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In recent years, there have been more and more cases of suicide and people hurting others indiscriminately, which has brought "life education" to the public's attention. The investigations of and appeals for "life education" have never stopped, but most of the studies on "life education" either emphasize the definition of death in textbooks or center on drawing books, youth-related novels, and natural science . Nevertheless, there are very few studies in which researchers perform content analysis of "life education" topics in textbooks in the langunge field. Since language courses are characterized by human spirit and life consciousness, they are thus a very important teaching resource; therefore, language teaching can take the responsibility of "life education". In this study, I am going to perform a content analysis of "life education" topics in textbooks across the Taiwan Strait. This study aims to analyze and investigate "life education" topics in language textbooks at elementary school level across the Taiwan Strait. First, through literature review, the meaning and content of "life education" are summarized and integrated. Next, content analysis method is utilized to explain and analyze the content of "life education" topics in text books across the Taiwan Strait. Through the analysis and comparison of language textbooks across the Taiwan Strait, we try to understand of whether language teaching materials across the Taiwan Strait provide sufficient content and appropriate perspectives to construct a complete concept of "life education". The conclusions of this study are as follows: 1. "Life education" topics in elementary school language textbooks across the Taiwan Strait cover five categeries: "the growth of life", "ecological conservation", "the value of life", "surmounting the defects of life", and "death". "Ecological conservation" topics constitute the highest proportion in Taiwan while "death" topics account for the lowest proportion. In Mainland China, more emphasis is laid on "death" topics while there exists lack of "the growth of life" content. 2. Taiwan and Mainland China differ in their material sources. The difference are as follows: (1) With regard to "the growth of life" topics, Taiwan refers to the life growth of plants, animals, and humans. By contrast, there are no related teaching materials in Mainland China. (2) With respect to "ecological conservation" topics, Taiwan deals with plants, animals, and environmental and ecological conservation. Most of the topics focus on domestic ecological conservation instead of on foreign matters. Mainland China tapes more foreign animal, environmental, and ecological conservation but there are no articles on plant and ecological conservation. (3) As to "the value of life" topics, most of Taiwan's articles focus on "saving life through the practice of medicine", while the others are about the dedications and contributions from, for example, nuns, inventors, and social workers. In Mainland China, the topics are mostly around the poor, sympathy of children, and the contributions of the scientists. (4) As for "surmounting the defects of life" topics, both textbooks across the Taiwan Strait incorporate the painstaking process and history of the disabled from home and abroad; in Taiwan, articles on the life struggling process people with impaired vicion hearing(Helen Keller) are added. (5) Withvrelation to "death" topics, Taiwan's textbooks feature animals and humans characters, organ donations, and children with cancer in the literature are the main topics. The focus is on reflecting on the meaning of life and the mental state in facing death. In Mainland China, most of the topics are on people who sacrifice themselves for the country, for others, or for ideal. In these articles, what is displayed is the value of death rather than individual mental changes in facing death. 3. In Mainland China, the life education curriculum is mostly distributed in medium and high grade classes; but in Taiwan, in addition to medium and high grade classes, there are topics of "the growth of life" and "ecological conservation" for the lower grade classes. 4. The proportion of each item in textbooks across the Taiwan Strait is random and chaotic. The proportion of each grade can be re-adjusted. We thus propose the following suggestions: 1. In the editing of teaching material, each volume should focus on a single main topic, and the proportion in each volume should be well balanced. 2. In the teaching content aspect, (1) The main topic of the life education should be clearly displayed. (2) The topics should be rich and include multiple elements. (3) The materials should be taken a global basis. (4) The display of the topic should be appropriate for the age of the students. 3. In the teacher's aspect, (1) The teaching of life education should not be limited to general activity field. (2) Teachers should equip themselves with more professional knowledge, read, visit and study more. (3) Life education teaching should be implemented in multiple ways.
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