A Study Of Values In Lower Form Malaysian National Secondary School Chinese Textbooks

In Malaysia, Chinese textbooks are students'basic "Chinese Language Encyclopedia" and play an important role in the classroom teaching and learning process. A Chinese textbook contains various fields of knowledge, all types of training skills and a variety of explicit or implicit values. Since independence 55 years ago, the Lower Form Malaysian National Secondary School Chinese textbooks had undergone three major revisions, which were in the 1960s,1980s and early 21st century. The first two sets of Chinese textbooks were used up for 15 to 30 years, of which the contents maybe outdated, the concepts maybe inaccurate and the values inculcated may be deviated from the social values. The current Chinese textbook has just entered its tenth year, and still waiting for instruction to be revised.A good textbook can satisfy students' intellectual curiosity, develop their habit of learning, shape their values, and brings life-long benefit to them. However, what are the contents and values covered in the Chinese Curriculum? What kind of Chinese textbooks should we provide to the students to meet the requirement of curriculum, to fulfill their needs of psychological development and enhance the process of Chinese language learning, as well as to help them to master all kinds of knowledge and shape their personal values? How to present the contents of these values effectively and distribute them reasonably in the textbook? Based on the above questions, we try to review the current Lower Form Malaysian National Secondary School Chinese textbooks to explore their values and presentations. Through empirical research, we investigated the influence of values in Chinese textbooks on classroom teaching in order to understand the relationship and influence of the values in these textbooks on teachers' teaching in classroom as well as students' individual learning of Chinese Language. The results of this study will contribute to the policy implementation related to the national values education in the Chinese education. They also provide information related to the textbook development and serve as a useful reference source to the Chinese language education planners and textbook writers. The full text is divided into six main chapters.The first chapter elaborates the theories of this study. Firstly, it describes the essence of values, which includes the features of values, the formation of values, and the classification of values. Then it discusses the relationship between Chinese education and values, summarizes the features and functions of the Chinese Curriculum, as well as the values in Chinese education. Finally it discusses the relationship of Chinese textbooks and values, explains the features and functions of Chinese textbooks and the values in the textbooks.The second chapter explores the evolution of values in Chinese textbooks before and after Malaysia's independence. Firstly, it elaborates the values in textbooks from the old-style Chinese private schools (SiShu) of the Chinese immigrants in Malaya. Then it discusses the values in textbooks from new-type Chinese private schools reformed from SiShu and followed the education system of China during the colonial period to the period before World Warâ…¡. In addition, it discusses the values in textbooks during the British Colonial Government intervention, which was after World Warâ…¡and before Malaya's independence. Lastly, it analyzes the localization of Lower Form Chinese textbooks used in National Secondary School in the 1960s and 1980s after Malaysia's independence.The third chapter to the fifth chapter analyze the contents of values in the current Malaysian Lower Form National Secondary School Chinese textbooks. The third chapter analyzes the values in the Chinese textbooks. In this part, a framework on the contents of values is constructed. This is followed by the analysis of the research areas, such as texts, exercises, activities and illustrations respectively. We interpret the statistical meaning of values in each area which has been presented. Next, we prove whether the values presented in each area had met the requirements of the Chinese Curriculum, and discuss whether their distribution was reasonable. The fourth chapter explains how values have been presented in each area of textbooks. It begins from the literatures reviews of theories to explore the uniqueness of the presented values and the dual values of texts presentation in the Chinese textbooks. This is followed by the statistical analysis of the content of the presented values, and the discussion on the effectiveness of these values. The fifth chapter focuses on an empirical research. Questionnaires were used to explore the impact of the values in the current Chinese textbooks on two variables, which are the classroom teaching and learning process. Through surveying of teachers, we were able to understand the relationship and influence of the values in the textbooks and classroom teaching. At the same time, we had explored the teachers' grasp of the contents of values in the textbooks. On the other hand, the relationship and influence of Chinese textbooks on students' classroom learning as well as on their Chinese Language learning situations can also be obtained through surveying the students.The sixth chapter discusses the implementation of values education in the Chinese education. It discusses from the aspects of the research and development of Chinese textbooks, implementation of teaching and learning practices. Firstly, it reassures the research and development of Chinese textbooks, targeting at the development system of Chinese textbooks, the significance of knowledge in the Chinese Curriculum and provides suggestions towards the factors to be considered in the perspectives of teachers and students. From perspective of Chinese teachers, we first discuss about their personal teaching literacy which influence the formation of students' values, as well as the methods of transferring the values education through their methods of teaching. From the perspective of students, we firstly discuss how the daily education of students influences their personal values formation. Next, we describe how the curricular learning and extra-curricular practice influence students understanding and experience, and how they absorb and adapt what they learnt into their personal value system which eventually influences their thinking and behavior.Knowledge cultivation and educating people are the most important mission of Chinese education. Due to the special attributes of Chinese education, Chinese textbook is the best medium to deliver the values of education. It plays a subtle role in influencing students' thinking, behavior, feelings and values formation. Values education is a long process and it's not once, its impact on students is deep and lasting. As such, it should not be taken lightly. Thus, the development of a good textbook to help enhancing students' comprehensive personal development is urgently needed.