The Moral Problems Of Model Education In China

In the field of education, both in theory and in practice, model education has been, from ancient China, regarded as a pervasive, important yet unique way to serve moral education. However, the effects of it have been thrown doubts on and thus more and more research have been conducted in this field. The aims of the present study are to find out models, look into the essence and deep meaning of models and model education, specify the essence of moral education and to point out the problems in using models for moral education. Based on the analyses, the paper will examine the feasibility of using models to enhance moral education so that a new theoretical perspective and some implications can be derived in dealing with the inefficiency of moral education in Chinese school settings.The fundamental views are as follows:a model is, in fact, a standard, the purpose of which is intended to provide something for others to follow. It is more exactly to be called a kind of cultivation. Cultivation is a flexible means of control and an external force of constraints, control and specifications on people. Hence, it is basically heteronomous. And morality is self-disciplined, whose fundamental function is to safeguard a better world for people to live in and develop. It is self-sufficient and does not depend on any external forces, while morality is self-disciplined, based itself on people's rational decisions, free and voluntary practices. Therefore, model education and moral education are essentially contradictory; what's more, due to the existence of too many controls in model education, the individual student's "self" is getting lost, yet with the occurrence of a lot more "in moral" behaviours. Therefore, it is self-evident that the heteronomous way to cultivate students' self-discipline is like fishing in the air. It is not good for the exertion of students'subjective initiative and the training of their self-discipline spirit. However, the key to moral education is to equip them with "for moral" behaviours and self-discipline spirits, the realization of which depends on the former. By analysing the essence of models, model education, moral and moral education, the present paper tries to find out the potential problems and solve the disadvantages so as to enhance the value of model education in moral education.The paper consists of five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the whole paper, including a brief look at the background, significance, research design and a overall review on relevant literature; the second chapter focuses on the present situation of model education in moral education in our country;Analyses on the essence, features and the current task of models and model education are to be covered in the third chapter; in the fourth chapter, the problems caused by the application of model education in our Chinese school settings are probed into; and how to exert the moral value of models to it utmost is described in the last chapter.