On The Educational Value Of The Theory Of Communication

Starting from analyzing the loss of personality in the world of education, the thesis puts forward the point that one of the maladies affecting practical education is the instrumentalization of education. The thesis does not mean to deny the practical reasonableness of treating education as an instrument to some extent, and what it actually opposes is that method of operation which ends up shaping those being educated into mere instruments. Therefore in this thesis, instrumentalism education means, on one hand, that education takes molding people into instruments for its ultimate goal; on the other hand, that by employing the method of operation which is characteristic of the subject transforming the object, the perceiver transforming the world, education has become a technical conduct without any distinction from the mechanical production process. Instrumentalism education is based on the modern philosophical theory of epistemology. Supporting the dichotomy between the subject and the object, the theory of epistemology pays close attention to how the subject is understanding and transforming the object Under the direction of this theory, education regards developing people's ability to possess the outside world as its aim, employs some so-called "highly efficient" methods, such as practicing, inculcating, to accelerate the process of turning people into instruments, and thus deviates from its historical mission-to be concerned with personal integrity. Now the modern philosophy has changed its emphasis from on how the subject is understanding the object to on how one subject is coming into contact with another subject Communication theory represents the development tendency of modem philosophy. With philosophy as the route sign, education should follow the tendency as well.Communication theory provides us with a brand-new angle of view to re-understand education as well as people in the world of education. Education sees people as its direct object, and is an activity conducted among people, hence education is actually a communicative behavior between different subjects instead of a technical behavior between the subject and the object Education should follow the moral principles governing human communication instead of the technological rules applied between people and the objective world. To meet the demands of coexistence in our times as well as the inherent essence of education, education communication intends not to foster individual subjectivity but to formintersubjectivity. Intersubjectivity takes shape during the communication between teachers and students, and can only be realized through intellectual talks and emotional communion. Education communication cannot be realized without language, thus a favorable speaking environment must be created in order to get communicative activities really carried out Communication is conducted between educators and those being educated, thus a productive people-oriented mode of thinking should be substituted for educators' deeply-rooted idea of dichotomy. Only by this means, the theory of education communication can take root in education practice.The above is the train of thought for this thesis. The main body can be divided into Sparts: the 1st part analyzes the phenomenon of the loss of personality and explores the root cause behind the phenomenon; the 2nd deals with the theory of communication and the issue of re-understanding education, and presents, expounds and proves theoretically the point that education is a kind of communication behavior, the 3rd part is concerned with one of the nucleus propositions in education communication-intersubjectivity-which is the ultimate goal the modern subject-oriented education as well as where the significance of communicative activities in education lies, the 4th part analyzes the feasible ways - intellectual talks and emotional communication-to achieve intersubjectivity; the last part probes into the strategies to put the theory of education communication into education practice, and suggests two ways: creating an...