On Cai Yuanpei's Continuing Education Thought

Cai Yuanpei is a remarkable pioneer of modern Chinese culture,academia and education.Mao Zedong's appraisal of his "academic worldly,exemplary model of human life",Peking University students' praises of their "new national culture,new era of national university and new life for students" not only reflect his good character and profound knowledge that are enough to justify future generations,but also reflect outstanding contributions he made in modern Chinese cultural and educational history.For most of his life,he engaged in the cultural and educational undertakings in our country,initiated and laid down the modern educational system and education system,and played an important role in the history of modern education.However,as the founder of modern continuing education,few of its Outstanding thinking about continuing education are mentioned in the literature.In the research,related discourses are mostly composed of social education ideology,and have not yet formed an independent and complete theoretical system of continuing education.Therefore,this article attempts to analysis of Cai Yuanpei's thought of continuing education in terms of related concepts,formation process,concrete practice,connotation characteristics and contemporary connotation so as to enrich the theoretical research of Chinese modern continuing education and to provide some reference for our country's continuous education transformation and development.First of all,this paper firstly analyzes the concept of continuing education in Cai Yuanpei by referring to the deterministic elements in the current concept of continuing education.At the same time,it analyzes related concepts,such as social education and remedialeducation,and defines Cai Yuanpei's continuing education as the extension of traditional school education.It takes adults who are separated from formal education as the object of education,through relatively systematic educational practice activitie s,constantly improve the learner's knowledge structure,improve their professional abi lity to adapt to the social development requirements of building a powerful nation,similar to the concept of remedial education,is an important part of social education.Secondly,the formation of Cai Yuanpei's thought of continuing education is related to his background,life experience and educational ideas.Through sorting out Cai Yuanpei's educational life,the author finds that the formation of Cai Yuanpei's thought of continuing education is mainly concentrated in the middle-aged and young period.Accordingly,the author pays attention to the social change and educational development during this period,and further analyzes the gestation background of Cai Yuanpei's thought of continuing education.In addition,through the study of Cai Yuanpei's whole educational theory,the author found that the thought of saving the nation by education is the starting point and end-result of its continuing education.The thought of mass education,the open-door thinking of the university,and the idea of?“sacred labour” are the key points,motivations,and foundations of its ideological formation respectively.Thirdly,Cai Yuanpei's thought of continuing education is realized mainly throug h the institutionalization of continuing education,the establishment of civilian schools,vigorously developing the education of workers and peasants,and the internationaliza tion of continuing education.Among them,the institutionalization of continuing educ ation is mainly reflected in the establishment of functional departments,the formulati on of relevant legal policy documents and other aspects.The establishment of civilian schools is based on its explanation of " transforming education to transform society",and many continuing education activities carried out on the basis of schools are highli ghted in Cai Yuanpei's establishment or support of night schools in Peking university,civilian night schools and other continuing education institutions.Vigorously develop the education of workers and peasants is mainly manifested in the establishment of a variety of continuing education institutions dedicated to improving the quality of farm ers,encourage students to carry out rural education research.The internationalization of continuing education is mainly in the form of Chinese engineering education,the c oncrete performance is to Chinese law education will be as the core,founded in foreig n Chinese engineering schools,remedial classes and other continuing education organ izations and founded in China study abroad preparatory class.Fourthly,through combing the above contents,the author finds that Cai Yuanpei's thought of continuing education has the connotation characteristics of openness of e ducational concept,diversification of school-running subject,diversity of educational methods,scientification of educational content and popularization of educational obje cts.Among them,the connotation of the opening of continuing education is divided i nto six aspects: the opening of educational spirit,the opening of educational system,t he opening of educational management,the opening of educators,the opening of educ ational influence and the opening of educational objects.The diversification of schoo l-running subject means that Cai Yuanpei formed the mode of continuing education w hich is government-led,school-centered and social forces actively participate in in t he practice of continuing education.The diversity of educational methods is embodie d in the time,place and form of teaching.The scientific content of education is mainl y reflected in Cai Yuanpei's taking " five-education" as the action benchmark of the c ontent of continuing education.The popularization of education object refers to Cai Y uanpei from school service,suburban people into the vast number of factories and vill ages,and gradually expand the object of continuing education to all the people of all c lasses.Fifthly,Cai Yuanpei's educational thought and practice play a new role in the devel opment of China's continuing education in the early 20 th century,reflecting the object ive law of educational development to a great extent,which is a valuable educational heritage.Based on this,the author puts forward some suggestions on strengthening th e systematic construction of continuing education,paying attention to the open develo pment of continuing education,and strengthening the open cultivation of adult educati on postgraduates.