The Book of Learning is one of what is also the first monograph in the history of world education

"Learning Records" is a "Rites of Passage" in a book, written in the third century B.C. in the late Warring States period, according to the historian Guo Moruo testified that it is a student of Mencius Le Zhengke made, is the pre-Qin Confucianism, a high degree of generalization of the educational ideas and teaching experience. It is one of the earliest monographs on educational theory with educational significance and a very complete and systematic system in the history of education in China and the world, more than 300 years earlier than the so-called Orator's Education written by the Roman educator Quintilian in the first century A.D., which is regarded as one of the earliest writings closely related to the practice of the school in the history of education (1).

The book, On the Education of Orators, written in the first century, is considered "one of the earliest works in the history of education, closely related to school practice" (1), more than 300 years earlier than the so-called "pedagogical work that opened the way to education" (2), the Great Teaching of the Czech educator Comenius, and 1,800 years before that.

As the world's first monograph on education theory, "The Record of Learning" is extremely colorful educational ideas, education through the ages, "as the precepts of the law", (2) "future generations of clergy should be this as the law", (3) or as the "three generations of sacred textbooks. (3) or as "the book of three generations of sacred textbooks", (4) and today's educational theory is much in line with the immortal contribution to the theory of education. In the following I will analyze and interpret several major principles of teaching and learning covered in the text of the Book of Learning.

The so-called principles are the fundamental laws or standards by which things are said or done. The principles of teaching are the basic laws and standards that should be followed in carrying out teaching activities, and they are the general principles guiding the work of teaching. (5) The main principles of teaching and learning involved in the text of the "Records of Learning" are:

One, the principle of teaching and learning together

The "Records of Learning" said: "Learning and then know the insufficiency, teaching and then know the difficulties. Know the insufficiency, and then be able to self-reflection; know the difficulties, and then be able to self-improvement. Therefore, it is said that teaching and learning also grow together." (6) The Xueji was the first in the history of education to clearly put forward the proposition and principle of teaching and learning, which is its outstanding contribution to the theory of teaching.

The meaning of "teaching and learning together" is divided into its original meaning and its derived meaning. The original meaning refers only to the teaching side of teaching as learning, which explains that the teacher's own learning is a kind of learning, and the process of his teaching others is even more a kind of learning, through teaching to discover their own confusion. It is these two different forms of learning that propel each other and keep the teacher progressing. Thus, the Book of Learning quotes Shangshu - Tuiwang as saying, "Learning is half learning". (7) But later, some people in the commentary "teaching and learning" for the derivation, as in the teaching process, teachers, students through the teaching of mutual promotion, *** with the process of improvement. And it is also an important principle of teaching put forward by the "Records of Learning". The principle of teaching and learning reflects the dialectic of teaching and learning, it is one of the most important of our ancient teaching principles, the most valuable spirit of our national education, "that is, in the modern world of education treatise is also rare." (8) It still plays a positive role in guiding our teaching activities today.

The Precautionary Principle

The Book of Learning says, "To forbid what has not yet been done is called precautionary". The precautionary principle is proposed for university education. Generally

Said, teachers educate students in two ways: one is to impart knowledge, so that the formation of good study habits; or moral education, so that the formation of good moral character, and the second is to impart knowledge and moral education process, to help students to overcome bad study habits and correct the bad moral character. However, once bad study habits and bad moral qualities are formed or y accumulated, overcoming and correcting them will be out of place and doubly difficult. As the Book of Learning puts it, "If one is sent out and then forbidden, then one will be able to defend oneself and not win." This requires teachers to do a good job of investigating and getting to know their students from all angles in order to prevent problems before they occur and to nip them in the bud as much as possible. Now, the precautionary principle has been widely adopted by all walks of life.

Third, the "Book of Learning" advocates timely teaching.

"When it can be said to be the time", to grasp the best time to learn, the right time to learn, the right time to teach. Teachers from the aspect of teaching, said, seize all the opportunities to teach students education, especially students have the desire to learn, motivation. When they seek to pass the heart, the mouth wants to say, eager to know, row of doubts, confusion, teachers must seize the opportunity to teach in a timely manner, which seized the opportunity to tell, such as Mencius said, "when the rain of the"; from the aspect of student learning: First, the students according to age characteristics to receive education. That is, students at what age should receive what level of education, can not miss the time should be taught to learn, this is the right time to be taught. Such as the Qing Sun Xidan explained: "eight years old into elementary school, fifteen years old into the university, the time is also called." (9) Otherwise, "learning after the time has passed is hard work and difficult to accomplish." This has involved the teaching of students' age characteristics, psychological readiness, teaching content and sequence and other issues, the requirement to find the best combination of factors, so that the effectiveness of teaching, in modern times, many educators have also studied this, they believe that different ages, the best content of learning is different, and miss the rate of acceptance will be slower. Therefore, they also advocate timely teaching.

Four, the principle of gradual progress

The "Learning Records" summarizes the gradual progress of Confucius and Mencius, put forward the "not陵节而施之谓孙", "Learning does not step across", "respect Sun ", opposed to the "miscellaneous Shi and not Sun", "and in the number of progress" and other teaching in a haphazard, eager to achieve the practice, advocating "first its easy, after its program It is advocated that "the easy ones should come first, and then the programs", and "the river should come first, and then the sea" should be emphasized, so as to find out the essence and the end of the matter. Only through gradual and orderly progress will teaching be successful; otherwise, it will fail.

The principle of gradual and orderly progress is comprehensively summarized in the two main aspects of teachers' teaching and students' learning in the Book of Learning. First, it refers to the object of teaching students, according to the order of the students' age, and teaching with the appropriate knowledge; on the other hand, the teacher is required to teach from the actual content of the content of the positive and negative aspects of the elaboration. And the students' learning, specific all processes should also be carried out in a certain order. The principle of gradual and orderly progress is the requirement that teaching activities must follow the order of knowledge, students and teaching the three aspects of the order and objective laws.

Fifth, the principle of observation

Confucian tradition of education, traditionally focusing on group consciousness, advocating "group education", emphasizing the role of group interaction in education. In particular, the assistance of good friends as an important part of the education and teaching process. Confucius first put forward the idea of "meeting friends with literature", "supporting benevolence with friends", and "choosing the good and following them" in the education process. (10) In addition, Xunzi, the Book of Changes, and the University all put forward similar ideas. On the basis of the comprehensive inheritance and summary of these ideas, the Academic Records has developed them to a certain extent, especially emphasizing that in "group education", the requirement of mutual influence and education must be based on the premise of "goodness". The role of positive education was emphasized. "The mutual observation and good is called Mo" learning to observe each other, learning from each other, to complement each other, learning in the collective, with the help of the collective power to learn. Mutual learning and consultation, all to the good side of the influence, in order to achieve the "good", which is the essence of the "mutual observation and good".

The Book of Learning emphasizes that teachers should not only educate students to "learn from friends" and guide them to approach "good friends", but also strive to turn "bad friends" into "good friends". It is not only to educate students to "learn from friends" and guide them to approach "good friends", but also to strive to transform "bad friends" into "good friends". This is the positive significance of "mutual respect and goodwill" on the other hand. Otherwise, "if you study alone without friends, you will be alone and not heard". It can be seen that the principle of observability plays a very important role in students' learning. The criteria for making friends in it are still applicable to our lives today.

Sixth, the principle of enlightenment

The "Records of Learning" repeatedly emphasized: "The gentleman's teaching, the metaphor is: Dao and Fo牵, strong and Fo inhibit, open and Fo da. The way and not to hold is peace, strong and not to suppress is easy, open and not to reach is thought. And, if one is strong but not suppressed, one is easy, and if one is open but not reached, one is thoughtful." (11) "Metaphor" is to inspire and induce. For example, Dai Xi of the Southern Song Dynasty said, "Teachers have the merit of good enticement, and scholars have the intention of wanting to stop." (12) Yao Shunmu of the Ming Dynasty also said: "Metaphor, there is no words since the meaning of the deed". (13) Metaphor is an extremely important teaching principle. It is a summary of the ideas of Confucius and Mencius to inspire and induce.

One is "the way and not lead". The first is "the way and not to be led". That is to say, the teacher guides the students without leading them along. Teachers only very good inspiration and guidance, careful guidance, students will be happy and can be well accepted. In this way, the relationship between teaching and learning, teachers and students will naturally be harmonious and friendly, this is the "road and do not lead is and". Achieved "and", that is to say, students have produced a happy, willing to learn the joy of psychological tendencies. In this way, learning is easy and happy, and thus will achieve the best results. The main position of the students will be able to give full play to.

The second is "strong and not inhibit". Strong is strict requirements, serious supervision; suppression that is mandatory, suppression. Teachers teaching students must be strict requirements, serious supervision, but to grasp the proportion, grasp the limit, not to excessive and forced, so that students feel suppressed. This not only fails to achieve the purpose of education, but also fails to achieve the desired results, and even cause students to reverse psychology, anorexia, fear of learning. Qing scholars Fang Bao note this is very thorough: "strong fear that it can not be enterprising, and or suppression, the heavy thought difficult, and since the frustration carried." (14) only really do "strong and not inhibit", the enthusiasm of students to learn, self-consciousness, initiative can be well played, will never regard the academic as a fear. Because there is no ideological burden, psychological pressure, so learning will naturally be in a good mood, relaxed and happy, and will be full of confidence, difficulties are easy to overcome. This is what is referred to as "strong and not inhibit is easy".

Three is open and Fuda. Open, open, so that reveal its end. Teachers to explain the problem to students, we must grasp the main points, seize the key, break through the difficult points, to make clear with the key to enlightenment, do not have to put all the everything out of the box. In this way, students can get some kind of inspiration from the teacher, give full play to their own subjective initiative, fully embodying its subjective position and role. Therefore, the main purpose of inspiration lies in mobilizing students' learning enthusiasm, the fundamental point is to promote students' active thinking activities.

Aiming at the shortcomings of the teaching: "moaning about the occupation of Bi, more than its news; and in the number into the disregard for its security, so that people are not by their sincerity, teaching people not to exhaust their talent", students will be learning as a drudgery, and even complained about the teacher, and very quickly discarded what they have learned to the clean sweep. Therefore, the teaching should be heavy inspiration and inducement.

It is because of the principle of inspiration and guidance to the development of students' intelligence, ability to cultivate. It is an important guarantee for teachers to continuously improve teaching, carry out teaching reform, complete the teaching task and improve the quality of teaching. Therefore, it is very suitable for the current social development of the actual needs of teaching reform. Enlightenment gram principle in the current teaching reform is commonly used and strongly advocated for this reason.

Seven, the principle of long good to save the lost

Teaching is likely to be gained and lost, gain and loss is the result of the teaching of the two aspects of this contradiction. Loss, can be divided into the loss of teaching and learning. According to the Book of Learning, "There are four mistakes of scholars, and those who teach must be aware of them. When a person learns, he may fail to learn more, or he may fail to learn less, or he may fail to learn more easily, or he may fail to learn more. These four things are the same as the heart. If you know your heart, then you can save your mistakes." It points out the four kinds of shortcomings that exist in students' learning. And these four shortcomings, in turn, is "the heart of the same" - individual psychological differences caused.

The teacher, to play a leading role, must be good at teaching, we must overcome their own "loss", to promote their "good". The student's "loss", the teacher only in-depth understanding of the student's psychology, penetrate the student's inner world, the student's teaching, in order to achieve the "long good to save the loss", which is the "Records of the Learning", "know their hearts and then be able to save their loss also ".

Gain and loss are not absolute, always fixed, but discursive. The "more", "less", "easy", "stop" in student learning is in some cases the In some cases, they are "lost" and teachers must do everything they can to save them. But on the other hand, there is a gain in loss, which is transformed into gain. As Wang Fuzhi said, "Although many, few, easy, and stop have their own losses, those who are many are easy to be broad, those who are few are easy to specialize, those who are easy are courageous, and those who are stop are at peace with their own order, which is also good for each of them. If you save them from their failures, then the good will grow." If you can correctly do this, in the teaching process can correctly do "long good save loss".