Research On The Development Of Instruction Theory From The Perspective Of Methodology

Humans are rational beings and reflective beings as well. The results which humans think rationally about teaching phenomena and teaching activities are represented as theory of instruction. Therefore, the theory of instruction is rational entity in itself. Presently, there exist many issues which need solving during the development of the theory of instruction, and at the same time, the theory of instruction, as a rational entity, requires self-criticism and self-reflection. Accordingly, in this thesis the developmental history of the theory of instruction was studied deeply and systematically because of its own realistic plight and need of self-reflection. The research was carried out from the viewing angle of methodology, multiply utilizing archival research, historical research, comparative study and logical analysis.The whole thesis was divided into six parts:Part One is about introduction. Strictly, the theory of instruction is an import in china. In recent years, there have appeared many voices of constructing the theoretic system of instruction with Chinese features, and developing the indigenized theory of instruction. Is there any inheritance of the theory of instruction of local characteristics in the traditional Chinese educational thoughts? How did the theory of instruction develop in history? Are there any laws of development in China which are the same as those in other parts of the word? To answer these questions means offering use of references and revelations to the development of Chinese theory of instruction. The causes of this research, the relational literature reviews, the aims and significance of the thesis, the thinking and methods of the thesis, the difficult and important points and the creativity of the thesis were dealt with in this part.Part two is concerned with examining and differentiating the theory of instruction in history. Teaching is the unique social activity of the humans. The teaching activity has been on since the primitive society. In the long history of human development, the teaching activity progressed and developed with the evolution of the society. For that reason, it was necessary to hackle the basic evolving ideas of the theory of instruction at home and broad and make sure of the connotation of the theory of instruction. Different connotations of the theory of instruction reflect different ways of thinking, namely, different kinds of methodology so it is necessary to make clear the connotation and orientation of the theory of instruction. In this thesis, it was with discipline consciousness that the theory of instruction, as a subject, combed and examined the foreign teaching ideas and theory. According to the aims of the theory of instruction, the orientation of the theory of instruction was determined in this thesis. That is, the historical examination of the theory of instruction was carried out only at the level of the philosophical methodology.The development of the theory of instruction in foreign countries is dealt with in Part Three. The course of the scientizing of the theory of instruction was that of the maturing of the ideas and thoughts of teaching, that of the perceptivity growing into rationality gradually, and that of the rationalizing of human ideas and thoughts of teaching. The point of this part hackled the development of the theory of instruction in foreign countries utilizing the methodology of philosophical rationalism as a side and rationality as a clue, development of the theory of instruction included five periods. The first period was pre-rational phase in which representative thoughts were the teaching ideas of Sophists, Plato and scholasticism. The enlightenment and establishment of rationality was the second phase. In this period, the teaching ideas of Baconic empirism and that of Great Didactic written by Comenius were representative. The third period was that of rational consciousness. The development of rationality offered the new methodological base to the theory of instruction. The representative figure was Herbart. The vague period of the development of rationality was the fourth period. The New Education Movement in Europe and The Progressive Education in America developed with contradictions and conflicts between teaching and education, and with confusion and choices. Many philosophical thoughts became the methodological base and the theory of instruction assumed vague faced with more confusion on the way of rationality and irrationality. The last period was the development of "rational" rationality. In this period, the development of the theory of instruction was not limited by the basic effect of the philosophical methodology any more. The theory of instruction made a rational choice between rationality and irrationality and entered upon a new period of development.Part four:Pursuit of methodology of Chinese instructional theory. Though many scholars view that Chinese instructional theory is the "import", in the long history of China's education, there exist abundant instruction thoughts with modern value, which demands deep digging, perception, lineage and development. This part sets the Opium war in1860as the division point, when China opened up door to the world, and instruction theory faced impact and development, and discusses the Chinese instruction theory in the perspective of traditional instructional theory and modern one. Plain dialectical thoughts, humanity thoughts in traditional Chinese instruction theory are the philosophical foundation of instructional theory; apocalyptical predication and analogical logic are logical clue of the instructional theory, and they both constitute the methodology of traditional instruction theory, which impels the progress of Chinese traditional instructional theory. In the process of passive adoption and active construction, modern Chinese instructional theory has all along followed the pattern of borrowing ideas and learning from others, of which, the methodology expresses unary Marxist philosophical methodology and pluralistic philosophical thoughts. Therefore, such a progress of Chinese instructional theory has inherited the tradition, unceasingly in search of the path of scientific progress.Part five:Comparison of methodologies of Chinese and foreign instructional theories. The similarities of Chinese and foreign instructional theories in terms of methodology lie in the pursuit of substantial thinking of "Seiendes" and "dialectical" relational thinking; the particularities of these two theories are characterized by methodological number of Monism vs. Pluralism; methodological operational thought of introspection vs. observation as well as different methodological origins. In accordance with the basic viewpoint of dialectical materialism, objects exist as the result of their comparison and therefore manifest their own value. By comparison, this part intends to clarify the similarities and particularities of Chinese and foreign instructional theories, and dig deeper for their methodological origins behind for the sake of better borrowing advanced or more mature instructional theories and pushing forward the construction and development of the discipline of Chinese instructional theory. The comparison paves the way for questing for laws of instructional theory progress. The quest for laws, on one hand, urge people to conduct research on instructional theory by law; and on the other, deepen people's cognition on its developmental law so as to bring about more favorable conditions fro its future progress. The law represent itself as that the progress of instructional theory is the spiral process of perceptual knowledge and rational knowledge; the contradiction of teaching practice and instructional cognition is the fundamental dynamic force of instructional theory; practical relationship is the foundation of all relationships in the theoretical progress and the quest for essence and laws is the eternal theme of its progress.Part six:The growing point of progress of instructional theory. Looking back the history of world instructional theory, rationality and scientification are the way out through its development and will inevitably be the theme of the developmental process. This part takes the characteristics of Chinese instructional theory as the starting point, discusses the cause of instructional progress as its foundation, and accordingly clarifies the growing point of instructional theory. The growing point is the key issue of instructional theory progress. To get the key issue help open up the expansive path for the theory growth, and enhance the growth to the uttermost. Through the history, every great breakthrough and innovation in the field of instructional theory has stemmed from the breakthrough and reselection of its growing point. The fundamental boosting power of the external growth of instructional theory---ethodology necessarily provides clues for its progress; furthermore, the characteristics of practical activities of teaching and the theory itself likewise have implications for the new growing point of the theoretical progress. As for the Chinese instructional theory in reality, focus on the practicality of instructional theory is the possible growing point of instructional theory progress.Creativity of this research lies in the two aspects. One is the creativity in research perspective. The research investigates the history and existing of instructional theory from the methodological point of view, and expects to do a great deal of good to construction and development of the discipline of modern instructional theory. With regard to the materials obtained, this research is the first to comprehensively investigate and compare foreign and Chinese instructional theory. Second is the creativity in viewpoints. The research deliberates the historical development, current existence and future trend of instructional theory. Comparatively, survey from the perspective of methodology will offer implications for the progress and trend of instructional theory.