On the road of education

Author: Zhu Yongxin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "My Education Stories" series is a part of the "New Education Library" series edited by Zhu Yongxin, a renowned contemporary educator and psychologist who has studied, researched, and managed education. The series consists of 5 books: "Walking on the Path of Education," "Stories from Education Online," "Spicy Students, Cool Teachers," "Guarding the Days of Senior High," and "Magical Composition Camp," published by Fujian Education Press in January 2005. This is a true Chinese "educational narrative research." Educational narrative research is a research activity where teachers record their teaching process from a unique perspective, narrate their educational stories, and improve teaching efficiency and promote professional development through continuous reflection. Its main characteristics are narrative and reflective: narrative, where teachers, as the subjects of educational narrative, describe specific teaching events, requiring a certain degree of plot and readability. Reflective, where teachers improve their educational practice through continuous reflection, enriching and enhancing their practical and theoretical research capabilities, and promoting professional development. Educational narrative research is relatively close to teachers' educational lives and is the most direct and effective action-oriented way for teachers to conduct teaching research. The "New Education Library?My Education Stories" series genuinely records a series of real and vivid educational stories that take place under the "New Education Experiment." In September 2002, Zhu Yongxin launched the "New Education Experiment" with the mission of "pursuing ideals and reviving humanism" at Yu Feng Experimental School in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. The "New Education Experiment" system mainly includes five core beliefs: believing in students' potential, emphasizing mental state, creating successful experiences, emphasizing individual development, and focusing on education. Over the six years of primary school teaching, it implements six major actions such as "creating a bookish campus," "teachers and students writing diaries together," "listening to the outside world," "proficiently using bilingual education," "building a digital community," and "creating distinctive schools" to achieve the educational philosophy of "human-centered, teaching according to learning, leveraging strengths and addressing weaknesses, and harmonious development." To cultivate children's basic qualities such as "seeing, listening, reading, writing, and calculating," the "New Education Experiment" not only completes basic curriculum teaching but also has multiple requirements. The basic idea of these requirements is to develop students' talents in science, art, fine arts, literature, etc., based on their interests, using high-tech teaching facilities, and under the guidance of professional teachers, so that every student feels like a genius and strives to achieve success. In two years, the experiment has expanded to over 200 schools in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country. Many media and education professionals have called it, if the "New Education Experiment" can withstand the tests of time and space, it may become a "new hope project" in another sense after the "Hope Project." Zhu Yongxin also founded the Education Online (www.eduol.com.cn) website with the mission of "building a spiritual home for Chinese teachers," proposing a new development concept of "expert guidance, online mutual assistance, and self-reflection." In just over two years, it has attracted more than 80,000 frontline primary and secondary school teachers and education media professionals from 21 provinces and cities across the country, becoming an important carrier and development platform for the "New Education Experiment" and creating a true "online teachers' university." Inspired by the new education philosophy and guided by renowned teachers such as Li Zhenxi, Dou Guimei, and Lu Zhiwen, the passion and potential of many teachers have been ignited, their educational concepts elevated. "I can't give up Education Online, and I can't sever the bond of my online connections," one of the series, "Stories from Education Online," narrates moving stories that take place in this virtual space, inspiring readers and prompting deep reflection. "Spicy Students, Cool Teachers," a work by young teacher Su Jing, who is renowned for her "poetic education," is an authentic record of the survival status of the new generation of teachers, the new teacher-student relationship, and the expression of educational individuality. With dazzling scenes, bold themes, and light-hearted, floating words, the book presents a group of "spicy students and cool teachers" from primary to university, from mainland China to Hong Kong, in different life spaces. The youthful energy and extraordinary educational philosophy complement each other, while the inspiration that transcends time and space and the scattered fragments of memory create a fascinating contrast. The author is not only conducting a soul record but also planning the next soul journey, allowing every educator immersed in it to understand and enjoy the extraordinary charm of new education. "Guarding the Days of Senior High" adopts a detailed narrative style, introducing a common educator in Shenzhen Special Zone who pursues exam scores in senior high education while guarding educational philosophy. It highlights meaningful details and contexts, reflecting typical teaching events, and genuinely describes the author's confusion, difficult psychological state, and reflections in the gap between exam-oriented education and ideal education. "Magical Composition Camp" introduces the author's explorations in composition teaching reform with practical operational significance and broad reference value through poetic language. It tells the author's new understandings and insights into composition teaching in the form of stories, making it and fresh to read. Teachers can feel the emotional charm of composition teaching and learn effective methods to motivate students' passion for writing. The "New Education Library?My Education Stories" series is also the "action research" of the "New Education Experiment," recording the exploration path of new education and its highlights. "Walking on the Path of Education" records Zhu Yongxin, as an "educational mayor" who studies, researches, and manages education, frequently conducting educational surveys during business trips, reflecting repeatedly, and seeking the charm and brilliance of education from different "educational landscapes," discovering current problems in education, and writing survey reports to discuss China's educational issues with relevant experts. "My Education Stories" are written brilliantly because they live and act brilliantly! They have stepped out these traces of growth with their feet, composed this life's melody with their hearts, and painted this splendid and romantic educational journey with their thoughts. Let us read "My Education Stories" with our hearts! As long as we read with our hearts, we will understand what growth is, and we will feel passion and life! "Walking on the Path of Education" is divided into five parts: "Singing as I Walk," "Educational Landscapes," "The World of Books," "Hand-in-Hand to Realize Dreams," and "Words of a Traveler." "Singing as I Walk" includes more than ten poems by the author in recent years, a special way of expressing educational thoughts. "Educational Landscapes" details the author's experiences as an "educational mayor" who studies, researches, and manages education, visiting various places for investigations, research, visits, lectures, and promoting the "New Education Experiment." It also includes 16 "Educational Travelogues" from the author's 2003 trip to South America, allowing readers not only to enjoy the educational scenery of foreign lands but also to perceive the pure heart and strong educational responsibility of an "educational mayor." "The World of Books" includes the author's reflections, prefaces, or postscripts after reading educational classics, friends' works, and his own works. The prefaces are engaging and widely read, serving as guides that not only summarize and interpret each new work but also introduce well-known figures and emerging talents in the field of education. The postscripts are concise and substantial, clearly showing the author's entire journey in education. "Hand-in-Hand to Realize Dreams" includes touching details of the author's dialogues and interactions with the internet, media, and the "New Education Experiment" community during the process of promoting the experiment. "Words of a Traveler" records the author's reflections, insights, and suggestions on education from macro to micro, from multiple levels and angles, and in all directions.