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Methodology Of Social Transition Period Change In Schools

Posted on:2003-03-29Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:X W YangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117360092466675Subject:Principles of Education
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The Chinese society is just on the way of transformation to industrialiZaion,informationization, urbanization and marketition. That is a kind of special, complexand total transformation, there will be more deep change in every aspects of thesociety, including education. Anong the modern educational change, the schoolchange is the most fundamental. The school change is the organizational andsystematical renewal and reform that takes p1ace in the school as a social unit andeducational organization and that is propelled by outer fOrces (e.g. socialtranstbrmation) or / and inner forces (e.g. the school staff's strong will of initiativedet'elopment). With the propel1ing of the society, the school reacts sooner or later andacti\'ely or passively in the fOllowing ways f considering the new needs from thesociety and individuals, rethinking the reason of itS educational ideas, system andactions, making new value choice, adjusting or renewing its educational aims anddetermining the basic tasks fOr school change. ParticuIar tasks for change cause thereformers to re-examine the objects of change, the reconsideration of the objectsdetermine the appropriateness of the strategies and methods for change, and it iscritical for the success or failure of the change to determine the methodologicalthoughts (especially the ways of thinking) that guide the development of the theoryfOr school change and the strategies to choose and uti1ize the change.The discussion in the dissertation on the methodology of school change points tothe following fOur problems.(l) How the objects of the change are reconsidered, including the school's ideas,aims, systems, functions, etc.(2) How the value choices and tasks fOr the change are determined based on theconsideration of the social and individual needs against the background of socialtransformation.(3) How the strategy or system of strategies fOr change is put fOrward in order tofinish the tasks for change.(4) How the people's thinking ways and system of research methods are changedin the above process of thinLking, choosing and making policy.In chapters l-3, some typical models of western school change in the 20,,century are commented on. The author analyses emphatically the characteristics of3theories fOr change and strategies in Dewey's Chicago experimental school,Montessori's Children's Home and Neil's Surnner Hill School in the upper halfcentury. The methodology on change in that period are summarized as changing theschools in the way of innovation, enriching the strategies for change with theexperimenta1 methodoIogical thoughts. surpassing the antithesis between twoextremes with the tl1inking principle of continuity. The author then dissects someexal11ples of change in Europe and the U.S. from the 50s to the 70s, such as thecurriCulum refOrm guided by the structuralistic curriculum theory\ the successfuI or tlfailing cases of the progressive experimental schoo1s lasting in the 50s, OECD'sPoxter--coerci\)e strateg}-, Rational-mpirical strateg}' and Normative--re-educativ'e -strateg}'. Some cases that laid particular emphasis on "thoughts exploration" are alsocomnlented. such as Illich's theory of *'deschooling society" and four kinds oflearning netxxorks. Goodman's "six substituting proposa1s", the description oflearning society based on self leaming principle in Learning TO Be, etc..The author points out, the obvious methodological progress in the school changein that period reveals as the fOllowing f multiple perspectives were developed inkno\\-ing the object (school), the rnodel of "A or B" was surpassed in the valuechoices. the systematic thoughts were embodied in the strategies for chaflge. Theauthor sees, more efforts had been made popularl}' to look forward and reflection inthe 1980s. tt-hiIe facing the new century. Three kinds of fundamental transformationsappeared popularl}r. that are the transformations from factory to "schoolh...
Keywords/Search Tags:society transformation, school change, theory for change, strategy for change, methodology on school change
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