The Essential Characteristics Of The Empirical Study Early Childhood Education Perspective

Since the21st century, China’s preschool education career has achieved long-term development and brilliant achievements. Especially in2010,"the national medium and long-term educational reform and development outline (2010-2020)" being promulgated and implemented, the preschool education in China met in the spring of development. Meanwhile, according to the spirit of the " outline ", the central government and local governments at all levels have formulated a series of policies about the development of early childhood education. These policies promote the reform and development of early childhood education quickly. However, if critically examined the realistic phenomenon of early childhood education, the current early childhood education development still faces many problems. These problems are serious primary school tendency, specialty and hobby class tendency, difficult and expensive admission common phenomenon, frequent security incidents, serious utilitarian mentality in early childhood education, demand orientation of early childhood development being lost in the excessive pursuit of instrumental value. In fact, the most core question behind these surface phenomena is: what is early childhood education itself and what should be early childhood education. Without a clear understanding of the nature of the problem, expecting to eliminate the primary school tendency, specialty and hobby class tendency, difficult and expensive admission, utilitarian thought can only be temporary and to guarantee school-age children receive quality education can become a mirror of flowers, the moon in the water. Therefore, in the current and future preschool education reform and development should pay attention to its value orientation and focus on the essential characteristics of early childhood education. From educational thought and theory indicates the direction for the reform and development of preschool education.Using qualitative research data through the Nvivo software analysis method, based on grounded theory, our study follows the train of thought from:"practice explore-rational speculation-reality speculation" to dove deeply into the live educational practice of two kindergartens to get texts, images, audio, and video material through the observations of the children’s actual one-day performance in these kindergartens including the children’s lives, games being played, and their learning and communication. We are able to acquire first-hand texts and audio data through interviewing preschool teachers, child-nurses, parents, managers and university students major in preschool education, etc. Through further research of teachers’ essays and reflection notes, and collecting journals as well as teachers’ and parents’ blogs on the Internet we begin to understand the sample kindergarten’s management concepts. By collecting text data such as preschool educational scholars’ research as well as the national leaders’ speeches and relevant policy documents, we obtain a series of data which reflects the actual situation of the current preschool education system. By analysis through comparison, induction, and summary of all the data, we extract the preschool education has the following phenomenal characteristics:physical and mental health, happiness, habit development, mental enlightenment, understanding, respect, nursing care, suitable environment, growth development, primary school tendency, specialty and hobby class tendency.Then, we start from the phenomenal characteristics of early childhood education to explore its essential character, namely we analyze and interpret the series relationship of the person’s attributes and the nature of children, educational phenomenon and education essence, early childhood education phenomenon and early childhood education essence, the phenomenal characteristics of early childhood education and the essential characteristics of early childhood education to summarized the operational definition of the essence and nature of early childhood education:the essence of early childhood education is a education activity different from other educational stage and basic relationship of its intrinsic elements according to the property of the children. The characteristics that reflect early childhood education core element and its basic relationship is the basic characteristics of early childhood education. Among them, the internal factors of early childhood education mainly include children, preschool teachers, educational activities and educational environment. If we explore the fundamental link between internal elements and refine common things from early childhood educational practice and theory, we are able to reveal the essence of early childhood education in a certain sense. Meanwhile, through analysis of sociology, psychology and phenomenology of contemporary anomie phenomenon in early childhood education, we further confirm that early childhood education as an independent school stage has a fundamental difference with the primary school education. As a conclusion, the four aspects:physical and mental health and happiness, habits development and mental enlightenment, understanding, respect and nursing care, suitable environment, growth and development highlight the essence of early childhood education. Contrarily,"primary school tendency" and "specialty and hobby class tendency" are the abnormal phenomenon during the process of early childhood education and a deviation of the process of early childhood education linking with elementary education. These should be corrected.Through revealing and recognizing the essence of early childhood education, we hope teachers and parents can make some changes on educational concepts and behaviors in early childhood education practice. Firstly, on the basis of correct understanding early childhood education, we should establish scientific educational concepts of early childhood education, understand and respect children’s fundamental attributes, care children’s happiness and lay a solid foundation for the growth and development of children’s lives. Secondly, we should adhere the principle of combination between nursery and education, focus on nursery and education, adhere the principle of development suitability, promote each child’s sufficient and comprehensive development at the existing level, follow the principle of subjectivity, maximize children’s subjective initiative in the learning process, flexibly use the activity-based, visualized and life-based principles and truly make early childhood education in accordance with the characteristics and laws of children’s physical and mental development. Thirdly, we should focus on children-based development, reasonably arrange educational content, put children’s physical and mental health in the first place. Through the teacher’s and parent’s love and caring for young children, we help children cultivate all kinds of good living and learning habits, acquire scientific mental enlightenment and the happiness and blessedness in early childhood. Fourthly, as the starting point to the correct understanding the essence of early childhood education and the implementation of preschool education that conforms to young children’s essential attributes, teachers need to take care of every child, adhere game-based activities, establish equal dialogue relationships between teachers and children, build a platform for home and kindergarten cooperation and exchange and truly promote children’s physical and mental all round development in their happy childhood. Finally, we should build multiple level evaluation system that conforms to the children’s life long development, emphasizes the comprehensiveness of evaluating content and the diversification of evaluation methods, establish elastic evaluation standards and lay a solid foundation for the growth of young children’s life through the development of science evaluation.