Research On The Status Quo And Improvement Strategies Of Ritual Education In Elementary Schools

Ceremonial activities are among the most important activities in human life.In-depth studies and exploration have been carried out on this subject by anthropologists,sociologists,historians,theologians etc.Over the recent years,our country has paid increasing attention to the quality education of children.Many educators have seen the huge educational potential in ceremony-based education and some policy documents have been promulgated one after another to support its importance.However,the systematic and theoretical studies on ceremony-based education have hardly been conducted.I have noticed a lot of common ceremony-based activities while participating or observing in some schools in which the potential of ceremony-based education has not been fully developed and utilized.Thus,I have selected primary schooling the particular stage of education in Danyang and take it as the main object of study.Through a number of research methods such as questionnaire surveys,case analyses,interviews and field observations,I intend to explore into the status quo and the existing problems with ceremony-based education in primary schools only to give some feasible suggestions,make pupils like ceremony-based education more and nurture them more comprehensively,harmoniously and healthily.I have implemented questionnaire surveys in the three schools and studies in forms of interviews and field observations in other primary schools in Danyang.In general,these schools put a high value on ceremony-based education.The teachers and the pupils identify with various ceremony-based educational activities but have different ideas about the connotations of the impressive ceremonial activities.In addition,the pupils are more impressed by those activities which they are personally involved and interested in.Such problems are discovered in the current ceremonial education in primary schools:they emphasize on formalities but overlook effects,they stress on performances but neglect experiences,they focus on procedures but ignore connotations,they value traditions but despise innovations,they respect authority but belittle pupils.I suppose the main reason for these problems is that the educators have a deviation in the understanding of ceremony-based education ideologically,which results in the mere formalities and staying away from pupils' lives.Also,the educators haven't set up the goals of ceremony-based education properly.Therefore,I have proposed some improvement strategies and standard operations in regard to goals,contents,approaches and evaluations of ceremony-based education,carried out a series of practical explorations based on its basic principles,reflected and explored based on the initiation ceremony for the young pioneers,the school entrance ceremony and the growth ceremony held in the three primary schools and hence put forward some basic guidelines and operations for those activities with the hope to gain some enlightenment.