On Educational Thinking

Concept of thinking mainly exists in psychology, logic and philosophy. In psychology, the concept refers to the process and characteristics of thinking, and logically, the concept means forms and rules of thinking and in philosophy, thinking is a person's knowledge system which corresponds to existence. The concept of educational thinking is close to that in philosophy. In education, thinking exists as a concept corresponding to educational existence. But educational thinking differs from the thinking in philosophy in that it also exists as a concept corresponding to education action. Compared with form, educational thinking is of content and compared with process, the thinking is of product and it is people's thinking conclusion on education, of which content is virtually the structural connotation of people' educational knowledge.Generally speaking, we mainly face with two kinds of questions in the field of social practice, i.e. those related to "knowledge" and those related to "action". What involved in "knowledge" need researchers to answer are to seek keys and those involved in "action" for researchers to answer are to explore approaches. In this sense, fruits of educational thoughts and theories could not only meet people's needs in educational knowledge, but also meet people's need in educational practice. If we make further analysis, we will find that some educational thoughts and theories are meeting people's needs in educational knowledge and some meeting people's needs in educational practice. Education is the creation of human being, hence, questions in educational knowledge, in spite of their reflective elements, are a question of comprehension in nature and results of comprehension are various educational beliefs. Questions in educational practice are a question of conception and results of conception are essentially a kind of approach to educational operation. Conception of educational action is always subject to some educational belief and sometimes it even goes on for realizing some educational belief. Therefore, educational beliefs and approaches to educational operation are integrated with each other internally. What lies behind educational beliefs is a question on "what should education be like?" and what behind approaches to educational operation is a question on "howshould education be realized". These two questions have internal relations.In the thesis, educational thinking is defined as people's ration in educational practice, accumulation and extraction of educational theories when people facing with educational practice, and also refining and accumulation of experiences in people's knowledge system. In essence, educational thinking is the combination of certain educational beliefs and approaches to educational operation. The definition reveals the two basic elements: educational beliefs and approaches to educational operation.Educational beliefs are people's understanding on education and a belief system about education, which consist of beliefs on educational aims, beliefs on educators and education receiver, beliefs on educational contents, and beliefs on educational approaches. The five elements are linked to each other closely. The forming of educational beliefs is influenced by factors such as educational spirits of times, cultural tradition of education, individual's educational experience, and individual's educational knowledge. Influenced by many factors, a person's educational beliefs become from obscurity to distinction, from part to entirety, from being superficial to being profound, form inflexibility to stability, and from generality to specialty and finally, come into maturity.Approaches to educational operation are at the center of structure of educational thinking, which is people's theoretical design of education activities, and also the methodology of educational practice. Educational principles, methods, forms of organization, etc, discussed in previous books on pedagogy belong virtually to approaches to educational operation. Development of a complete approach to educationa...