From "Predetermination" To "Generation"-Introduction To Situational Instruction

The core of this dissertation is situational instruction, around which five issues are mainly discussed, that is, (1) law-and-rule-based instruction and its crises; (2) the implication of situation and situational instruction; (3) demonstrative foundations of situational instruction; (4) basic ideas of situational instruction; (5) practical appeals for situational instruction.One of the causes of putting forward situational instruction is the crises of law-and-rule-based instruction. In this paper, law-and-rule-based instruction can be defined as a given instruction in which the law and the rule are abided by completely and the classroom situation is neglected entirely. Because the preexistent law and the transeunt rule are observed excessively and the invariable procedure and the fixed process are complied with devilishly, law-and-rule-based instruction is over-unified, over-standardized and over-normalized. The micro-feature of law-and-rule-based instruction is predetermination. That is to say, the instructional form, procedure, phase and outcome are predetermined ultimately; the instructional process is to unfold instructional design; the aim of instruction is to attain the prepared targets. The concrete characteristics of law-and-rule-based instruction are decontextualization, maturity, linearization and certainty. There are three main crises of law-and-rule-based instruction, that is, (1) law-and-rule-based instruction limits the students' further development, i.e. it obstructs students to learn higher level knowledge, to improve innovative ability and to form independent personality; (2) law-and-rule-based instruction endangers teacher's living because it baffles teaching creation, confines professional development of teacher and bereaves teacher of his eudaemonia; (3) law-and-rule-based instruction doesn't realize the ontological function of instruction. It regards mistakenly the students' development as accepting information and acquiring knowledge. The crises of law-and-rule-based instruction appeal for advent of situational instruction.Situation in this dissertation means the position or status of thing with regard to special context and to interaction between the thing and the context. Situation of instruction is composed of elements asfollows: (1) classroom context------environment and atmosphere in which instruction takes place; (2)interaction of instruction------interaction between instruction and environment, or between differentelements in instruction. Based on the meaning of situation and situation of instruction, situational instruction could be defined as a special instruction that its essence, characteristics and representation are generating and transforming continually with the uninterrupted change of situation. In situational instruction, instructional decision is not made according to the law and the rule entirely, but to the classroom context and the interaction of instruction. The implication of situational instruction is that there is no exclusive, invariable essence and law in instruction beforehand. Instead, the essence and the law generate with the process of instruction. Situational instruction is the instruction that the concrete context is paid more attention to, that the law and the rule are not observed perfectly, that generativity is given much importance to, that idiographic man is respected. Compared with the predetermination of law-and-rule-based instruction, the micro-feature of situational instruction is generation. It means that planed instructional elements, instructional structure, behavioral manner are changed unexpectedly with the instructional course; the whole instruction is adjusted constantly; new instructional behavior and unanticipated instructional effect often emerge. In situational instruction, the aim, the content, the way of thinking and the methods are all generating. In addition to the generation, there are four concrete characteristics of situational instruction: contextualization, opening, interaction and uncertainty.The demonstrative foundation of situational instruction is the theory context which has direct relation to the concept of situational instruction. There are four theories relating to situational instruction in sum. (1) Generativity of students provides existing foundation for situational instruction. In other words, situational instruction needs to exist because that students are generative. (2) The theory of behavioral situationism provides indicator for classroom behavior. The behavior in class depends on the classroom context and the change of the context. (3) The interaction in class provides source for generation of class. Nonlinear intercourse results to the generation of situational instruction. (4) Uncertainty of knowledge provides room for creative instruction. It is possible that teacher and student could create in situational instruction because that the knowledge is not invariable any longer.The basic idea of situational instruction can be summed up in a word: it is such a teaching and learning that it always pursues wisdom and creation. This idea could be decomposed of three parts:situational instruction is intellect exploration------it emphasizes that the situational instruction shouldbe challengeable and pioneering; situational instruction is improvisation------it emphasizes that thesituational instruction should be on the scene and sapiential; situational instruction is possible life------it emphasizes that the situational instruction should be opening and imaginative.To realize situational instruction, three matters should be thought much of. (1) Instructional thinking mode must be transformed urgently. Practicer in instruction should think about and understand the instructional problem in a different perspective. In order to realize situational instruction, the thinking mode must be conversed from Predeterminative thinking to generative thinking. (2) Basic conditions should be fulfilled. The exterior condition is that teacher should have instructional freedom; the interior condition is that teacher should have instructional wisdom. (3) In a broad sense, the instructional behavior must be renovated wholly. The renovation includes flexible instructional design, agile instructional implementation, situated instructional evaluation and negotiable instructional management.