A Study On The Conflicts And Adaptation Between University Teachers And Students In The Social Transition Period

The conflicts between teachers and students refer to the potential or open repelling and confrontation as well as the process caused by all kinds of differences existing between teachers and students in the process of education and teaching. It is a kind of uncoordinated form and state of communication and interaction between teachers and students. For the time being, our society is experiencing rapid transition, social structure, social mechanism and social concept are undergoing profound changes, social economy, politics, culture, science and technology and every field of social life are witnessing significant adjustment, the whole society takes on such characteristics as prominent social contradiction, sticky situation of the new and the old systems, obvious interest differentiation, diversified value orientation, multi-cultural clashes and serious social anomy. In the process of social development, changes take place in terms of the relationship between teachers and students in universities and the conflicts between teachers and students are increasingly obvious.Through investigation, the current basic situation of the conflicts between teachers and students is as follows:firstly, the conflicts between teachers and students exist universally and are intensified increasingly to a relatively severe degree. Secondly, the conflicts between teachers and students have their own features in terms of conflict type, conflict cause, conflict outcome, cognition of conflict function and conflict handling. Thirdly, the conflicts between teachers and students are closely related to individual characteristics of teachers and students and different variables exert diversified influence upon conflicts.In the period of social transition, the causes for the conflicts between teachers and students are comprehensive and complex, the conflicts are brought about by the interwoven and combined effect of many factors including social environment, organization of teachers and students in universities. In terms of social environment, the profiting in market economy leads to utilitarianism among teachers and students, political democratization enhances students’ subjective consciousness and rights consciousness, diversified social culture widens cultural heterogeneity of teachers and students, and the development of information technology takes away the educational authority from teachers. All these factors pose social factors giving rise to the conflicts between teachers and students. In terms of universities, weak organizational form, organizational objective and organizational function, lack of humanity in internal management mechanism, utilitarian orientation, functional alienation, failure to implement a management system, the backwardness of the concept of talents training, curriculum plan, teaching model, teaching method and evaluation standard pose university factors triggering the conflicts between teachers and students. In terms of university teachers and students, difference in the identification of the role of teachers and students, mismatch of role behavior and expectation, poor communication between teachers and students, lack of mutual information exchange, cognitive attributive bias of teachers and students, drawbacks of individual psychological features, indifferent emotion relationship between teachers and students, lack of mutual understanding and respect, teachers’misconduct of teaching behavior and students’ studying misbehavior form the individual factors causing the conflicts between teachers and students.The function of the conflicts between teachers and students is twofold, that is positive and negative. Negatively speaking, the conflicts between teachers and students affect the development of educational career, damage the physical and mental health of teachers and students, hinder the implementation of teaching activities, impede the achievement of teaching objectives, play down the organizational effects and interfere with normal development of universities. Positively speaking, the conflicts between teachers and students push forward the development of teacher profession, promote students’ socialization, improve the state of interaction between teachers and students, spur the restructuring of the relations between teachers and students, force the establishment of a new standardized system, stimulate the transformation of university organization, release unhealthy feelings and maintain psychological balance between teachers and students. Of course, under different circumstances, the function of conflicts between teachers and students may vary, and their nature and trend depend on the root of conflict, conflict level, approaches to addressing the conflicts, and perfect degree of conflict integration mechanism.To achieve the goal of drawing upon advantages and avoiding disadvantages, the conflicts between teachers and students are supposed to be reasonable adapted. Since adaptation to the conflicts between teachers and students is an organizational, planned, goal-directed, teacher-student-relation-coordinating activity and a systematic project, we should build a comprehensive system of conflict adaptation. First, an appropriate goal of adaptation should be established. The direct goal lies in reasonably resolving and transforming conflicts between teachers and students. The fundamental goal is to establish the harmonious relationship between teachers and students. The ultimate goal is to promote the full harmonious development of university students. Second, a reasonable principle of adaptation should be made clear. Adaptation should adhere to the principle of moderate conflict, fairness and reasonability, win-win cooperation, multiple consensus and integration of flexibility with rigidness. Third, a comprehensive adaptation mechanism should be built. It mainly includes value-guiding mechanism, appeal-expressing mechanism, interest-coordinating mechanism, conflict-curbing mechanism, incentive and restraint mechanism and psychological-counseling mechanism. Fourth, a systematic strategy for adaptation should be implemented. Adaptation between teachers and students calls for joint efforts from the society, universities, teachers and students. Only in so doing, can the unity of inside and outside interaction, multi-joint forces, coordinately sharing come into being. At social level, via constructing social predominating value, we should intensify the appropriate guidance of social public opinion, bring into full play the standardizing and regulating function of laws and regulations of higher education, promote the sustained and coordinate development and create favorable social circumstances for the building of harmonious relationship between teachers and students; At the level of university organization, we should maintain a smooth communication between teachers and students, complete the management mechanism of universities, build harmonious campus culture, innovate the patterns of talents training and adjust the relationship between teachers and students by completing the inner mechanism of university organization; At the level of university teachers and students, we should establish an appropriate concept of teachers and students, strengthen the exchange and communication, achieve mutual respect and tolerance, upgrade individual quality, master a interpersonal skills through subjective effort to achieve a benign interaction between teachers and students and boost the harmonious relationship between teachers and students.