Teachers’Sensitivity Of Instruction In The Classroom Of Higher Vocational Education

During the long-term instruction practice of higher vocational education, the author deeply senses that the importance and necessity of classroom sensitivity of instruction for the effective classroom teaching. In the implementation phase of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, its task to transform and upgrade economy is in relation to the supports of technology and talents, thus higher vocational education which focuses on the duty to foster professional talents of high-technology becomes an indispensable. Actually, a lot of problems exist in higher vocational education, such as poor condition of facilities, lag of teaching management, and shortage of teachers’ overall quality for teaching demands, etc. And these problems result in chaotic phenomena of higher vocational education, teachers’ exhausted emotion and students’ disgust with courses. On one hand, teachers’ instruction tends to follow the beaten track and shows job burnout. On the other, students are disgusted with the courses just with the thought to obtain a diploma instead of learning. Therefore, this dissertation is established based on the classroom of higher vocational education, takes sensitivity of instruction as a starting point, and attempts to take measures to solve the problems and infuse vitality into higher vocational education. Max Van Manen once described the definition of education:when wiping the kid’s nose, what we would feel more is that if we face others’ kid, we wipe the kid’s nose; if we face owns, we wipe the kid himself or herself. A truth can be drawn from these words that the same object and event give rise to various behavioral patterns because of widely different mental feelings formed by different recognition. Those teachers who hold sensitivity of instruction can keep the heart of "wiping the nose is like wiping the kid", they will be resourcefully, flexibly control actions to construct an effective classroom.Currently, there are some researches on teaching methods, teaching art and model in educational circle, but sensitivity of instruction, as a basic quality of teaching subject is rarely mentioned; the reason of its being neglected probably lies in its role as a naturally mental activity. Besides, some researchers consider it is unnecessary to study owing to the thoughts of confusing it with teaching tact and teaching wisdom. On account of this condition, this thesis adopts some methods like documentary method, questionnaire, classroom observation, comparative analysis and argumentation to construct the theory of sensitivity of instruction, on the basis of deep exploring the problems in the classroom of higher vocational education and the problem consciousness as the dive force to find "sensitivity of instruction" as the solution. In the process of building up the theory, the thesis carries out an in-depth exploration on the theory’s nature, its three presentations, its value and effective factors, and generative routes from both perspectives on theory and application. And in this way the necessity and possibility of the theory is fully discussed. Practically, this thesis firstly collects some relative researches aboard and in our country, with those to demonstrate the feasibility and rationality of the research object (target, content, methods and key points) established by "classroom observations" and timeiy adjust it for the further establishment of research objects, main research problems, methods and basic hypothesis, etc. secondly, launch relative researches via catch the research factors correlating with instruction sensitivity. Secondly, it considers the stage of investigation and clarifies the conditions of developing "sensitivity of instruction" by ways like observing the class of excellent teachers and interviewing both teachers and students. Thirdly, it attempts to found the theory on the basis of sorting out the essential problems. Lastly, it looks forward to apply and practice of the theory and continues to carry forward study on it.The introduction part firstly expounds the reasons of choosing this topic. They are the demanding of teaching reformation and author’s reflection of long-term teaching practice. Then, it states the current situation of this research and its theory basis, and takes it as starting point to make it clear the approaches, thoughts, content and structure of this research. Finally, it introduces briefly the values and innovative points of this research.The first chapter deeply analyzes the relative theories and the existing problems of higher vocational class teaching and puts forward that the class teaching of higher vocational colleges is the main position of vocational education and also a fundamental way to foster the professional ethics, theoretical attainments and professional competences of higher vocational students. However, the entire quality of teachers or the class teaching of higher vocational colleges exist some problems and to some extent this restricts the development of higher vocational education. Under the condition that the hardware facilities and teaching conditions are hardly to be reformed in a short time, it shows more importance to promote and integrate the soft power. Thus, the research on sensitivity of instruction is not only necessary but also pressing. This part mainly illustrates that the class teaching in higher vocational colleges is directly related with sensitivity of instruction, and it is the knowledge and foreshadowing and the logical premise for the theory of sensitivity of instruction.In the second chapter, this thesis probes into the nature of sensitivity of instruction. On one hand, it interprets its profound connotations and features:teachers should respond appropriately to the classroom teaching, pay close attention to students and timely find their psychological changes in the details, appropriately seize teaching opportunities, set up a favorable interaction between teachers and students and foster students’mind for self-directed learning. On the other, it analyzes and expounds the basic features of teachers’sensitivity of instruction in the classroom of higher vocational education:uniqueness, medium, duality of power and practicalness. Among the above features, uniqueness embodies that the specialty of teaching subject and the profession of instructional situations of higher vocational education; medium means that sensitivity of instruction plays the role of a special mediator between psychological activities of teachers and teachers’ actions and their effect through the teaching interaction; duality of power is referred to "Positive Power" and "Negative Power" in sensitivity of instruction; practicalness indicates sensitivity of instruction derives from and is applied in teaching practice of the classroom.To analyze mental features of sensitivity of instruction in classroom case and reveal its mental characteristics and forms are the main content of Chapter Three. Sensitivity of instruction is an organic teaching consciousness combined by "teaching beliefs" and the actions of teacher’s long-term teaching practice and experience, and finally formed by teachers’self-reflecting. It is the reflection of teachers’special cognitive capacity in classroom teaching with a dynamic presentation of the integration of teaching theory and practice, teaching experience and apperception. Its mental representations are outer expressive forms of arousing mental activities of teaching sensitivity which includes field performance of situation, emotion of language and nonlinearity of thinking. And these representations are manifested themselves in the aspects of teaching process like the targets, content, organization and medium and evaluation of teaching, etc. Sensitivity of instruction exists in the dynamic and generative mechanism which is interrelated and developed gradually from lower to higher level:the lowest one is related with the biological meaning, while the middle one means the psychological meaning and the highest one is presented from social meaning.In chapter four, the author conducts the study on the functions and value of sensitivity of instruction. From the perspectives of its value, this chapter tries to discuss the special roles of teachers in higher-vocational education, thereby to illustrate its functions and effect of the theory. From the angle of higher vocational teachers, the theory chiefly contains the sense to control and promote the strategies and to inspire teachers to apply classroom language. From students’ perspective, the value of the theory is embedded in turning students into self-learners and in controlling the leaning of their own to expand professional capacity and become high-qualified talents. From the analysis of cases on sensitivity of instruction, this thesis tries to demonstrate the importance of excellent teachers’sensitivity of instruction to promote the quality of classroom teaching.Chapter Five mainly refers to the analysis of contributing factors to sensitivity of instruction concerning teacher’s inner factors, namely their role identifications, cognitive structure, non-cognitive structure and the realistic situation of teachers’ moral self-discipline; the other one is outer atmosphere, namely system structure of teaching atmosphere. It is certain that the formation of sensitivity cannot come into being directly; adversely, it is the result of teachers’experience, reflection and taking action in the teaching practice of long-term’s class practice. Besides, the outer factors objectively exist and refer to policy strategy, cultural factor, teaching atmosphere and dynamic factor.The generative approaches of sensitivity of instruction are discussed in Chapter Six. The first is the discussion of its relating theory and the four steps of its formation:reservation of knowledge and experience, classroom observation and self-reflection, sprout and growth and externalization of series actions. These steps are not isolated and separated from one another but in a close and logical process which is connected and interactional. Then, three generative approaches of sensitivity of instruction are discussed:classroom reflection, teachers’self-efficacy and teachers’ professional development.Some conclusions can be got out from this thesis:firstly, sensitivity of instruction, as a teaching art or strategy is neglected owing to its nature while it exists objectively in the practice of teachers’class consciously or unconsciously. Secondly, from the analysis and exploration of questionnaire, classroom observation, interview, document research and argumentation, excellent teachers are with stronger sensitivity than those of ordinary teachers, and experienced teachers are with stronger consciousnesses than those of new teachers. Sensitivity of instruction is highlighted during the teaching process of those excellent teachers, formed and perfectly developed in their teaching practice. Thirdly, sensitivity of instruction cannot be accomplished at one stroke but it is a learned quality formed in long-time practice with purposely acquisition. The theory of sensitivity of instruction lies in the starting step and it is difficult to reach an agreement for some crucial issues, and still researches are to be enriched and completed for the theory in the near future.