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The Meaning Construction In The Classroom

Posted on:2010-07-08Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Z K WuFull Text:PDF
GTID:1117360275499018Subject:Curriculum and pedagogy
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
In the domain of Western education science, an important "paradigm shift" has been taking place since 1970s, that is, from the probing of general educational rules to the seeking of contextualized meaning of education. In the field of curriculum and instruction research, this "paradigm shift" represents itself from the paradigm of curriculum development to that of curriculum understanding, curriculum is thus seen a "text" that can be interpreted in multi-factors. The shift of the study on curriculum theory has great impact upon the curriculum practice. It responds positively with a shift from receptive curriculum practice to the participatory one. The participatory curriculum practice takes "understanding" and "participation" as its core. Under this context, curriculum is no longer seen as frozen learning material, but as a "text" full of a variety of meanings, a carrier rich in educational meanings, and with the deepening of educational process, it can be generated and constructed by teachers and students under specific situation. Accordingly, the classroom instruction places emphasis on student's participation, respect the participator's established horizons, encourage students to participate the construction of meaning as a subject of knowledge, thus the "fusion of horizons" can be reached by means of comprehension, dialogue, experience, perception and criticism.This dissertation consists of seven parts. Part one is the introduction. The background and reason for choosing the subject of this dissertation are discussed. Then the relevant literature is reviewed, summarized and evaluated, the significance of this study is interpreted both theoretically and experimentally, to clarify the train of thoughts and the methodology.Chapter one deals with the meaning of student's participation in curriculum development. Firstly, the core concepts in this dissertation are defined. Then based on the connotation and features of student's participation in curriculum development, the essence, namely, the meaning-construction is revealed. The significance is discussed as well, that is, to reveal the subjectivity by promoting students' position and role in curriculum; to reconstruct the meaning of curriculum knowledge, to accelerate the generation of curriculum; and to facilitate reforms of curriculum and instruction in classroom context.Chapter two is the foundation of students' participation in curriculum development. The scientific-oriented paradigm of curriculum development represented by "Tyler rationale" is firstly criticized, and it is pointed out that this paradigm may generate "learner-proof curriculum, resulting in learners' "absence" and thus it separates the actual correlation between children and the curriculum, overstepping the meaningful care curriculum granted to children. Basis on the perspective of practical or procedural curriculum paradigm, phenomenon-hermeneutics curriculum paradigm, constructivism curriculum paradigm and post-modern curriculum paradigm, the theoretical background for the students' participation in curriculum development is discussed.Chapter three discusses the levels of students' participation in curriculum development in classroom. By referring to Goodlad's theory on levels of curriculum operation, students' participation in curriculum development is divided into three levels, namely, formal curriculum, teacher-constructed curriculum and experiential curriculum. The contents of students' participation in curriculum development are specified through the analysis of knowledge regulations in the curriculum of all levels, text representation, students' participation and its contributing factors.Chapter four is the first half of classroom realization of students' participation in curriculum development. Because the essence of students' participation in curriculum development is meaning-construction in classroom, the ways, conditions and mechanism of meaning construction are thus discussed from the micro perspectives. It is believed that meaning construction includes the following major ways such as understanding-dialogue, experience-perception and criticism-reflection. The conditions for meaning construction can be both interior and exterior. The interior conditions include that the strengthening awareness of curricular subjectivity and that of generation is the precondition, the learnt knowledge and the pre-existence of experience is the foundation, with the enhancement of curriculum ability being the guarantee. On the other hand, the external conditions include the salience of students' central role, the creation of situations, the establishment of the "scaffold", the emphasis on negotiation and dialogue, and the rational distribution of various educational resources and so on. The inner mechanism is further analyzed, it is revealed that the interior motivation is problems; the psychological mechanism is assimilation and accommodation, while the internalized mechanism is negotiation.Chapter five is the second half of the classroom realization of students' participation in curriculum development. The specific process of students' understanding and reconstruction of curriculum is probed by means of case study, interviews and non-participative classroom observation. The process of students' understanding curriculum is thus put forward: integral perception, substantial understanding, and rational criticism. Teachers' contribution in this process is illustrated. The reasons for students' reconstruction of curriculum are analyzed from the aspects such as the strengthening awareness of students' self-construction; the demand coming from the shift of curriculum text and knowledge transformation, and the need that the incompleteness of the course-book structure calls up to be perfected. In addition, Students' reconstruction of curriculum is explained from the aspects of note-taking, homework-doing, classroom exploration and seminars, to realize the generation and transformation of curriculum knowledge and meaning. In the end, three strategies such as organizing strategies, refining strategies and the strategy of conceptual schema in the construction of meaning in the classroom are discussed.Chapter six discusses the retrospect and prospect of students' participation in curriculum development. The classroom realization of students' participation in curriculum development is reviewed, and the major problems existed in the process of meaning construction are analyzed, such as the problem of effectiveness in meaning construction, the problem of multi-construction and value-inducement, the problem of limit on students' construction of curriculum and so on. The deep incentive of students' participation in curriculum development is also probed. At last, the prospect of students' participation in curriculum development is predicted.The last part is the conclusion. The innovation and contributions of the present study are summarized, and the limitations and suggestions for further study are also pointed out.
Keywords/Search Tags:classroom, students' participation, curriculum development, understanding, meaning construction
PDF Full Text Request
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