one thing well?"
Self-confidence is also reflected in whether you can still believe in yourself and be willing to work hard to overcome difficulties when encountering setbacks. The survey results show that 64.60% of college students have a positive attitude and think that "it doesn't matter, they will try to do well next time", of which 65.90% are boys and 63.30% are girls. 27.80% college students deny themselves and feel "useless", including 28.40% boys and 27.20% girls, with no significant gender difference. Compared with grades, 76.90% freshmen and sophomores have a more positive attitude towards setbacks, and 52.30% freshmen and sophomores have a more positive attitude towards setbacks. Grade differences are obvious, juniors are more positive, and seniors tend to treat setbacks negatively and take an indifferent attitude.
(3) "How many good friends do you have?"
Interpersonal communication, especially the communication between peers, is also an important aspect of reflecting their own existence value. The survey found that almost all college students have good friends, and the number of good friends is relatively large. The proportion of friends with 10 or above is the highest, accounting for 34.80%, followed by those with 3-6 friends, accounting for 34.40%.
Cross-analysis shows that the rate of college students with more good friends often has suicidal thoughts is 1.80%, while the rate of college students without good friends often has suicidal thoughts as high as 26. 10%. Therefore, cultivating college students' positive and optimistic personality and creating good interpersonal relationships are conducive to alleviating the pressure of college students and reducing the probability of suicide.
(4) "Can you make your own decisions?"
Autonomy and initiative in life are also important aspects of reflecting one's own life value. "Autonomy" means that a person has the right to decide, while "initiative" reflects a positive attitude towards life. College students have basically developed physically and mentally. 60. 10% people think they have their own opinions, but at the same time, 28.60% people are easily influenced by other people's opinions, and even 2.80% people listen to their parents.
3. Quality of life experience
Quality of life (QoL), also known as quality of life and quality of life, is based on the new concept of health advocated by WHO and reflects the transformation of medical model from biomedical model to bio-psychological-social medical model. The quality of life of college students refers to their objective state and subjective feelings about the current life experience. In order to fully understand the quality of life of college students, this survey is used as an indicator to measure the quality of life of college students, including basic emotions, satisfaction with life and the degree of enrichment of daily life.
Happiness largely determines the quality of life. Wieseman, an American psychologist, measured happiness by "personal feelings" scale because life is a complete experience. Happiness can inspire people to move forward and be positive; Happiness can make people refreshed and full of confidence in their future life; Happiness can motivate people to work hard to complete tasks; Happiness can make people bear the pressure and burden of life, and improve their ability and endurance to bear setbacks and overcome pain. Happy people are good at adapting to difficulties and can look for and wait for light in the dark. However, in our survey, only 34.7% of college students said that they were always happy, 58. 10% were sometimes happy and sometimes unhappy, and 7.20% were often unhappy.
Regarding "Is there anything that makes you happy today", 36.50% of college students can feel happy on a normal day. For those "happy" college students, most of their happiness comes from daily life, such as "eating a hot breakfast", "playing with friends", "seeing dazzling paintings makes people fall in love", "walking with their boyfriends" and "shopping". However, 29.20% of the students bluntly said that they were "not happy" that day, and 34.30% of the students were undecided. Whether a person is happy or not depends on whether his mentality is positive or not. There is no lack of happiness in life, but a pair of eyes to look for and a heart to feel happy. Happiness and life satisfaction are directly related. Whether you have a happy and positive attitude will directly affect the quality of life of college students.
According to the contents of the interviewees, the troubles of college students mainly come from four aspects, among which the biggest trouble is "dissatisfaction with some aspects of themselves", accounting for 45. 10%. First of all, I am not satisfied with my appearance, such as being short, too fat and having a flat nose. Secondly, carelessness; Third, there are some physical or personality defects, such as unsociable, too stupid and stuttering. It should be pointed out that these dissatisfaction are the subjective feelings of college students and have no absolute connection with their objective reality.
The second biggest worry is related to study, accounting for 2 1.50%. Learning is the most basic task of college students. Although the intensity of this pressure is moderate, it is not eternal, but its influence cannot be underestimated because of its long duration. College students, in particular, must further create conditions and make further efforts to meet the needs of fierce social competition. They either struggle for postgraduate entrance examination or attend training courses of various skills in order to obtain various "certificates". Too many study clues and heavy study tasks have brought great pressure to college students.
The third biggest worry comes from interpersonal communication, accounting for 15.60%, mainly including quarreling with classmates, being wronged or laughed at, being wronged, being bullied, having no one to play with, having no friends and being afraid of loneliness.
The fourth biggest worry is family, accounting for 9.00%, mainly including parents interfering with themselves everywhere, having difficulty communicating with their parents, parents not knowing themselves and having a bad relationship with their parents.
Third, research conclusions and countermeasures
(A) Research conclusions
1. College students have formed a basic understanding of life phenomenon, but there is a certain degree of cognitive deviation about death phenomenon.
2. Most college students have a positive attitude towards themselves, a clear learning motivation, and some experience and understanding of the value of life, but they have a shallow level, narrow vision and lack self-awareness and initiative.
3. College students basically have the ability and endurance to withstand life pressure and setbacks, and their mentality is positive, but their quality of life needs to be improved.
(2) Countermeasures
Modern education should shoulder the heavy responsibility of life education, attach importance to the cultivation of emotion, educate students to respect life and realize the value and loveliness of life, so as to change from cherishing life to pursuing the meaning of life, improve the quality of life and create the value of life.
1. Guide college students to correctly understand the meaning of life and sublimate the value of life.
"'life' itself means people's feelings, enjoyment, passion, sweetness and bitterness, sadness and joy, love and hate, bondage and freedom. There are activities in the movement of life, rebirth in decline, realization in release, and everything is unfolding in contradiction and tension. This is the' life' of life and the' life' of life. " [3] We hope that students can know, understand, appreciate, respect and cherish life by understanding the origin, development and end of life, so as to establish an optimistic and positive outlook on life and values and promote the comprehensive and balanced development of physical, psychological and social adaptability.
The famous philosopher Tillich pointed out: "As a spiritual completion, life contains both truth and passion;" It includes both submission and libido; It contains both justice and strong will. If one of these two local chronicles is absorbed by its stakeholders, then the rest is either abstract law or chaotic movement. " [4] In fact, the significance of human life lies in the pursuit of a broader ideal and realm of life, in order to achieve the harmonious unity of truth, goodness and beauty, thus providing the highest support for all human thoughts and behaviors, that is, the foundation of human survival. Life is the life of the living world. The educational world with the school as its spatial scope also has a natural and inseparable connection with the life world. Higher education should enable college students to correctly understand and love the life world and become people in it. It is an important mission of contemporary university education to help the educated change from natural life to social life, from low-level life to high-level life, and gradually promote individual socialization and form a healthy life personality.
2. Take the ideological and political theory teaching as the main channel, build a life-oriented classroom, develop the classroom potential, and stimulate the life value of college students.
Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan has already listed the course "Philosophy of Life" as a common compulsory course, and set up a professional ethics committee to promote professional ethics courses in all departments, taking philosophy of life, introduction to university and professional ethics as the basic courses of "holistic education", hoping that students can cherish life more after such learning. We should learn from these experiences, carry out life education and incorporate life education courses into the university education plan. In the moral education class in Chinese mainland, there is no detailed chapter on life education in the current textbooks of ideological and political theory courses, and the teachers of ideological and political theory courses pay little attention to this content. We should increase the chapters of life education, pay more attention to the survival and development of students, and cultivate students' awareness of life. In the process of life education, we should take the individual life value of college students as the starting point, cultivate a sound life consciousness as the core, and cultivate good behaviors that cherish life as the goal. Let students cherish their own life value, know how to maximize this value, and then cherish the lives of others, treat others with love, pursue wisdom and morality, actively devote themselves to their own labor and creation, repay the world and contribute to others, so as to reach the highest realm beyond life.
3. Carry out a variety of campus cultural activities and social practice activities, so that college students can experience life and cultivate their understanding of life.
The purpose of life education is to enable individuals not only to learn the knowledge and skills needed for life, but also to have rich life accomplishment and establish a good interactive relationship with others, society and nature. Through various forms of extracurricular activities on campus, we can master life knowledge in practice and form a correct attitude and consciousness towards life. Therefore, colleges and universities can guide students to establish a positive and healthy scientific outlook on life by creating a good campus environment, provide healthy and reasonable channels for students' bad emotions, and avoid destructive outbreaks; Create successful opportunities for college students' social behavior and avoid long-term setbacks and inner conflicts; Cultivate college students' effective psychological defense mechanism and help them learn to protect themselves and others; Guide college students to understand the positive significance of the negative state of life, for example, guide them to learn to find pleasure in pain, be good at treating life pain in a more intense pain background, help them seek the unique meaning and value of life in pain, and make them rediscover and experience the beauty of life and live a strong life.
4. Actively play the role of college counselors and establish an active and effective early warning and intervention mechanism.
University counselors and students are "trinity" (eating together, living together, and being classmates together), and they get along with each other day and night, which is the group that knows the actual situation of students best. We can give full play to this advantage of counselors and establish an active and effective early warning and intervention mechanism. Counselors should often talk with students, solve students' psychological problems and contradictions in academic, interpersonal, economic, employment and other aspects in a timely and effective manner, relieve their psychological pressure, and nip the idea of suicide in the bud. Through the establishment of college students' mental health files, a mental health early warning and intervention mechanism is formed, which integrates general survey, consultation, follow-up and intervention adjustment, so as to keep abreast of students' psychological changes at any time and take positive countermeasures.
5. Realize the integration of educational functions of school, family and society, and create a good educational environment for college students' life values.
Life is holistic and complete, and the implementation of life education cannot be limited to schools. The whole social environment is a great environment for students to study and the best teaching material for life education. The daily life of the family contains the factors of life education everywhere. In order to create a good educational environment for college students, schools, families and society should integrate their respective educational functions. Life education is a complex system engineering. To achieve satisfactory results, we need good school education, harmonious family relations, harmonious neighborhood communication and positive social atmosphere. Only with the support and cooperation in many aspects can we achieve the desired results.
In modern society, people-oriented and rational ultimate concern for life is the trend of world development. Colleges and universities shoulder the heavy responsibility of cultivating talents for building a harmonious society. We must fundamentally reflect on the contradiction between the prominence and absence of the value of life education in colleges and universities, strive to explore effective ways to carry out life education, and promote the vigorous development of life education in colleges and universities.