Initial Research On Qian Mu's Educational Thought

Qian Mu(1895-1990), whose name is Bin Si, born in Wu xi, Jiang Su Province, is a great master of Chinese national culture in modern Chinese history. He was a teacher and he was engaged in reading and compiling scholarly works in his spare time. He made excellent and significant achievements in his life both in his profession and his academic research. More importantly, Qian Mu had been teaching for 75 years and he had been devoted to his profession willingly. In addition, most of his writing of education that was full of wisdom and insights are still meaningful and instructive nowadays.My dissertation will take up the above topic by three parts and several chapters. My aim is to paint Qian Mu's portrait of a great educator. Though the title is "Initial research on Qian Mu's educational thought", I think any thought has its origin and its development, so it never reaches the goal in one step.Considering this point, the first part mainly discusses Qian Mu's family education and his early school education, what's more, their profound influence on Qian Mu's educational thought. It will take up his clan, parents and elder brother one by one and I hope to find out the origin of Qian Mu's educational thought.Then, the second part expounds Qian Mu's courses of occupation that he had been a teacher. Namely, three stages were divided by primary schools and middle schools, universities, New Asian college. From Qian Mu's educationalexperiences, we not only see an image or a teacher who believes in that "a teacher should transmit wisdom, impart knowledge, and resolve doubts" and practices it personally, but also find out his educational thought's tracksThe third part specially discusses Qian Mu's educational thought and it is also the core of this paper. It consists of five chapters: Calling on traditional spirit of education again; Dignity of the teaching profession; Methodology of learning; Secondary education reform; the Dream of ideal higher education and its realization. Qian Mu's writing about education is much and the contents refer to some fields such as philosophy, history, Chinese and western culture and etc. After thinking over, I select several typical parts to expatiate. I think Qian Mu's educational thought rooted in his educational practice and his academic thought. They reflected that era's characteristics and Qian Mu's wisdom as being a historian. From the latter, I think Qian Mu's educational thought is based on his historical thought and he explained them from a point of view of pedagogy. He advocated traditional spirit of education as a core of pedagogy axiology, namely a humanism education that is represented by Confucian educational thought that emphasizes morality. It is essential to rebuild dignity of the teaching profession in order to recover this spirit. Qian Mu summed up the means and notion of learning during his academic road at his old age. He started with two factors of intelligence and diligence and then summarized threestages that included two arrangements in every stage for learning. His methodology is full of illumination and instruction. Qian Mu had been teaching in middle schools for nine years and then he formed his special theory of secondary educational that knowledge and learning did not occupied upmost position in middle school. Qian Mu had have an ideal and aspiration for universities since his youth and he regarded higher education as a source in which it could establish a sort of spirit of nation. Moreover, it should be responsible for cultivating generalists. Therefore, the theory of higher education takes up important parts in Qian Mu's educational thought.Concerning Qian Mu's educational thought, some is worth reference and learning; some has a few biases and limitation. I will try to evaluate them objectively depending on era background and Qian Mu's academic thought.My dissertation tries to outline Qian Mu's general picture of a great educator, to elucidate the basic aspects of his educational thought, to evaluate the significance and limi...