Generation Of Moral Values In School Education

The legitimacy and effectiveness of school moral education has always been focused in the field of moral education research. Facing the whirling multicultural society and many survival difficulties, these issues have come into the research hotspot. The whole moral system is built on moral values, but the legitimacy of school moral education is not only in the legitimacy of morality, but also in how to understand and deal with moral values. The legitimacy of school education is a basis for us to judge the effectiveness of it, because effectiveness must be legitimate, and it embodies to what extent the educational activities have achieved the legitimate goals of moral education, and how much has been contributed to realize moral values by school education. So moral values cannot be bypassed when the issues about the legitimacy and effectiveness of moral education are thought. Traditional research on moral values pays much more attention to the content, structure and static characteristics of moral values while pays too less emphasis on their generation; and traditional school moral education pays much more attention to the internalization of ready moral values while pays too less emphasis on fostering the system that boosts the generation, transformation and sublimation of moral values. Therefore, people's attitudes to moral values and the value-orientation of school moral education should be reflected deeply. In this study the following problems will be answered: First, how should school education look upon and deal with moral values? Second, what value-orientation should be chosen by school moral education? It is very urgent and significant for the people to get legitimacy beliefs on school moral education and for schools to improve their effectiveness of moral education.By analyzing the situation and theoretical needs of school moral education, this study will reach the following gaols: 1. Establish the generativism of moral values to stimulate the consciousness of the research and practice on the generation of moral values. 2. To explore the ought value-orientation of school moral education and confirm the necessity to establish the generative-moral-value-oriented education. 3.To put up a preliminary set of goals and strategies by analyzing the factors and conditions for the generation of moral values to provide a theoretical basis for constructing practical models of generative-moral-value-oriented education.The main methods adopted in this study are system philosophy method and generativism method. In addition, some materials selected from ethics, psychology, pedagogy, culturology and education philosophy, system philosophy, axiology, etc. are analyzed and synthesized to induct and deduct the theoretical thoughts. This study starts from the generation of moral values, and reflects the shortcomings of traditional moral education to establish a new value-orientation of school moral education. There's a logical order as following:Firstly, generativism of moral education is established as the starting point of deduction. By analyzing and synthesizing the documents in ethics, psychology, pedagogy, culturology and education philosophy, system philosophy, axiology, etc. the manifest form, conscious form and normal form of moral values are distinguished; the logical path of the generation, transformation and sublimation of moral values are explored; and the basic law of the internalization of moral values is expatiated, and the foundation and conditions are described. The generativism of moral values has some basic points: moral values come from the needs of human's intersubjective being, and the system of morality opens to the generativeness of moral values; the manifest form, conscious form and normal form are reunified to human itself as a intersubjective being; The generation of moral values refers to the process and results of the occurrence, transformation and sublimation of them; the discovery, internalization and achievement are important parts of the course of the generation of moral values in that the transformation and sublimation of moral values need the subject to cognize and practise them (See Chapter I).Secondly, the unique position, mission and advantages for the generation of moral values of school education is analyzed to prompt that there is a reasonable need to construct a new value-orientation of moral education. The moral values have priority in the system of human values. Moral values to some extent exceed the non-moral values, and have the function to pre-select the subject's behavior. And moral values have non-utilitarian characteristics. But the priority of moral values is rational rather than spontaneous, so it needs to be instructed by education to discover and practice the priority of moral values. School is a place to generate moral values self-consciously and has the mission to carry out it theoretically and practically. So school should play to their strengths, overcome its limitations and create necessary conditions to fulfill its mission (see chapter II).Thirdly, by questioning step by step to review the limitations of the value-orientation of traditional moral education, and demonstrate the necessity to set a new value-orientation of school moral education. Non-moral-value-oriented and ready- moral- value-oriented moral education needn't question the bases and orientations, but school moral education has the mission to prompt the generation of moral values, so the questions"where from"and"where to go"must be asked. By questioning the ought goals of school moral education the ought value-orientation can be found at last (see chapter III).Fourthly, describe the causal links in the generation of moral values in school education by analyzing the factors of individual generation of moral values. These factors are essential for generating moral values, but they are often overlooked by traditional school moral education, and in school there are no enough appropriate conditions created. Therefore, it is imperative to construct a new value-orientation of moral education. The subjective elements include cognitive ability, consciousness of intersujectiveness, the spirit to love morality, and consciousness of ultimate value. The environmental factors include the style of family education, moral stress in society, social support systems, ethical culture and foreign cultures. The procedural elements include enculturation, life experience, interpersonal communication and enterprise practices, etc. All these factors are important for generating moral values(See Chapter IV).Finally, the tasks, strategies and evaluation orientation for generating moral values in school education are demonstrated to express the whole idea for the generative-moral-value -oriented education, and this is looked upon as the end-result of the generativism of moral values. The basic task of moral education in school is demonstrated as improving the subject's system of moral values and fostering their generative mechanism for moral values, as well as establishing a stable, mature environment and an external strengthening mechanism for them (See chapter V).The following conclusions are reached by literature analyzing and logical reasoning. 1. Moral values are generated rather than ready-made; and the internalization of moral values in school education is only a part of the process of the generation of moral values. 2. Only generative-moral-value-oriented education can fully carry out the mission of moral education in that it is not only concerned about the being need of human but also the ultimate goal of moral life, and it emphasizes both the immediate being and the ultimate meaning of human beings.