CC BY
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УДК 377.8(510) ББК Ч447.947.06
ГРНТИ 14.35.07
Код ВАК 13.00.08
Wang Nan,
Professor, Chairperson of Board of School Administration, Guangxi Normal University; No. 15 Yucai Road, Guilin, Guangxi, China; e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected].
Luo Yuan,
Assistant Researcher, Deputy Secretary General of Education Development Foundation in Guangxi Normal University; Guangxi Normal University, Yucai Campus, Foreign Language Building, 15 Yucai Road, Qixing District, Guilin, Guangxi, China; e-mail: [email protected].
EXPLORATION AND PRACTICE OF QUALITY-ORIENTED EDUCATION OF FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS
KEYWORDS: students; education for women; college; education quality; educational models.
ABSTRACT. As a special community, female students play an important part in a college and their qualities are influential in the growth of next generation and the future of China. On the basis of the connotation of phoenix in traditional Chinese culture and the "four-self spirit" of Women development in China, namely self-respect, self-confidence, self-independence and self-improvement, a new philosophy of education that aims to help female college students become healthy, independent, elegant, wise and happy is proposed, and a four-in-one educational mode is also established, which constitutes example setting, course learning, volunteerism participating and project aiding. This fruitful work shows that the comprehensive qualities of female students in GXNU are significantly developed and promoted.
Ванг Нан,
профессор, Директор Института образования для девушек, Педагогический университет Гуанси, Гуанси, Китай; e-mail: [email protected].
Луо Юань,
научный сотрудник, Заместитель генерального секретаря образования и разития, Педагогический университет Гуанси, Гуанси, Китай, e-mail: [email protected].
ИЗУЧЕНИЕ И ВНЕДРЕНИЕ КАЧЕСТВО-ОРИЕНТИРОВАННОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ В КОЛЛЕДЖЕ ДЛЯ ДЕВУШЕК
КЛЮЧЕВЫЕ СЛОВА: студенты; женское образование; колледж; качество образования; образовательные модели.
АННОТАЦИЯ. Студенты-девушки представляют собой особое сообщество, которое играет важную роль в жизни колледжа, а их качества влияют на развитие следующего поколения и на будущее Китая в целом. На основе метафоры птицы-феникс в традиционной китайской культуре и на базе «четырехгранного» развития женщины в китайской культуре (самоуважение, увереность в себе, независимость, саморазвитие) формулируется новая философия образования, которая призвана помочь девушкам-студенткам стать здоровыми, независимыми, элегантными, мудрыми и счастливыми. Описана образовательная модель «четыре в одном»; она включает пример, изучение курса, волонтерскую деятельность, проектную деятельность. Эта философия подтверждает, что в Педагогическом университете Гуанси плодотворно развиваются качества студентов-девушек.
With the advancement of basic national policy of gender equality and educational fairness, the number of female students in universities is on the rise. According to the data from Guangxi Normal University, female students account for over 65% of the total students in the university since 2007, among which the proportion of female students in College of Foreign Studies has been over 85%. Female students have become important parts of talents cultivation in universities. How to improve female college students' qualities in thought, culture, career, psychology, and physical qualities is a significant task for the quality-oriented education for college students.
Part I. The Connotation of Quality, Core Skills and Quality-oriented Education
Quality is the general term of relatively stable psychological quality, self-cultivation
and abilities formed by the genetic physiology, acquired education, social environment and internalized knowledge. Quality is not only stable but also variable. The talent quality consists of such aspects as ideological and moral quality, physical and mental quality, cultural quality and professional quality, among which ideological and moral quality is the core, while cultural quality and physical and mental quality are the foundation, and professional quality is the backbone. The quality-oriented education is goal-oriented education which aims to improve talents qualities. It includes education in ideological and moral quality, physical and mental quality, cultural and scientific quality and professional quality. The quality-oriented education integrates with knowledge imparting , ability training and quality shaping.
Based on the development and promotion of quality-oriented education, countries
© Wang Nan, Luo Yuan, 2018
and international organizations began to focus on the concept of skills and core skills. The research report Reflection on Education: Seeking to "Global Common Benefits", released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2015, has proposed three skills that young people should possess. First, foundation skills needed in daily life. Second, transferable skills qualified for the change and adaptation to various job requirements and conditions. Third, technical and vocational skills needed for specific occupation. After three years of research, approved by the Expert Committee for Curriculum and Tex t-books for Fundamental Education of Ministry of Education, the project Core Skills of Chinese Students Development, hosted by Beijing Normal University, released its research results in 2016. These results, though mainly focus on fundamental education, can also provide strong guidance for quality-oriented education in colleges and universities. The research group pointed out that the core skills include essential qualities and abilities students should possess for their lifelong development and social development. It is composed of three modules and six parts: first, cultural basis, which reflects one's basic quality and soul, including humanistic connotation and scientific spirit; second, self-directed development, which mirrors one's autonomy, covering learning capability and healthy life; third, social participation, which means one's social attribute, containing responsibility and innovation. According to these standards, it is believed that the quality-oriented education for female college students should not only pay attention to basic qualities, such as fundamental moral standards and cultural qualities, healthy physical fitness and elementary vocational abilities, but also attach importance to the differentiated construction of their quality-oriented education based on their special requirements of physical and mental development. Taking into consideration the "four-self" spirits of self-respect, self-confidence, self-independence and self-improvement for female development in China and the connotations of "phoenix" in Chinese traditional culture, Guangxi Normal University sets core objective of "helping female college students become healthy, independent, elegant, wise and happy woman" in line with the overall goal of quality-oriented education for college students an.
Part II. The Necessity of Strengthening Quality-oriented Education of female College Students
With regard to the importance of female education, Chen Hongmou, a famous govern-
ment official of Qing Dynasty (16441911) who was born in Guilin, Guangxi, known as "the Confucian in the south of the Five Ridges (covering Guangdong and Guangxi provinces) ", said in his book The Regulation of Teaching Daughters that a person has several approaches to nurture his son as well as his daughter. When a girl is old enough to marry, she becomes a woman, and then a mother. To have saintly descendant, one must be a virtuous girl, then a good wife, and then an excellent mother. The prosperity of a nation starts from female education. The harmony of a family benefits from female qualities. Thus, it is cautious to change such educational mode. It is obvious that the quality-oriented education of female college students is of great importance.
Firstly, the quality-oriented education of female college students has a bearing on the future and fate of a nation. As Lu Xun, a well-known Chinese writer, puts it, " The man who teaches children not only affects his own future and his children's future, but also builds the future of a nation." What's more, Froebel, the originator of modern preschool education and a famous German educator, once said that the fate of a nation is not in the hands of an authority but in those of a mother. The notable female scholar Wilma Scott Heide stresses that those who swing the cradle can change the world. The emphasis on the education of female college students is equal to the focus on mothers' education and family's education in the future. The quality-oriented education of female college students is bound to make profound influences on the future of a nation and fate of a country, which is more prominent and important in the frontier minority regions. In addition to Han nationality, there are 11 ethnic minorities in Guangnxi, a region with the largest population of ethnic minorities in China, in which the female population accounts for 47,02% of its total population. The quality-oriented education of female college students is crucial to the education and development in the frontier minority regions, to the promotion of national unity and harmony, and to the building of a well-off society.
Secondly, it is necessary for colleges and universities to deepen the reform of talents cultivating mechanism. As a tower of ivory to foster talents, colleges and universities shoulder great historical mission. Training high-quality and first-class talents is the eternal goal of higher education. To build a first-class university, the core is to improve the overall quality of students, to improve their special skills and abilities, and to make them talents with perfect personality and all-rounded development. With the advancement of basic national policy of gender equality and educa-
tional fairness, the number of female students in universities is on the rise, especially in normal universities, which calls for a relevant reform in students' management and talents training mechanism. However, there are few courses particularly set for the quality-oriented education of female college students. Thus, such social change and demand urge universities to positively reform their talents training mechanism and female college students' quality-oriented education, which means that education should meet universal demands of social development for individual competence and quality, besides, it should attach importance to female various needs for quality development resulting from their different physical and psychological development.
Finally, it is an urgent need for female college students to pursue their happiness. Since the reform and opening up, it is known to all that Chinese women have made big progress and they have transformed magnificently from attachment to self-development. As for educated women in the New era (after the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China), life and work are no longer just for economic independence and equality of opportunity equality between men and women, but the realization of self-value and contributions to the society. Traditional concept of quality-oriented education in colleges, the content of education and education mode have been far from enough to meet the needs of female college students and future career women in pursuing the happiness of life. Therefore, differentiated course is designed for quality-oriented education of female college students, helping them make progress in knowledge, capability, emotion and willpower, thus to improve their happiness index of life.
Part III. Constructing and Improving the Model of Quality-oriented Education of Female College Students
Boasting a long history of 85 years and pursuing a mission of promoting morality education and advanced gender culture education, Guangxi Normal University has been paying attention to female undergraduates and energetically exploring how female undergraduates grow and succeed in the New Period. In traditional Chinese culture, legend has it that a bird with colorful feathers is named phoenix, for the figures on its head, wings, back, chest and belly respectively resembled Chinese character De (virtue), Yi (justice), Li (propriety), Ren (goodness) and Xin (credit),and the appearance of such a singing and dancing bird can be a sign of world peace. On the basis of this connotation of phoenix and the "four-self" spirit featuring self-respect, self-confidence, self-independence and self-improvement, the uni-
versity has come up with a new philosophy of education, namely "the Golden Phoenix", to encourage female college students to be healthy, independent, elegant, intelligent and happy, developed a four-in-one educational mode emphasizing example setting, course learning, volunteerism participating and project aiding, which enhanced their comprehensive qualities and core development ability in an all-round way and yielded favorable re-sults.3 The practices are as follows:
To start with, the healthy growth of golden phoenix is stimulated by example setting. Young people are energetic and passionate so that they are in need of it. Each year the school awards the scholarship to those excellent female students, conducting "the Golden Phoenix" example education in daily management of the students and making it a common mechanism. The selection of Model Girls has been held both online and offline since 2010, 10 outstanding female students have been annually selected as models, making the model education closer to the students' life. The selection of excellent teachers has also been held yearly, integrating model education into the class. Since 2013, the top 10 ladies activity and a key-note forum of "Highlight Women's Beauty-A Conversation between Top 10 Ladies and Model Girls" have been held, which exerts a subtle influence on the students. What's more, alumni models are quite effective in inspiring female students, especially those from the frontier areas where ethnic groups inhabit, enhancing their confidence, and promoting their development. Every October when freshmen enter the school, they have got the chance to communicate with alumni who are admitted or recommended to domestic or overseas prestigious universities as a postgraduate, and whose experience would be compiled in a book and then published.
Secondly, inner skills of female college students are enriched through course learning. Specialized course is a must for quality-oriented education. In 2008, 12 female teachers from different fields who are both doctors and professors, develop the course "Qualities of Female College Students". The course is mainly involved in cultivating the temperament, intelligence and charm of female college students. Among which women independence, law awareness, self-protection, social gender role, learning and happiness are discussed. Relying on Duxiu Forum of Guangxi Normal University, the course is opened to all students and one credit is granted as a selective course. It has been popular with female students both in GXNU and many other universities. So far, the lectures have been given for more than 50 times and have had over 20,000 audiences. Guangming Daily once interviewed and made a report entitled Qualities of Female College
Students-Why the Lecture Has Been so Popular on Campus on May 2, 2009. What is mentioned in the lecture has been compiled a book Beautiful Girl: The Series Lecture Collection of Qualities of Female College Students and was published by Guangxi Normal University Press in 2010. It won the first prize of National College Quality-Oriented Education Research Excellence in 2012. In the same year, it was approved to be constructed as a National Public Video Course and was opened to the public for free in the form of Chinese University Public Video Course broadcasting in three websites, Love Course, China Network Television (CNTV) and NetEase and received positive social feedbacks. In 2014, the course was chosen as a liberal optional course of quality-oriented education for college students by Institution of Quality-oriented Education of Association of Chinese Higher Education.
Furthermore, other 20 courses closely related to female marriage, family, physiology and psychology are set, like Marriage and Family Law, Sociology of Family, Women Social Work, Study of Modern Female Problem, Women's Psychological Health, etc. These courses have greatly improved women's abilities to get to know themselves and the world. To deepen the advanced gender cultural education, some female research experts and successful women like Bi Shumin, Jin Yuxi and Li Huiying were invited to deliver a speech in the school. Meanwhile, GXNU was one of the earliest higher institutions to adopt the advanced gender cultural education in public courses like Ideological and Political Education and Education on Policies and Situations.
Thirdly, the benevolence of "Golden Phoenix" is cultivated by volunteerism participating. Benevolence is the source of happiness. Based on the school motto, great efforts are made to build culture of community and public welfare of community. Advocated by the school motto and mainly cultivated through public welfare activities, culture of community refers to quality of harmonious coexistence, credit and tolerance, and team cooperation. At present, there are more than 30 kinds of public welfare projects or brands in our school. Among which , the "Small Blackboard Plan" makes a great success. It has encouraged students to read sinology (Chinese ancient civilization) and classics and hold summer camps and winter camps in their hometown since 2013. Until now, 3,000 female college students from more than 20 schools have participated in this project and nearly 20,000 children are guided to read classics. This project was awarded by the Ministry of Education in 2016 as the characteristic display project of the second session" of outstanding Chinese traditional culture". So far, more than 80 media outlets
including CCTV, Guangming Daily, China Education, Xinhua Net and Zhongxin Net have reported the news on the public welfare activities of female university students in our university. On December 21, 2016, Guangming Daily headlined volunteerism participating of our students in the past ten years. When female college students participate in such activities, their social sense of responsibility is enhanced, benevolence is cultivated and maternal consciousness is inspired.
Lastly, a platform for "Golden Phoenix" is built with the aid of the project. GXNU started the project of "Golden Phoenix Plan" in 2007. In ten years, the project platform has launched three core public products, including "Golden Phoenix Female Boya School", "Golden Phoenix Study Tour" and "the Nest for Golden Phoenix - an Accelerator for Female's Innovation and Entrepreneurship", and organized some public welfare activities, like Golden Phoenix's journey to the Expo, Golden Phoenix's tour of new discovery for public welfare, Learn Etiquette from Golden Phoenix, etc. All of these were well recognized by the society. On 14th October, 2009, China Women's News reported on the "Golden Phoenix Plan" entitled "Golden Phoenix Dance on the Bank of the Li-jiang River - Distinct Cultivation of Female Students in GXNU". In 2010, 21 "Golden Phoenixes" were selected to attend Shanghai World Expo, offering service in Uruguay Themed Restaurant. Relative media spoke highly of them because of their best service and outstanding performance. After ten years of construction, the "Golden Phoenix Plan" has become a brand with great effect. In 2016, it was approved to be annual key support and promotion projects by Guangxi Women Federation, and was expected to be constructed as the engine of innovation and entrepreneurship for female students in Guangxi. During these years, it has been financially aided from government, enterprise and society over 8,000,000 Yuan RMB, most of which are from entrepreneurs in Shanghai. Due to the financial aid, it has established "Golden Phoenix" education and promotion base in Guangxi Normal University, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics and Yulin Normal University. Relying on the brand project, it has formed the partnership of "government + universities + industry + public", which builds a broader platform for the development of "Golden Phoenix".
Bing Xin, the famous Chinese writer, once said, "If there is no woman in the world, at least five tenths of the truth, six tenths of goodness and seven tenths of beauty will be lost." Ya xian, a poet in Taiwan, China also said, " The image of a woman in my mind is the one who is wise, gentle and elegant, with the
nose smelt the book, the mouth read the Tang poem and the eyes appreciated calligraphy and painting. " The main task of female education is to foster their correct overlooks on the world, life and values and develop their self-awareness, independent personality, sense of achievement, social responsibilities, self-respect, correct outlooks of marriage together with good morals, making them intellectual women with noble personality in the new era. Female education in China is just a beginning. There are few colleges that have female education in a systematic way, some of which have lectures on female education, but most of which have done nothing about it. "Female Education" has become an important project beyond world advanced level. It is doomed to
help a woman develop a new kind of self-awareness. She must be the one who is able to give birth to a baby and nurture herself with spiritual-sufficiency.
Female college students as well as teachers are believed to become intellectual women. It is known to all that an excellent man can only indulge in self-admiration; however, an excellent woman may benefit a family, a generation and a nation. Similarly, an outstanding teacher has influence on his students, while an outstanding female teacher may have great impact on a family, a generation and generations of her students. All in all, a brilliant woman is superior to a brilliant man. Without women, there exists no life; without women, the world will pale into insignificance.
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