Educational Principles

Author: Chen Guisheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: The revision of Principles of Education is as follows:
Part I: The framework remains unchanged, but many statements were deleted to simplify the content and make the logic clearer than before.
Part II: It was basically unchanged.
Part III: Two chapters were determined, and some deletions were made.
Part IV: The original manuscript was abandoned, replaced by a systematic examination of Deng Xiaoping's educational ideas on socialism with Chinese characteristics (commonly referred to as "Deng Xiaoping's educational theory").
A brief explanation of these changes:
1. The author has used Principles of Education as a textbook in master's and postgraduate courses for over ten cycles. Generally speaking, the teaching atmosphere was quite active. From this, it was found that the students' reading difficulties lie in their unfamiliarity with the large amount of background material cited in the book, especially the author's theoretical thinking approach and perspective on examining issues. Students, accustomed to fixed thinking patterns, often clashed with these ideas.
2. Part II, which covers the broad social background and multifaceted social attributes of education, may be the most difficult part of the entire book to understand.
3. Part III had many deletions. The main change was transforming the original chapter on "The Nature of Education" into two chapters: "Introduction to Education" and "Educational Value Orientation." For the chapter on "Educational Aims," efforts were made to simplify it.
4. Given Deng Xiaoping's guiding principles on educational reform and development under socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the fact that research on this topic is mixed—some of it arbitrary and lacking seriousness—the author conducted a systematic examination of the main issues.