On Infants' Life Instruction

Chinese curriculum reform in kindergarten has come into a new stage since Preschool Education Guidance Program (Trying Out) was published in 2001. Under that main idea which is about life care and sustainable development, Infants' Life instruction has been accepted by more and more teachers and researchers of kindergarten education. However, as a result of our traditional educational conception, kindergarten education is still coloured with utilitarianism. Deep reasons are in two aspects:one hand, there is a failure to recognize that cultural knowledge and teachers' knowledge must be mixed into the experience of infants so that those can be transformed into infants'own knowledge; on the other hand, it is failed to recognize that knowledge can play as forces only as they go through the human's understanding and using, and also motivating their subjectivity. This research agrees with these points which are "Life is being all purposes" and "Teaching is to cultivate people". So that, the main idea of this research is that teaching, also means instruction, is a special kind of life, which owes high quality and makes the meaning of life get beyond and innovation. On this basis, a concept of infants'life instruction is proposed; an operational framework of infants'life instruction is constructed.There are six chapters in this dissertation:Chapterâ… Historical Evolution of Infants' Life Instruction. A progress of origin and development of infants' life instruction in China was introduced at the first, which is followed by an analysis of life instruction conception in western countries. On the basis of telling out its problems and future tendency, necessary causes that why life instruction insisted as a main form of preschool instructions were shown clearly.Chapterâ…¡Basic Concepts of Infants' Life Instruction. In this chapter, essences and characteristics of infant life instruction was dissected, which were related with both infants'real lives and scientific world. It should be developmental, meaningful, suitable, life-oriented constructive, generative and inter-subjective for infants. After that, a deep analysis of infants' life instruction in objective view, contents view, process view and relationship view respectively was expounded to emphasize those special values, integration of life and science, teaching contents from real lives, and inter-subjectiveness of infants and teachers should be cared.Chapterâ…¢Goals of Infants' Life Instruction. This chapter firstly analyzed the sources of goals of infants' life instruction from the aspects of infants, society and knowledge. Then it proposed such basic requirements for determining the goals of infants' life instruction as suitable development, hierarchy, basis and integrity, resilience and adaptability. Three kinds of content organization mode of Infants' Life Instruction were put forward, which were linear type, concentric circles type and screw type.Chapterâ…£Selection and Organization of Contents for Infants' Life Instruction. Taking the development of infants as the main thread, principals of contents selection were told out. There were four main fields of instruction contents, knowledge, skills, emotion and morality. And contents should be real and playful, active and subjectivity, generative and randomicity, continuity and sequence, integrated and suitable. Those contents should be organized in the ways of problems in real lives, themes in kindergarten, and development of infants.Chapterâ…¤Implementation of Infants' Life Instruction. First of all, connotation and value orientation of implementation of infants' life instruction were interpreted, and its influence factors were analyzed following. Then, the next part of this chapter said that infants' life instruction could be carried out through such three kinds of activities, instruction activities, playing activities and daily-life activities.Chapterâ…¥Evaluation of Infants' Life Instruction. Forms, contents, progress and results of its evaluation were expounded after explanation of its connotation and characteristics. Types of evaluation of infants' life instruction were made in that condition. Then evaluation methodology and evaluation content were structured. Evaluation system of infants' life instruction was founded finally.