A Comparative Study of Social Studies in Elementary Schools of China and Japan--A Perspective of Social Cognition Education Theory

Author: Guo Wenxia
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: The check-and-balance relationship formed between the Japanese government and the people determines that "society" possesses characteristics distinct from "morality." The social curriculum is designed to provide children with opportunities to face social realities, integrate their understanding of social knowledge, and experience subjective judgment, attitude formation, and participation in social practices. It also aims to inspire children to reflect on the value of practical actions in the context of certain social issues, fostering the social attitudes necessary for citizens in a democratic society. Thus, while not denying the ethical nature of the social curriculum, it ensures its core subject status in the construction of Japan's democratic society.
China has long accumulated a sense of social self-awareness and a moral education mission, which has led to a lack of theoretical construction for the moral education and social curriculum from the perspective of "society" and related humanities and social sciences theories. In fact, social cognition serves as a crucial basis for the scientific and rationalization of moral judgment and behavior. Social cognition not only includes social knowledge but also the cognitive activities involved in acquiring it. The value and forward-looking nature of social cognition determine that the social literacy of the cognitive subject must possess judgment, decision-making, practical, and creative abilities. Therefore, we must emphasize the social development in personality development, which is also a fundamental issue that the moral education and social curriculum needs to address.
The object of social cognition is people, their activities, and their creations. Correspondingly, the object of social understanding is "what people already are" (knowledge-based social understanding), "what people should be" (value-based social understanding), and "what people might be" (practical norm-based social understanding). The knowledge levels and nature of social curriculum teaching are: factual narration knowledge, factual explanation knowledge, individual evaluation knowledge, conceptual explanation knowledge, general evaluation knowledge, and normative knowledge. This constitutes seven types of social curriculum teaching: factual (fact), conceptual (), conceptual inquiry (), value (), value understanding (), conceptual value (), and conceptual value inquiry ().
The social curriculum is regarded as an important traditional resource for the new curriculum of moral education and social studies. From the perspective of social cognition education theory, it explores the inherent value and rich experiential resources of the "society" discipline, providing new dimensions for the construction and development of the moral education and social curriculum. It offers a historical and developmental analysis of the social curriculum in primary schools in China and Japan, conducting in-depth comparative analysis on the establishment and development, fundamental principles, curriculum objectives, knowledge base, textbooks, and teaching of the primary school social curriculum. It highlights the internal and external characteristics and patterns that define the essence of the social curriculum, as well as the relationship between the social curriculum and humanities and social sciences, particularly the logical embodiment of fundamental categories such as the state, society, and citizens in the social curriculum. This enriches the theoretical research on China's social curriculum and fills the gap in comparative education research in this field.
It also holds significant theoretical meaning and practical value for a key and challenging issue in China's new round of basic education curriculum reform—the construction of comprehensive liberal arts courses and the moral education and social curriculum.