The Enlightenment Of Mr.li Hongzhang's Industrial Education On The Modern Higher Vocational Education

On account of the rapid development of higher vocational education in China, the attention arises on how the higher vocational education can be more appropriate to the development of economy, technology and society, where the enlightenment of the thought of industrial education raised by Li Hongzhang, both the advocate of the Westernization movement in late Qing Dynasty and the foregoer of Industrial Education, still works.Through the bibliographical and historical documentary research methodology, this paper, first, argues that Li's hope for education as the top status in Westernization Movement, lack of talents of technology of the day, his idea of practical knowledge for management, and his modernizational personality, are the spurs for the formation of his Industrial Education Theory. In term of ideology, this paper mainly expounds the following six aspect, that is, the end of education which aims at cultivating the talents of technology; the system of education which calls for effectiveness; the content of teaching which follows the principle of "West first, Chinese as supplement" the method of teaching which needs to combine the practice with the theory; the management of education which emphasizes the rule of award and punishment; and the teaching contingents which are composed of Chinese teachers and Western counterparts. In third part of this paper, the author comments positively on the far reaching significance of Li's thought which mainly focuses on the five aspects:to renew the people's concept of the day; to strike out the feudal examination system; to encourage the establishment of the new teaching system; to cultivate the first talents of technology in the contemporary times; and to spread the western advanced technology. At the end of the paper, the author, based on the outstanding point in Li's thought, explores the enlightenment of Li's thought on today's higher vocational education and concludes that we should seize the opportunity and develop further the higher vocational education; we, according the social demand, should set up the aims for talent training; we should plan scientifically the curriculum which can serve the economic development; and we should build up "academic-practical" teacher group which should comply with the need of talent-cultivating. In conclusion part, the author thinks that since Li's Industrial Education Theory transforms the outmoded traditional education system and shows its creativeness and progressiveness, it brings far-reaching influence on the transition of Chinese traditional education from old times to contemporary times. Thanks to its positive feature, a lot can be learned from it when it comes to today's higher vocational education.