Keywords the significance of distance education; Distance education theory; The essence of distance education; Epistemological epistemological
introduce
People can still remember that distance education was once regarded as a secondary position, and its role was only to provide some opportunities for those who were at a disadvantage in education to improve themselves. At that time, distance education had not been widely recognized academically. However, nowadays, distance education has been recognized as a teaching mode, which is not only very important to society, but also very effective in education. The Handbook of Distance Education (2003) edited by Moore and Anderson is a concrete example. On the fourth page of this 900-page handbook, Moore pointed out that distance education currently dominates the agenda of policy makers, managers, teachers and students in different educational fields. We can even say that distance education is the most important development in the education field in the past 25 years.
Distance education has been recognized today, but its evolution and development is quite long. /kloc-correspondence education began to take shape in the 0/8th century, and it was not organized systematically until19th and 20th centuries. Today, various multimedia distance education modes have become very common. Undoubtedly, computers have brought many possibilities for distance education, and people realize that its potential is immeasurable. In fact, Americans often have a misunderstanding that distance education came into being after the emergence of modern information technology. Many studies have described, analyzed and discussed the actual situation of distance education (for example, Holmberg,1995; Lockwood,1995; Moore and Kelsley,1996; Verdun and Clark, 199 1). With the maturity and acceptance of distance education theory, scholars are more and more interested in its background.
It is generally believed that the characteristic of distance education is that teachers and students do not need to face each other, and other media can replace them, but teaching and learning are equally effective. Many studies have proved that this statement is correct. In many countries, thousands of students have passed exams, acquired relevant knowledge and skills and obtained degrees. However, there are also some viewpoints that it is of little effect to further establish the theory of distance education, but many theoretical studies are aimed at the nature and function of distance education. Some researchers try to establish a testable theory based on empirical research.
Desmond Kevin Keegan believes that a valuable theory should have the following characteristics:
"In the final analysis, any theory should be summed up in a phrase, a sentence or a paragraph. The combination of theory and practical research can provide a basis for the requirements, objectives and implementation of education. A solid distance education theory should become an effective standard for political decision-making, financial decision-making, educational decision-making and social decision-making. " (Kevin Keegan, 1983: 3 pages)
Unfortunately, up to now, there is still no theory that can fully meet Kevin Keegan's requirements. This paper investigates a series of studies on the nature and essence of distance education, some of which try to put forward some verifiable theories and link distance education with general education theories. It must be pointed out that in addition to several theoretical models to be discussed below, other models not mentioned are also quite important. The reader can refer to Kevin Keegan's paper (1993).
The Nature and Essence of Distance Education
First of all, we must define what is "distance education". There is no doubt that Kevin Keegan's definition is the most refined. According to him, distance education includes the following features (Keegan, page 1990: 44):
Compared with traditional face-to-face education, in the process of distance education, teachers and students are quasi-separated;
Compared with self-taught and self-taught courses, the organization of distance education has certain influence on the planning and compilation of teaching materials and the provision of student support services;
Printed matter, audio tapes, video recording equipment and computers not only connect teachers and students, but also are the carriers of course content;
In distance education, communication goes both ways. On the one hand, students can passively benefit from communication, on the other hand, they can actively communicate. For the latter point, other forms of technical application can't do it;
In the process of distance learning, there is no lasting learning community, so students often receive teaching individually rather than collectively; However, distance students occasionally get together for teaching or socializing.
With the advent of computers, the last point above is no longer valid. Kevin Keegan has repeatedly emphasized this point in his recent works. In asynchronous electronic conferences, organized or spontaneous groups often appear.
In fact, long before Kevin Keegan put forward his definition, Otto Peters had used the concept of "industrialized teaching mode" to explain and analyze distance education. This definition seems to be consistent with Kevin Keegan's. Peters pointed out that the planning, reasonable procedures, division of labor, mechanization, automation, control and inspection of distance education coincide with some characteristics of modern industry. This model may not be regarded as a definition, but it helps us to understand the essence of distance education. For distance education in most countries in the world, this model can be said to be quite practical. Distance education in these countries has the characteristics of individualization and autonomous learning. Nevertheless, the distance education applied by many American universities seems to have nothing to do with Peters' definition (Peters,1973; 1989)。
From the beginning, people realized that distance education can improve students' learning independence. But unfortunately, distance education is often used for cramming, rigid teaching, and even for instilling ideas. 19 In the 1950s and 1960s, Charles Wedemayer discussed this issue and proposed some methods to modify distance learning to meet learners' needs, conditions and expectations. In fact, he used the word "autonomous learning" instead of the general "distance education". According to him, autonomous learning includes the following series of necessary conditions (Wedemayer, 1973, p. 36):
No matter whether there are teachers in the same place at the same time, no matter where there are students, even if there is only one student, they should be given the opportunity to learn;
● Students must take greater responsibility for learning;
● The media and technology used should be closely related in design and application; In other words, different media or technologies must complement each other and cooperate with related disciplines and teaching plans;
● The teaching system should not impose too many restrictions on the place, speed, method and order of students' learning, but should evaluate learners according to whether they have achieved their learning goals;
● Students should be able to adjust their study according to their own pace and choose when to start and when to end. On the other hand, the teaching system must match the short-term and long-term goals, personal situation and characteristics of learners.
Wedemayer's Basic Theory of Autonomous Learning seems to be similar in other fields, including educational philosophy, psychology, behavioral psychology, psychoanalytic theory, social anthropology, phenomenological theory, educational technology and general ethics. Wedemayer's comments on general ethics are as follows: "We must serve the people, not the institutions. Autonomous learning means a good moral practice, that is, students can freely choose the way to realize education "(Wedemayer, 1973, pages 95-96).
Wedemayer emphasized the independence of distance education, which inspired some scholars and continued their research along this road. Among them, michael moore is undoubtedly the most influential. He developed a set of autonomous learning theory, which classifies courses through two dimensions: autonomy and interaction distance, which can be expressed by "dialogue" and "structure":
"Autonomy refers to the degree to which students can decide to choose goals, resources and evaluation procedures ... In distance education, distance depends on dialogue and structure. Structure refers to the extent to which the objectives, implementation plans and evaluation procedures of teaching courses can be modified to match the specific objectives, implementation plans and evaluation procedures of students' learning plans. Dialogue refers to how much interaction there is between learners and teachers ... "(Moore, 1977, p. 33).
According to Moore's logic, increasing dialogue means narrowing the distance of interaction, which can be achieved through effective use of media. Saba, 1989), based on Moore's theory, puts forward that effective use of images and sounds can reduce the virtual distance. Although Moore agrees to develop learners' independence in an all-round way, he emphasizes through some empirical studies that autonomous learners accept distance learning on the one hand, but they are also willing to accept learning guidance on the other.
Liao Sha (Ljos? Lan, 1993) vividly discusses a series of different ways to understand distance education, and suggests discussing distance education from a philosophical point of view. In this respect, the principle of complementarity put forward by the famous physicist niels bohr is of great significance in epistemology.
Holmberg put forward further ideas on how to understand distance education. He believes that whether learners and teachers can understand each other has a great influence on students' success and interest in learning. This leads to the theory of teacher-student communication, which can be verified and will be expounded later.
Verifiable theory of distance education
Hilary Peraton, a famous scholar, also gave some thoughts on distance education. He believes that a theory cannot cover all aspects of education. Instead, he proposed 14 hypotheses, and the following three can be taken as examples (Perraton, 198 1):
Traditional education requires teachers and students to be in the same time and space, and the teacher-student ratio is often limited, while distance education breaks this obstacle and makes the education plan easier to expand;
● Through distance education, some potential students who fail to get general education opportunities can benefit from it;
● Dialogue and communication can be realized in distance education through some organizational methods.
These assumptions can be verified, but in fact, someone has done this work. On the other hand, it is also confirmed by practical work. These assumptions can be further theorized and often accepted by people. As for the all-encompassing theory, it is generally considered impossible now.
In addition, Holmberg, the author of this paper, has developed a set of theories, which not only describes distance education, but also puts forward many testable hypotheses, among which 12 relates to distance learning, 13 to distance teaching and 7 to organization and management. This theory can be summarized as follows (Holmberg, page 1995, page 175-79):
Interpersonal relationships, fun of learning, compassion, trust among students and support from tutors and administrators are all very important for distance students. Compassion and sense of belonging can improve students' learning motivation and produce positive learning results. To convey this feeling, the following conditions are necessary: students must be able to participate in decision-making; Learning content must be based on students' existing knowledge; Write the learning content through problem solving and dialogue; Students interact openly and asynchronously with tutors and other supporters; The organizational structure and administrative procedures should be as open as possible.
Holmberg, Xu Mo and Obermaier (1982) and Holmberg (1995) all verified this theory and tested its basic assumptions. These studies examine how learners view the learning content written through dialogue and the learning effect achieved by students after adopting more traditional learning forms. The result of this verification is quite positive, but the statistical significance is not enough. If we use Popper's strict theoretical falsification method, we can draw the conclusion that this theory is not falsifiable, but it is acceptable in an ad hoc sense.
Boyd, 1993) has developed a set of standardized distance education theories for the World Wide Web era, which is quite interesting, but also very complicated. This theory attempts to combine system theory (Beer, 1985) with "democratic system aimed at promoting human understanding" (Beer, 1985: p. 246).
Boyd pointed out that the theory of distance education must be regarded as "an organizational theory, and teaching theory is also included" (page 234). In addition, Boyd also introduced his core ideas. He claimed that the development of modern communication and teaching content forms provided opportunities for distance education, "transforming it from an educational form-providing knowledge and academic education for those who are interested in learning but in remote areas-to an important method to build a diversified learning community. In this community composed of people from all directions, different people's abilities can complement each other, so as to build a better society "(22 his system includes the function of the organization and the expectation of development (he called it the discussion space of expectation intelligence). The system can also be used for brainstorming to explore other long-term goals, or for enrollment and marketing, resource allocation and teaching design. This includes the "learning-teaching dialogue-space system" that provides support for students. Boyd listed eight functional subsystems of his system structure: students' psychological structure, goals, subject content, media and learning places (such as home and learning center). ), social structure, auxiliary materials and control. These functions are "to enable learning dialogue" so that the needs of all relevant personnel "can be integrated to achieve the best practice and development of all people" (page 247).
Boyd believes that education refers to rearranging virtual organisms that exist in the human nervous system to some extent. In addition, he also discussed how to improve the situation of these organisms, how modern technology can assist communication, and how to control large and complex organizations and a large number of students. Boyd put forward "an outline of normative theory to assist designers and researchers of distance education, and in this process, quasi-intelligent multi-mode computer communication or' virtual space' can provide some assistance" (page 252). On the one hand, several models he proposed are helpful to the development of learning, on the other hand, they are helpful to the establishment of overall legitimacy and equality (page 249). But he didn't discuss the details of this theory clearly. However, he claims that his theory may be falsifiable, for example, if the norms involved are not accepted, too trivial or "fail to bring the expected positive effect". Finally, he even said, "This may be a dead end." This seems too pessimistic. However, if the hypothesis of this theory can be written in clear words, it may attract more attention.
In fact, Boyd's theory does provide a basis for the decision-making of education and social issues, and it seems to be more in line with the requirements put forward in the first part of this paper than other theories. We can regard it as a guide to decision-making.
Distance education and general education theory
In this paper, it is pointed out that the theory of distance education is based on general education theory, and Wedemayer's concept of "autonomous learning" is an example. As early as 1979, John Bot (John B.? Browse? Th) The application of some influential educational theories in distance education is systematically reviewed, including Skinner's behavior control model, Rosskopf's written teaching model, Ausubel's principle of advanced organizer, Gagne's structured communication, Bruner's discovery learning and Rogers'. These models are all suitable for distance education, and the structure and form of Skinner, Gagne, Ausubel and Egan theories are more suitable for this educational category. As for the more open model of Bruner and Rogers, if it is to be applied to distance education, some special measures (especially real-time discontinuous communication and telephone) need to be taken. Bot pointed out that according to these models, we can put forward some new ideas for distance education.
In the subsequent general education theory, the concept of "constructivism" appeared. According to this concept, each learner will build his own knowledge through his individual interaction with the learning content, so different learners learn different things from the same course. A Swedish study (Johansson, 1999) clearly puts forward how to use this model reasonably, and puts forward several principles that are helpful to constructive learning: motivating students, coordinating theory with students' experience, multiple perspectives and considering metacognition. Extreme constructivism holds that objective things don't exist, and people's knowledge acquisition is constructed through social interaction, which does not need to be based on objectivity. This view is very difficult to accept, because it means that physical events and surgery based on anatomy do not represent objective or interactive subjective facts. However, if properly interpreted and applied, constructivism "can be effectively used as the basis of distance learning environment." These environments must come from real schoolwork, and learners need to participate in meaningful and problem-solving thinking; The meaning should be negotiated and reflect what you have learned "(Jonassen et al.,1995,21).
Finally, distance educators must realize that different teaching viewpoints are face-to-face teaching or distance teaching through the media. Seeing teaching as "knowledge infusion from one container to another" (Fox, 1983: 15 1 page) is quite different from seeing teaching as promoting learners' intellectual development. In fact, distance educators already know that the latter explanation is preferable. This means that we need to help students learn, and the focus of education (including distance education) is "learning" rather than "teaching".