From "Profound Knowledge" To "Personal Knowledge"

The issue of knowledge in the researches on undergraduate curriculum is essential in developing undergraduate curriculum and is the core of the researches on undergraduate curriculum. What kind of knowledge is the most valuable? This question has led to the educational paradigm of researches on undergraduate curriculum. Against a background of digital lifestyle, democratized knowledge and learning society, knowledge becomes diversified and individualized, like cultural diversity. In the course of popularization of higher education, universities gradually become the area for exchanging knowledge, and of self-discovery and self-construction for its faculty and students."Is everyone's knowledge valuable" although the individual value has been recognized in universities? This question causes the new topic of knowledge, namely the new curriculum topic. As for the new topic, the doctoral dissertation attempts a philosophical construction on curriculum of contemporary research universities, through introducing the concept of "personal knowledge"The dissertation conceptualizes undergraduate curriculum into order, and applies the theory of order to describe the nature of social nature, system properties and practical features of undergraduate curriculum. As the basis of order is system, the dissertation adopts Douglass C. North's system analysis framework, that is formal rules, informal restraint and their implementation characters, to correspond to formal curriculum, recessive curriculum and curriculum implementation, which, as a result, develops a research framework of the order of undergraduate curriculum. During the dual evolution of knowledge and university, undergraduate curriculum transfers "the order of general knowledge" to "the order of profound knowledge", and is moving to "the order of personal knowledge" in terms of the contemporary era. The analysis and description of "the order of personal knowledge" in the dissertation is based on methodological individualism which confirms that the condition of social cognition is personal construction. And thus the dissertation probes into contents and strategies of undergraduate curriculum design through analysis of personal demands.The order transformation of contemporary undergraduate curriculum is from "profound knowledge" to "personal knowledge". First of all, the dissertation defines the research perspective of knowledge issues, and then puts forward the topic of taking undergraduate curriculum as order, rethinks its current order, explains the necessity and possibility of its researches, and especially carries on theory construction to the new order. The dissertation consists of seven parts.The preface examines the knowledge issues of the research on undergraduate curriculum, and seeks its research thought which goes beyond knowledge, in accordance with the internal link between knowledge discovery and undergraduate curriculum, thereby defining the research design of the dissertation.Chapter One---undergraduate curriculum is the existence of order. It probes into the significance, practical features and functions of taking undergraduate curriculum as order, and analyzes the emergence, types and maintenance condition of the order of undergraduate curriculum. Furthermore, according to theoretical explanation, it also sorts out the evolution of the order of curriculum, i.e. transforming "the order of general knowledge" to "the order of profound knowledge".Chapter Two---Contemporary rethinking of the order of profound knowledge. Through analyzing the maintenance conditions of the order of profound knowledge and according to empirical researches such as investigation of status quo, it clarifies some problems:for example, the order of profound knowledge deviates from social demands, the curriculum based on knowledge divorces from student's development needs, management systems conflicts with instruction idea, and so on. Therefore it concludes dislocation of the order of profound knowledge and necessity of order reconstruction.Chapter Three---Necessity and possibility of the order of personal knowledge. it examines the characteristics of contemporary knowledge and its influence on curriculum order, seeks the internal link between personal knowledge and curriculum reconstruction, summarizes theories of personal knowledge, clarifies different significant of personal knowledge which has been regarded as the curriculum order. It also tries to build the order of personal knowledge in such respects as the idea of a university, curriculum targets, and practical thinking of curriculum development, and illustrates possibility of producing the order of personal knowledge of undergraduate curriculum on the basis of the analysis of practical cases.Chapter Four---System reconstruction in favor of producing the order of personal knowledge. It sheds light on the system appeal of the order of personal knowledge, in accordance with the framework of system transition, the formal curriculum of entire design centering on students'learning, and the recessive curriculum enriching students' academic experience.Chapter Five---Toward "Development Freedom"---discusses the contemporary fate pursued by universities through changes made to the construction of freedom meaning during the college evolution. It also explores the necessity of moving from academic freedom to "Development Freedom" from the perspective of the meaning of undergraduate education. It also explains the deep meaning of "Development Freedom" from the angle of learning theories and discusses the purpose and interest of student and teacher development on the basis of personal knowledge order.The final part, Conclusion, points out that the contemporary research-oriented undergraduate curriculum is the construction of students' personal knowledge in the order consciousness.The main conclusions of the dissertation:1) Is personal knowledge valuable? This question is a basic issue of knowledge in thinking contemporary undergraduate curriculum. The exploration of this question surpasses the traditional meaning of curriculum as a plan and program of educational practice, and becomes a kind of politics, consumption, system or culture.2) That undergraduate curriculum is the existence of order that reflects respectively a reasonable standard order, a faithful cultural order and an emotional ethical order. These three types of orders organically integrate into an entire status of curriculum order, which characterizes obviously as external link, target stimulation, subject cooperation, discourse creation, and sustainable development, etc.3) The order of undergraduate curriculum sprang from ancient Greek intellectual heritage and was maintained by religion control and talent demands of every country. From "the order of general knowledge" to "the order of profound knowledge", the knowledge evolution, certainly, is an internal agent, but it also needs the interaction among the following external factors:popularity of secondary education, professional demand to talents, universities'research function, and its academic freedom, etc.4) The maintenance of "the order of profound knowledge" relies on four prerequisites, i.e."universities are the territory of profound knowledge","higher education is the privilege of a few elite","academic autonomy of universities", and "scholars'academic freedom ". However, these prerequisites were almost lost in the development of contemporary universities, which makes this curriculum order diverge from social demands, conflict with students'needs, and deviate from teaching idea. And this disorder has been accused by people.5) The transformation from "the order of profound knowledge" to "the order of personal knowledge" is in line with the current status of knowledge. The appearance of "Knowledge model2", the rise of academic capitalism, and the acceleration of knowledge democratization have become major characteristics of internal and external knowledge of modern universities. The impact on the order of undergraduate curriculum reflects on the following aspects:building individual knowledge becomes the important target, the function of classroom switches dissemination of knowledge to exchange of knowledge, the traditional subject system has been affected by the demand of trans-disciplinary researches, and the relationship between teaching and research has been reconstructed. As for the requirement for building individual knowledge, weakening of subject knowledge paradigm, and the shift from teaching to life, the creation of the curriculum order are indispensable.6) The research on personal knowledge not only includes the understanding of general theory of knowledge, but also means a tacit cognition theory and a social action theory. All of these show construction, implicitness and discreteness of knowledge subjects. The nature of this research is realization and awakening of individual self-value. Its significance on curriculum reflects the objective of subject emancipation, methods of tacit cognition and the process of action learning. In the sense of constructing personal knowledge, universities become the place of students' self-awakening, academic experience and intellectual creation.7) In the sense of curriculum targets,"Personal Knowledge" can be understood as students'personalized construction of professional knowledge, the abilities of resolving problems in scenarios, unique ways and methods taken in actual actions, awareness of knowledge value and self-demand, and rational philosophies and emotional dependence. Therefore, the development targets of undergraduate curriculum include such four dimensions as enriching students' academic experiences, constructing their professional knowledge, enhancing their understanding ability, and arousing their sense and passion.8) The construction of curriculum system designed to promote the formation of "personal knowledge order" includes the formal curriculum design that centers on students' study, the development of covert curriculum that enriches students' academic experiences, and the execution arrangement of curriculum that serves students' action study. In order to maintain such a dynamic system, the philosophy of "development freedom" is to be established so as to enable students to become explorers and teachers to be developers of curriculum.The order of undergraduate curriculum is the actual reflection of knowledge status of specific historical times in educational activities. Different curriculum orders have historical inheritance but don't repel each other. The development and researches of undergraduate curriculum should be shifted from its natural status to its order consciousness."the order of personal knowledge" will form the new meaning of research-oriented undergraduate curriculum, i.e. the construction of students'personal knowledge in order consciousness.