Research On The Phenomenon Of "Marginal Man" In Classroom Teaching

Education equality is a great demand in today’s education. Under the present conditions, by increasing education investment and reforming education system, our country has achieved great progress in education equality on the macro level. Nevertheless, education equality on the micro level is not well understood and dealt with. These "marginal man" in classroom teaching are examples of unjustness on the micro level, which not only influences students’personality and socialization, but also blocks class construction as well as education and teaching. However, it has not been taken seriously by the educational reserchers and practitioners, which is out of proportion to its damage, and it is nothing less than one more damage to these "marginal man". From this stand of point, on the basis of the present studies, this dissertation will probe into this problem from the perspective of "social, culture and psychology". In this dissertation it makes use of the research approaches of data studies, comparative studies, classroom obeservation, field interviews and case studies, elaborating the real existence and influence of these "marginal man" in classroom teaching, studying its happening mechanism and proposing preconditions and teaching strategies so as to solve the phenomenon of "the marginal man".This dissertation consists of three parts:introduction, body part and conclusion. And for the body part, it is made up of five chapters.For introduction, it mainly presents the study origin and research reviews. Then it discusses the aim and significance of this research, questions and hypothesis, thought and methods, the important and difficult point as well as the innovation of the research.The first part is a theoretical exposition about "marginal man" in classroom teaching. "Marginal man" is an imported concept in China, which was introduced into the educational field as a societal term. Basing on the recognition of its concept, this dissertation explores the basic connotation of "marginal man" in classroom teaching. Connotation and denotation are two inevitable parts in concept constitution. Basing on the underlying features of it, the denotation of "marginal man" in classroom teaching will mainly be seen in the coexistence of concealment and exposure, co-existence and diversity, stability and development, speciality and situationality and so on. "The marginal man" in classroom teaching has different modes of existence, according to which we can divide them into different basic types. In accordance with the precondition and intention, it can be divided into two types:willingness and unwillingness. In accordance with performance, it can be divided into overt "marginal man" and covert "marginal man". In accordance with the effectiveness, it can be divided into positive "marginal man" and negative "marginal man". In accordance with degree, it can be divided into formal "marginal man" and substantive "marginal man". In accordance with the sources, it can be divided into different types:study and misbehavior disadvantaged "marginal man", physically and mentally disadvantaged "marginal man "and family condition disadvantaged "marginal man". We can recognize "marginal man" by the observation of their facial expression, eyes expression, body movements, and the frequency of hands-raising, paralanguage and so on.The second part is an integrated survey about the happening mechanism of the "marginal man" in classroom teaching. The formation of "marginal man" is the result of all kinds of comprehensive factors, among which the "marginal man" entity, significant others around them and cultural environment which soaks in them are all significant influence sources. Basing on this, this dissertation starts from the perspective of psychology (entity), anthropology (significant others) as well as culturology (cultural environment) to investigate the psychological, social and cultural formation of the phenomenon of "marginal man". From the perspective of psychological foundation, the personality trait and special psychological activities are all the main reasons which promote the formation of the "marginal man". The social factors which help to promote the formation of the "marginal man" mainly include two aspects:on one hand, it is from the standardization and remodeling of teacher’s expectations, and on the other hand, it lacks of capital from the "marginal man" entity. And from the perspective of cultural foundation, it is also mainly include two aspects:one is the influence of shame culture, it means that the students always give up the advantage of active participation, the other is the influence of culture change and culture conflict during the period of social transformation.The third part examines the values dimension of the existence of the "marginal man" dialectically. The research finds that the existence of "marginal man" is at times a representation of "the silent way of teaching". While the silent way of teaching does not mean the whole embarrassing moments in teaching, and it is also on behalf of the living state of silent thinking. Nevertheless the negative influence from the existence of "marginal man" is significantly greater than the positive influence of it. First, the "marginal man" has the low class participation, which reduces the teaching efficiency. Second, the "marginal man" is lacking of the experience of active teaching, which will suppress the psychological and social development. Third, "marginal man" is lacking of the sense of belonging, which will do damage to the class construction and management. Fourth, the existence of "marginal man" will go against the creation of proper classroom atmosphere. And at last, "marginal man" is unfairly treated in terms of learning right, development right and personal dignity, which explicitly violates the fair principle of education equality and hinders the development of education equality.The fourth part mainly elaborates the precondition of the transformation of "marginal man". The existence of "marginal man" is connected with teachers’ misconception about them, of which the essentialism thinking ways are the major causes of the mistakes. In the real teaching, teachers can establish a rational value of the "marginal man" by means of developing procedural thinking, which is the first necessity to promote the transformation of "marginal man". In teaching practice, teachers will generally exert an influence upon students by their own style of teaching. Therefore the improvement of their teaching style is still a precondition which will help to promote the transformation of these "marginal man". On this basis, teachers should be abided by four fundamental principles---objectivity and fairness, positive expectation, waiting and unconditional trust to realize the transformation of "marginal man"The fifth part explores the teaching route which is used to solve the problems of "marginal man". It aims to keep a foothold on the teaching layer, and to wound the solution of the phenomenon of "marginal man" through the way of teaching value, "teaching subjects", teaching contents, teacher-student relationship, teaching atmosphere, teaching organization forms, teaching management and teaching assessment. From the perspective of teaching value, we need to build the teaching value tropism, respect students’active role in teaching value so as to regulate value conflict properly. From the perspective of "teaching subjects", (here the subjects don’t refer to the agent of people but the action objects taking place both between teachers and students), they are placed in the dominant position of education and teaching so as to stimulate students’ attention to the teaching task. From the perspective of teacher-student relationship, the "marginal man" is severely lacking of teachers’ care and attention, so we can achieve our goal through the construction of caring-based teacher-student relationship put forward by Nell Nodding, to put all the students into teachers’ vision. From the perspective of teaching organization forms, by constructing learning community and strengthening the relationship between teachers and students, can we help students to transform from the "Peripheral Participation" to "Core Members". From the perspective of classroom management, we should develop a better understanding of classroom management, change the ways of classroom management and base the respect of students on our priorities. And from the perspective of teaching evaluation, we should adjust the standard of teaching evaluation, attach importance to long term effect of it and promote it more innovative.The innovations of the research:first, this research is based on the perspective of "social, culture and psychology", in a multi-dimensional analysis framework, showing the phenomenon of the existence of the "marginal man" in teaching and enriching the relevant researching theory, which will be helpful for teachers to have a comprehensive grasp of the existing form of "marginal man". Second, according to the formation mechanism of the phenomenon of "marginal man", it puts forward a series of teaching strategies, which will help to promote the transformation of "marginal man" and eliminate the phenomenon of center and periphery so as to achieve the goal of all involving in teaching.