A Study Of The Relationship Between Media Literacy And Moral Cognitive Standard Of Hezhou Middle School Students

Special emphasis has been attached to moral education in our educational system. It is, however, generally acknowledged that the actual effect of such education is of low efficiency. This is not in consistence with the objective of constructing harmonious society and harmonious campus. Middle school students are future constructors, their maturing with good personhood, therefore, is of great importance to our country. With the development of the society, middle school students find themselves in an information age, and inevitably expose to all kinds of media all day and all night. Their ideology, study life, and physical and mental health are inevitably affected by mass media. The ideological and moral education work of middle school students, therefore, also confronts rigorous challenges. How to deal with those challenges? This is an issue worth studying thoroughly by every teacher. The author believes that comprehensive investigation must be made to the current media literacy and current moral cognitive standard of middle school students, and study of the relationship between the two has to be conducted, only so can we work with a definite goal, and make proposals which can change the current situation of low efficiency of moral education. This study is conducted in the light of questionnaire survey generally used in Hong Kong and Taiwan regions to the current state of media literacy of the middle school students in Hezhou (the investigation attaches importance to electronic media), and used Kohlberg's moral cognitive development phases and tested the moral cognitive standard of the middle school students in Hezhou by ways of telling stories. The primary data after investigation is processed by the international general social science statistics software of SPSS13.0. The dissertation adopts methods of frequency analysis and correlation analysis to analyze the outcome of investigation. In view of the fact that there exist elements of uncertainty during investigation, there might be some deviations in the result. The study, however, could still obtain valuable reference.This article discovers that the majority of the middle school students have obtained certain media literacy and comparatively-high moral cognitive standard after investigation. But, the media literacy of middle school students was still at spontaneous state, moreover, the minority of the students'media literacy was somewhat low, some of the students'low moral cognitive standard does not tally with their age. There is certain relevance between student's media literacy and the moral cognitive standard. The outcome of investigation also shows that both schools and families have not been able to undertake well the responsibility of media instruction. In order to enhance the media literacy of middle school students, to avoid misuse of moral cognition and exposure to unhealthy media, we must table the topic of development of media literacy education on our agenda.The thesis is composed of five parts.The first part makes a survey to relevant references: defining the concepts of media literacy, media literacy education and moral cognition, and also elaborating the major contents of media literacy education, the moral cognition and the foster of moral cognitive ability. Based on this, the thesis introduces the theory of the moral cognitive development theory and the current study of media literacy education, and provides basic theory for the development of media literacy education.The second part of the thesis demonstrates the significance of this study, and points out hat middle school teachers should pay attention to the influence of mass media on the student's thought, study and life in the information age. We hold that investigation of the media literacy and the moral cognitive standard of the middle school students will enable teachers to understand the new situation, new characteristics of the moral education work in the information age, and enhance the aim of moral education. The investigation can also enhance teacher's scientific research standard and working ability, promote teacher's full scale development and provide scientific basis for media literacy education in middle school, and eventually impel the practical advancement of media literacy education.The third part is about the investigation and study of the media literacy and the moral cognitive standard of middle school students. The investigation of the current media literacy and the moral cognitive standard of eight middle schools'students in Hezhou are carried out by means of random sampling. The outcome of investigation is processed, statistically and separately, through all the tested students, different sex, and different years of schooling tested students. It makes detailed explanation and analysis of the outcome of the investigation of all the testees'current media literacy and moral cognitive standard, of different sexual testee's different media literacy and different moral cognitive standards, of different years of schooling students'different media literacy and different moral cognitive standards, of the relevance of media literacy and moral cognitive standard, and of the state of media instructions conducted by schools and families.Part four contains six main conclusions of this study. The first one is that middle school students have a clear goal when exposed to media, they show an initiative and active attitude towards contacting and using media resources. The second one is that different sexual students and different years of schooling students have obviously different behaviors when exposed to media. The third is that middle school students have certain ability in analyzing and criticizing media and its information as well as morals norm of cognitive media, but such media literacy is spontaneous and of low standard. The fourth is that both families and schools have not been able to provide good media instruction to middle school students. The fifth is that moral cognitive standard of middle school students is comparatively good, and the moral cognitive standard of male and female students, of junior- and senior-school students is close. The sixth is that there is remarkable relationship between"the contact media behavior"and"the moral cognitive standard"of middle school students, but there is no correlation between"motive of contacting media","ability of analyzing and criticizing media and its information as well as moral norm of cognitive media"and"moral cognitive standard".Some proposals and countermeasures are put forward after investigating and studying in part five. The author holds that to carry out media literacy education, we must first change our traditional ideas, study new ways of moral education actively. Secondly, we must pay great attention to the drawing of experiences and the combination of learning and creation. Thirdly, the students should be centered around, multi-channel and multi-way for development of media literacy education should be carried out. Lastly, we should implement a lifelong education, and carry out media literacy education through the whole life of us.This thesis provides a persuasive basis for middle schools to carry out media literacy education through the study of authentic evidences. The study will be helpful for the people to deepen the recognition of necessity and importance of the implementation of media literacy education, and pushes forward the implementation of media literacy education, and will eventually enable a better realization of the goal of a sound growth of middle school students.