A Study On Curriculum With Yi-jiang As A Metaphor

With the emergence and shift of different curriculum paradigm, various form of curriculum inquiry booms. There arises in curriculum inquiry a trend that to inspect, understand and construct curriculum theories from different visions and in various languages.In curriculum theoretical research "Westernization" at home and "discovering the oriental" abroad and the reflection upon Chinese current curriculum reform demand us to rethink our native culture based on the realistic problems in Chinese curriculum, meanwhile start a dialogue with other researches in the world in the process of selectively absorbing and discarding traditional curriculum theories. In the context, the study on curriculum with Yi-jing as a metaphor began to appear.The dissertation begins with a brief introduction of research background and significance. The first part discusses the Yi-jing Theroy and its enlightenment for curriculum research; defines the connotation of Yi-jinglized Curriculum (referring to the curriculum designing activities with Yi-jing as a metaphor) and analyses the meaning of Yi-jinglized Curriculum. Yi-jing, as a unique concept of Chinese artistic theories, is a category shaped by Chinese traditional culture and Chinese aesthetics. It, with the traits of "fusion of mood and scenes" in manifestation, "reciprocal transformation and promotion of nihility and actual being" in structure, "lingering charm" in appreciation, "presenting life rhythm" in nature, is the pursuit of artists. Yi-jinglized Curriculum advocates focusing on the student life-being in curriculum value, drawing on the artistic creation rules and apply artistic creation technique in material design and curriculum implementation and recommending appreciation and understanding in evaluation. Yi-jinglized Curriculum expands the functions of teaching materials; provides for teachers and students a space of creation and fosters the autonomy and individuality of students.The second part analyses the ideological origins of Yi-jinglized Curriculum from the perspectives of Pedagogics, Culturology, Psychology and Life Aesthetics. The post-modern transfer of curriculum research lays an important foundation for the birth of Yi-jinglized Curriculum. Aesthetic inclination of postmodern curriculum, based on the similarities between curriculum and art work, criticizes that the modernism compressed the aesthetic experience and stresses the importance of integrated, whole-person and creative curriculum experience and proposes that curriculum should be understood as the aesthetic text. Due to Yi-jing's being the only pursuit of artists, it is natural for curriculum researchers to explore how to make curriculum, the special work of art, bears the characteristics of Yi-jing. In the perspective of culturology, Yi-jing is the unique cultural product in China and the perfect unity of mind and matter, subject and object, and content and form. Chinese traditional "heaven-man oneness" cosmic consciousness lays the profound cultural foundation for Yi-jinglized Curriculum. To eliminate the alienation in education caused by the dualism, we need to approach curriculum in the "holistic" view, hence to focus on the life of students instead of the knowledge they acquire only. From the view of psychology, creation, expression and appreciation of Yi-jing is closely related with the intuition, experience and Gestalt. So the intuitive thinking needs to be emphasized in curriculum implementation, and the curriculum should offer the students opportunities to experience the graceful life. Because it is a special type of culture in the education, the contemporary curriculum which is the human's learning life being and its vigorous activities in nature, aims to optimize the real learning life and the enrich learning life meaning, pointing to the existence of satisfactory life in the future. From the view point of Life Aesthetics, curriculum is the inspiration and realization of life vitality and process of providing special happiness, hence is "beautiful" in nature. Therefore, the ideal curriculum should be able to arouse people's sense of beauty. This sense of beauty must be linked to the life, especially the spiritual life. Therefore, the curriculum should be concerned about human life in particular. The third part illustrates the basic conceptions from five aspects. It proposes that to promote the growth of the spiritual life is the core value, advocates that knowledge is dynamic generated but predetermined and contextual, upholds that the teaching materials is the text for dialogue, asserts that dialogue and experience need to be focused in curriculum implementation and emphasizes understanding and aesthetic appreciation in evaluation.The fourth part discusses the strategies applied in the teaching materials designing. Drawing on the techniques of art creation- the "Regarding white as black" and "Learning from the life", some vacancy need to be purposefully left whether in teaching material designing layout or selection of content; and teaching materials should be related with the students' life world.Part five focuses on the teaching strategies in the classroom. Some strategies as "Leaving vacancy in teaching"; "learning in the context" and "Better teaching with the help of feeling" are put forward drawing on the techniques of art creation.Part six explores the evaluation in Yi-jinglized Curriculum, pointing out the characteristics of Yi-jinglized Curriculum and exemplifies the dimensions and the specific steps taken in the evaluation.The last part summaries the essence of Yi-jinglized Curriculum and reflects the weakness of the current research and suggest the future research direction.Although a number of shortcomings still exist in this study, Yi-jinglized Curriculum provides us a new vision, helping to enrich and improve the curriculum theory, meanwhile is an attempt of localized curriculum construction...