Critique Of And Lessons From Japanese Junior High School Moral Education Textbook

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in the report of the 20 th Party Congress that we are on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in a comprehensive manner.At this critical period of marching towards the second century goal,it is an important task for the Party and the State to further strengthen moral education for young people.On 25 April,2022,when visiting Renmin University of China,General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that: ideological and political education should be carried out in a targeted manner for different stages of young people’s growth,and colleges and universities around the world are encouraged to actively carry out joint construction of ideological and political courses with primary and secondary schools,and jointly promote ideological and political courses in universities and primary and secondary schools The construction of an integrated system.Among them,moral education in primary and secondary schools has come to receive more and more attention from all sectors of society.China’s Ministry of Education mentions in the Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Cultivating and Practicing Socialist Core Values to Further Strengthen Moral Education in Primary and Secondary Schools: "Cultivating and practicing socialist core values and strengthening moral education in primary and secondary schools are inevitable requirements for advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and are realistic choices for deepening comprehensive reform in the field of education and promoting the healthy growth of students." With the in-depth promotion of moral education in primary and secondary schools in China over the years,remarkable results have been achieved,but there is still room for improvement.The question of how to further strengthen moral education is one that countries have been exploring in depth.Japan has had a major reform in moral education in recent years due to the increasing moral problems of young people.In 2017,the Ministry of Education,Culture,Sports,Science and Technology issued the Guidelines for Learning(Hereinafter referred to as the Essentials),which officially transformed the former "moral time" in primary and secondary schools into a special subject:moral lessons.The textbooks for ethics classes have also undergone new changes.In accordance with the Study Guidelines,various private publishers in Japan have developed new textbooks for ethics classes,which have been revised by the Ministry of Education,Culture,Sports,Science and Technology and are now in use.This study takes the Tokyo Book version of a representative Japanese junior high school moral education textbook,New Morality,as the object of study,and analyses the text and content of the textbook through documentary and comparative research methods,in an attempt to grasp the current situation and characteristics of moral education in Japanese junior high schools and summarize the lessons learned from it,so as to provide a reference and warning for the preparation of moral education textbooks in China.This study firstly compares the reasons and ideas for studying Japanese junior high school moral education textbooks;secondly,it examines the background and components of the development of the Japanese New Morality textbook;thirdly,it analyses the characteristics of the New Morality textbook in terms of structural design,content arrangement and educational objectives.In terms of structural design,the New Ethics textbook shows a comprehensive and cross-cutting trend from both macro and micro perspectives,and a spiraling trend from both horizontal and vertical perspectives.In terms of educational objectives,the New Ethics textbook takes into account both the personal and social orientation of education.Although Japan’s moral education takes into account both the personal and social orientation of education,the challenge is to manage the tension between the two.Finally,this study summarizes and critiques the New Ethics textbook,while at the same time summarizing what can be learned from it.The New Ethics textbook has some merits,such as: the diversity of presentation,with a large number of illustrations and cartoons in addition to the text that is common in textbooks;the selection of teaching materials that are closely related to students’ daily lives,which helps students to move towards first-hand experience,exploration and reflection;the flexible application of experiential learning methods to ethics education,which includes emotional,cognitive and action experiences.These include emotional,cognitive and action experiences.Our moral education textbooks are gradually being improved in these three areas,and with the inspiration of moral education textbooks from other countries,we can further accelerate the pace of improvement and enhance the modernity,regularity and effectiveness of moral education.However,when analyzing the New Ethics textbook,it is also important to be conscious of the problems involved.Firstly,there are problems with the selection of some of the teaching materials in the New Ethics: on the one hand,the teaching materials selected cover up the facts and avoid the importance of the subject;on the other hand,some of the teaching materials selected are those that have caused greater controversy at home and abroad.Secondly,the textbooks also suffer from a lack of conformity between social writing and top-level design,a gap between the ideal teaching style and actual practice,and a hierarchical concept that is not conducive to the development of students’ personalities.These problems in the New Morality textbook serve as a warning for the development of moral education textbooks in China and require our attention.