This paper intends to start with the outline of meta-discipline group, see through the general characteristics of meta-theory research, and provide the background for understanding what meta-pedagogy is; Then, some important achievements of foreign meta-education theory are investigated, and the characteristics of China's research in this field are summarized by comparison. On this basis, some possible topics and available methods for the study of meta-education theory are put forward. This kind of induction is tentative, and we look forward to the broad vision and in-depth discussion of the academic community.
I. Meta-theoretical research
Meta-theoretical research first rose in western countries. The western "yuan" is "yuan", which means "later" and "beyond". A noun formed by its connection with a subject name means a higher logical form. Specifically, it can be divided into two meanings: the first meaning refers to the transcendental and speculative nature of this logical form. This comes from the word "metaphysics". It is said that later generations used "metaphysics"-"after physics" as the name of Aristotle's works after physics for the first time when editing Aristotle's works. It discusses the ultimate principle of transcendental world ontology. There is a saying in the Book of Changes that "the metaphysical refers to the Tao and the metaphysical refers to the device", so "metaphysics" has always been translated as "metaphysics" [( 1) a]. Since then, metaphysics has been equated with ontology, which answers questions such as the origin of the universe, the origin of the world, human nature, the absolute value and ultimate significance of life, and is full of speculative colors. Metaphysics often represents speculative philosophy. As far as the history of western philosophy is concerned, its starting point is ancient Greek philosophy dominated by ontology (metaphysics), so metaphysics often becomes synonymous with philosophy. Metachemistry, Meta-psychology, Meta-anthropology and Meta-politics are similar to them, and people often understand them as highly abstract chemistry, speculative psychology, metaphysical anthropology and philosophical politics respectively.
Another meaning is that this new higher-level logical form will critically examine the nature, structure and other manifestations of the original discipline. Before that, it was meta-mathematics and meta-logic.
Metamathematics was put forward by the famous German mathematician D Hilbert in his "Hilbert scheme". This scheme attempts to prove the coordination of infinite mathematical system by finite method. It completely formalizes the whole mathematical theory into a symbol system with no content, including the basic concept as a symbol, the axiom as a symbol sequence and the basic reasoning rules as a symbol sequence deformation rule. Then take this symbol system as the research object and use another set of theories to study its coordination. This theory used to study mathematical theory is the meta-theory of mathematics. Nowadays, metamathematics has developed into a new branch of mathematics, which not only studies the coordination of mathematical theories, but also studies other characteristics of mathematical theories, such as completeness and independence between axioms.
Meta-logic is developed under the inspiration of Hilbert's concept of meta-mathematics and formal thought. It has a broad sense and a narrow sense. In a narrow sense, meta-logic refers to the study of the overall nature of logic theory, but it is not interested in a particular logic law. The key of this research lies in the formalization of logic. Metalogic in a broad sense refers to the study of general formal systems. Formal language is some ideographic artificial symbols and meaningful symbol strings composed of these symbols. Choose some formulas as axioms in formal language, establish certain reasoning rules, and form a formal system. This study includes grammar and semantics. Since general formal systems can exist in linguistics, philosophy, natural science and social science, then meta-logic goes beyond the scope of pure logical systems. It can be seen that meta-mathematics is also a generalized meta-logic. In the sense of methodology, meta-logic pushes the idea of formalization and symbolization to a universal and effective direction, and brings us into the dimension of language analysis.
When we use one theory-meta-theory to examine another theory-original discipline theory, we must pay attention to the fact that the two theories use two different language expressions, which involves a meta-linguistic problem. Generally speaking, the original discipline takes the phenomenon field as the research object, which is a statement of phenomena and a language about empirical facts, which is called object language in meta-linguistics; When we take the subject as the object, we must analyze the language of the object. What we do is a statement about the language, which is called metalanguage in metalinguistics. But not all metalinguistic statements are metalinguistic. Any subject knowledge is finally presented in the form of concepts, propositions or statements through the use of language. Therefore, language analysis plays an important role in the study of meta-theory.
An important trend of European philosophy in the 20th century is to pay attention to language. Because philosophy, like all knowledge, is finally expressed in the form of a set of statements, therefore, the controversy of philosophical issues is closely related to language issues. This is an "era of analysis", and a number of language philosophers have emerged. Broadly speaking, philosophy of language includes the analysis of scientific language and everyday language. Both the formal logic analysis of scientific language by logical positivists and the analysis of daily language usage and function by everyday linguists point to the reflection and criticism of traditional philosophy, trying to transcend traditional philosophical problems and reject metaphysics. Therefore, the task of philosophy is limited to the analysis of language. Carnap declared that the task of philosophy is "not a statement, nor a theory, nor a system, but just a method: logical analysis" [( 1) b]. Wittgenstein declared in his logical analysis of language that all philosophy is "language criticism". When he turned to the analysis of everyday language and attributed the philosophical problems to the misunderstanding of the usage and form of everyday language, he also told people that real philosophy is only an empirical description, and real philosophers are technical experts in everyday language analysis.
It can be seen that these linguistic philosophers are rethinking traditional philosophy, trying to destroy it and repeatedly explaining what philosophy should be. Although the word "metaphysics" does not appear in the works of these philosophers, their analytical philosophy is a kind of philosophy with meta-theoretical nature. Nowadays, the word "meta-philosophy" appears frequently, and related research is becoming a hot topic in philosophy research. Metaphysics takes philosophy as its own object, not specific philosophical problems, and pays attention to the study of language forms, thus analyzing, testing and judging the rationality and effectiveness of previous philosophy.
The birth of analytical philosophy makes many disciplines begin the process of meta-theoretical research. Such as meta-ethics, it comes down in one continuous line with analytical philosophy. Similarly, the concept of meta-ethics originated from neo-positivists, especially represented by G. Moore, who looked down on the traditional ethical theory, excavated its foundation, and fundamentally revealed the logical contradictions and their causes with rigorous logical analysis. It is believed that most of these contradictions are due to the need to define "goodness". If we want to put an end to the defects in the logical structure that endanger the whole ethical building, we need to start from scratch and ask, like Socrates, "What is goodness?" Starting with the analysis of the concept of "goodness", he pioneered the analysis of moral language, and thus created a special study of meta-ethics. The emergence of meta-ethics is precisely because thinkers are keenly aware of the existence of many ethical problems, not because their proofs lack sufficient reasons or arguments, but because they have stepped into a trap on language issues. Therefore, meta-ethics puts itself in the logical analysis of the concept, proposition and reasoning of morality in traditional ethics, and puts aside the content of moral judgment. Through language clarification, eliminate confusion and solve difficult problems. Meta-ethics seeks its own scientificity in formal research.
The linguistic analysis of knowledge actually contains a basic belief of analysts, that is, we must return to a real starting point-thinking. Language is the carrier of thinking, so analysis is also the analysis of thinking. This also shows that the study of meta-theory is also an epistemological study. The philosophy of historical analysis focuses on the level of thinking.
In the study of history, what people see is that once history becomes a fact, it will not change, but it is constantly updated. This makes historians realize that we should first consider the nature of historical understanding or historical knowledge. 195 1 year, W. Walsh first put forward the term "analytical philosophy of history", which is opposite to the traditional "speculative philosophy of history", thus formally opening up a new field of historiography [(2) a]. Speculative philosophy of history is also called [(3) a] "meta-history" by some scholars. But here, the meaning of "yuan" is the first meaning we mentioned earlier, that is, speculative and metaphysical. J Topolschi aptly described the transformation of historical philosophy from speculation to analysis: "Thinking about the content of historical research is usually called' historical philosophy'. ..... but its meaning is still evolving: on the one hand, it expresses my thoughts about the past, but it is also derogatory-that is, what I have to deal with is not the meditation led by science, but mainly the meditation about the future development process. ..... In order to cut off these derogatory meanings, other representatives of analytical philosophy and many authors who do not belong to this school use the term' historical philosophy', without thinking about the course of events, but calling the thinking of historical science both a cognitive activity and its result. " [(4) a] Therefore, the analytical philosophy of history actually has the nature of meta-theory. It is not to find out what history is and how people create it, but to ask historians how to write history and the nature of this process, so as to clarify people's views on the nature, object, method and function of historical research. This is the "self-construction of history" [( 1) c].
Since the 20th century, the thought of analysis has gradually penetrated into many disciplines. It is not a philosophical school, but a surging trend of thought. Besides meta-ethics and meta-history, there are also meta-aesthetics (analytical aesthetics) and analytical education philosophy. This trend of thought has made great contributions to the study of meta-theory.
Another kind of meta-theoretical research also comes from analytical philosophy. One of the main starting points of analytical philosophy is to reject metaphysics and try to transform philosophy into scientific philosophy. In particular, logical positivists strongly advocate that the analysis of scientific knowledge is the only task of philosophy. Thus, on the one hand, logical positivists reflect, criticize and even abandon traditional philosophy from the standpoint of meta-philosophy; On the other hand, it reflects and logically analyzes science. Therefore, this philosophy has the nature of scientific meta-theory. This is the philosophy of science.
Philosophy of science flourished in the middle of19th century, but it flourished in the 20th century, especially under the impetus of logical positivists. It has gone through several stages of development, such as logical positivism school, K. Popper school, T. Kuhn school, I. Lakabos school, etc. All of them take science as the object and reflect on scientific knowledge and scientific activities, but the emphasis is different: either analyze the logical structure and concept of scientific knowledge, or analyze the discovery logic in the development of scientific knowledge, or analyze the social psychological basis in the development of science, or analyze the methods and progress indicators of scientific theory evaluation.
Reflecting on science includes not only philosophy of science, but also scientific science. 1925, polish sociologist F.Znaniecki first created and used the term "science of science", which involves not only the internal problems of scientific knowledge, but also the academic activities of scientists and the social role of science, thus expanding the self-reflection of science from science itself to the relationship with society. From this point of view, science of science regards science as a complete system-both a knowledge system and a special social system-and focuses on analyzing scientific activities and their social functions from various angles and methods. Science of science is forming a discipline group, among which sociology of science is probably the fastest developing and most independent, so it has become synonymous with science of science to a great extent [(2) b].
While philosophy of science and science of science came into being, the concept of "meta-science" also came into being. In a narrow sense, it refers to analyzing the concept and logical structure of general scientific theories by means of logical analysis, which is the specialty of logical positivists. Therefore, the narrow sense of meta-science is an integral part of philosophy of science; Meta-science in a broad sense is "scientific science", that is, comprehensive research on science as a social phenomenon [(3) b]. In this way, the generalized meta-science is similar to Scientology. In a word, there are overlaps, interlaces and complementarities among philosophy of science, meta-science and Scientology, and they are all about meta-theory of science.
Inspired by the research of scientific meta-theory, a specific discipline began its own research process of meta-theory. For example, meta-sociology was first proposed by P.Furfey in 1953. He defined meta-sociology as the science of studying sociology itself, mainly discussing the scientific nature of sociological knowledge, the research object and the rules of sociological research. 1970 gouldner called meta-sociology "sociology of sociology", that is, he studied sociology as a social activity. G. Ricl put forward the concept of "sociological meta-theory", which he defined as the study of existing sociological theories; It is a way to deeply understand rationalism, a prelude to building a new theory, and a resource to form a transcendental theoretical horizon [(4) b]. In fact, under the headline of meta-sociology, people have made a systematic study of sociology, including the study of concepts, methods, materials and theories of sociology [( 1) d]. Besides, there is meta-psychology. According to S.Rakover, meta-psychology is a broader concept than psychological philosophy, which focuses on the typical problems examined by philosophy of science within the scope of psychology, such as the relationship between theoretical acceptability and scientific progress [(2) c].
Through the general investigation of the members of the meta-theory family, we can form some basic concepts about meta-theory:
First of all, it was born in the 20th century and has flourished in recent decades. It embodies the germination of "self-awareness" in the whole academic field. When a discipline tries to establish a meta-theory, it is introspection and thinking. Introspection and thinking are painful, and change is hidden in them. However, this kind of pain is the price of maturity: either try to prove yourself, such as meta-mathematics; Or ultimately deny yourself, such as analytical philosophy; Or correct yourself, such as meta-history. No matter what the result is, meta-theory will eventually make the discipline face up to itself, continue as always, or find a new way out in the future.
Second, it is a transcendental vision. "Transcendence" refers to a higher level of research, that is, meta-theory takes the theory of language morphology as the object. It is different from philosophy, because although philosophy and specific scientific have different expressions, they both point to problems in the field of phenomena. Once the name "philosophy" points to linguistic analysis, it is no longer a philosophy in the traditional sense, but a meta-theory. Such as analytical philosophy and philosophy of science. "Transcendence" also means that meta-theory is a holistic reflection on the whole discipline theory, which is different from the reflection on a specific theory.
Third, this is a unique method. Formalization is its overall feature. Meta-theory needs to put aside the specific content temporarily, but the specific content has accumulated in the form. The degree of regularization is related to the characteristics of the discipline. Mathematics, logic and other disciplines-unique, easy to formalize, other disciplines are difficult to fully formalize. In addition, the theory uses language to express problems, so language analysis is particularly important in meta-research.
Fourth, it is a relatively independent field. Meta-theory can't stay at the level of scattered thinking. It is systematically reflected in the discipline, and will become a branch of the discipline, and may form a branch group, such as science of science.
Second, an overview of western meta-pedagogy research
Pedagogy is also looking for its own meta-theory. Although the word "meta-pedagogy" only appeared in the last twenty or thirty years, the reflection on pedagogy in the west almost began from its birth.
The reflection on pedagogy is first reflected in the study of educational history and the historical thinking of famous theorists when discussing educational issues. This kind of historical research is mainly about the historical statement of educational thoughts and theories, which is more limited to the thinking of specific contents and problems, and does not distinguish educational thoughts and theories. Although Compaore has a famous book called History of Pedagogy, it is "not worthy of the name"; He inspected the history of educational thought, not the history of pedagogy. Educational thought came into being before educational theory, which is either a common sense test of people's educational career, a by-product of philosophical thought, a social consciousness, or inspirational novels and essays. Educational theory is a systematic educational thought, a set of statements composed and supported by a group of special concepts (terms) and propositions. It is based on the standpoint of pedagogy, which is the real object of meta-theory. Therefore, the study of this kind of history has not reached the level of formal analysis of systematic pedagogy. But the analysis of facts and contents is the first step or premise of meta-theoretical research.
The reflection on pedagogy is especially manifested in the pedagogy system constructed by educational theorists. Many changes in pedagogy in history are, in fact, first of all, the changes in the meta-theoretical position of educational theorists. In other words, when they build the system, the first problem they face is what is pedagogy. If he insists that pedagogy is a kind of technical knowledge, then he will focus on constructing pedagogy in a standardized and operable way. Ushinski's educational theory may be an example. If he is an advocate of scientific theory, he will try to set out from facts, establish pedagogy and explore the objective laws of education. W.Lay's experimental pedagogy can be used as an example. Of course, this meta-theoretical position can be divided into explicit and implicit. Some authors have clearly expounded their views on pedagogy in the theoretical system, while others have to explain and understand their intentions.
Reflection on pedagogy is also reflected in a large number of papers in theoretical journals. These reflections are no longer limited to specific educational issues, but have the characteristics of formalism and question pedagogy itself. These reflections shine with scattered rational light.
From the middle of the17th century to the middle of the 20th century, people mainly reflected on pedagogy in the above ways, involving the following issues:
1. Is pedagogy science or art?
2. Is pedagogy an empirical discipline or a normative discipline?
3. Is pedagogy a theoretical discipline or an applied discipline?
4. Is pedagogy a subject with universal adaptability or a subject based on cultural background?
5. Is pedagogy social pedagogy or individual pedagogy?
6. What is the theoretical basis of pedagogy? What is the position of philosophy and science in pedagogy?
7. What are the components of pedagogy? How to classify pedagogy?
8. What is the method of establishing pedagogy? Wait a minute.
These problems are closely related, the core of which is the nature and classification of educational theory. During this period, German and French educational theorists made important contributions. For example, veerman distinguishes between "scientific pedagogy" and "practical pedagogy"; E. Durkheim's distinction between "educational science" and "pedagogy" is similar to R. Lochner's distinction between "educational science" and "educational theory" in terms of words, and both criticize the phenomenon of confusing educational theory that explores norms with educational theory that explores laws [( 1
Since the mid-20th century, people have been thinking deeply and carefully about these issues. At the same time, new problems and topics are constantly raised.
In 1950s, analytical philosophy of education rose in Britain and America, and relatively independent meta-theory of pedagogy began to be bred. Philosophers of analytical education have made a systematic and critical analysis of previous educational theories, especially some important concepts and propositions, by using metalanguage tools. The analysis of educational philosophy is not in a hurry to establish a system, but to clean up, even doubt and deny itself, so that the rationality, effectiveness and even viability of educational theory are presented to people for the first time. It stimulates people's sense of responsibility and interest in overall reflection on educational theory. In Britain, analytical education philosophers pay attention to the analysis of some important educational propositions and their arguments, thus going deep into the discussion of the essence of educational theory. Peters and Hearst denied the possibility of independence of educational science from different angles; Hearst further emphasized that educational theory can only be practical educational theory; T.Moore defends educational theory as a practical theory by distinguishing the structure of scientific theory and practical theory [(3) c]; On the other hand, D O 'Connor accused the existing educational theory of being unscientific by the standard of scientific theory [(4) c]. In the United States, analytical education philosophers prefer to examine the basic terms of educational sentences, especially to analyze some slogans and metaphors; At the same time, they also argued about the discipline independence of pedagogy. Chevreux and J.Soltis respectively represent two orientations [( 1) f].
Although analyzing educational philosophy has its own defects, it may be unfair to condemn it from the perspective of meta-theory for not directly connecting with practice and criticizing it for failing to build a new theoretical system. In addition, we notice that analytic educational philosophy not only analyzes the concepts and propositions in educational theory, but also analyzes the language in educational practice, such as the slogan of practice and the classroom language of teachers and students, but this is beyond the scope of meta-theory. Therefore, although analytic educational philosophy uses nonverbal statements, it is not entirely a meta-theory of pedagogy.
Since 1970s, people have begun to explore and construct meta-theory under the concept of meta-education theory or meta-pedagogy, and even meta-education philosophy. Among them, the efforts of German educators are the leading factor. Brezinka believes that meta-pedagogy is an epistemology about various educational theories. Although it is generally believed that these educational theories are indeed full of knowledge and fallacies, they need to be tested. Testing needs standards and specifications, and it is an important task of meta-pedagogy to find these standards and specifications and accurately define and confirm them. In this way, in meta-pedagogy, people can examine educational theory from the perspective of logic and methodology. Meta-pedagogy is used to analyze and test the logic of educational theory. He systematically analyzed the contradiction between people's previous positions on meta-pedagogy, and pointedly pointed out that the discussion on the scientificity of pedagogy has not progressed for a long time, because most people who participated in the discussion thought that there can only be one pedagogy, either a practical educational theory, a scientific educational theory, or an educational theory that is both a scientific theory and a practical theory. This incompatibility stems from the fact that people ignore the simple fact that there are various possibilities in the construction of educational theories, and different kinds of educational theories can complement each other. Based on the statement form of knowledge, he distinguished three educational theories, namely, educational science with descriptive statement (scientific pedagogy), educational philosophy with normative statement (philosophical pedagogy) and educational practice with descriptive-normative statement (practical pedagogy). They are analyzed by meta-language, and a complete theoretical system of meta-education in the sense of meta-epistemology is constructed. His book Metaeducational Theory: An Introduction to Educational Science, Educational Philosophy and Practical Pedagogy.
In Swiss philosophy and practice,
Padagogik) is the result of this effort. It can be said that this is the only "meta-pedagogy" presented by the system state [(2) e] so far.
At present, under the influence of meta-science (or philosophy of science, or science of science), pedagogy is looking for a new perspective and method of meta-pedagogy research. This is reflected in French-speaking countries, English-speaking countries and Russian-speaking countries to varying degrees. For example, Mialaret of France put forward the concept of sciences de l 'ducation based on the history and present situation of the development of educational science-the birth of discipline groups, and made a meta-theoretical analysis on the object, structure, research methods and scope of educational science [(3) d]. Atkins of the United States tried to establish a meta-curriculum by criticizing the meta-theoretical principles of philosophy of science. He believes that there are three schemes for understanding theoretical activities: red doctrine, relativism and pragmatism. As for curriculum, which focuses on moral choice, application of scientific methods and aesthetic feeling, the last alternative (namely meta-theory) can provide a lot of things, which will help us to form curriculum theory according to practice and practice it according to the theory [( 1) g]. Although he discusses the meta-theory of curriculum theory, it also applies to the whole educational theory. Russia's B.C.Pep myHCKHH introduced the category of science of science, and set out to construct "educational science" to analyze the internal situation of pedagogy knowledge, trying to determine the independent academic status of pedagogy and distinguish its objects from objects. Study its interaction with the external environment, its overall and interdisciplinary interaction with other sciences, and pay special attention to its practical functions such as social responsibility and prediction [(2) f]. This attempt will help lead the study of meta-pedagogy to a comprehensive discussion of the internal and external relations of pedagogy in history, structure and function.
In addition, since 1970s, the West (mainly the United States) has developed a meta-analysis technology. It is a formal quantitative analysis of the research characteristics and effectiveness of a large number of educational research achievements (especially experimental research). This has injected fresh blood into the methodology of meta-pedagogy, and it also constitutes a part of meta-pedagogy.
The research of western meta-pedagogy is moving from scattered reflection to the establishment of systematic meta-theory. This process is also a process of clarifying the consciousness of educational disciplines. Meta-pedagogy research can not directly increase our knowledge about education and guide our educational practice, but the framework of meta-pedagogy theory can distinguish their purposes and values by testing various proposition systems of pedagogy, and confirm various internal and external relations of pedagogy, so as to see clearly the defects of current educational theory and promote the construction of more reasonable educational theory.
Third, the characteristics of China's meta-pedagogy research
Compared with western studies, China's meta-pedagogy research started late, but researchers' interests and perspectives are quite distinctive. Because China's pedagogy came step by step in the collision between foreign culture and its own tradition, it seems that studying the development of western pedagogy and its influence on China's pedagogy and analyzing the phenomenon that "pedagogy" tries to express China's system has become the biggest theme of China's meta-pedagogy research. Especially in the study of the history of western pedagogy, we pay attention to the integrity of pedagogy theory and the grasp of historical process. Although westerners are poor at logical analysis of language, they have a certain sense of history and insight. To some extent, it may not be inferior to western research. Let's try to show this feature and discuss the enlightenment and progress that these studies have given us.
1. Study on the History of Modern Western Pedagogy
The early universal analysis is to mark the periodic changes of pedagogy from the theoretical, disciplinary and scientific dimensions of pedagogy. This is actually to judge the progress of pedagogy by academic standards, and the key is how to determine these demarcation standards. It mainly involves several preconditions, that is, what is theory? What is a discipline? What is science? Wait a minute. Different answers to these questions will lead to different historical stages. This analysis is based on the actual situation of pedagogy.
It is a useful attempt to explore the internal logic of pedagogy's development from its external manifestations. Some researchers believe that pedagogy has a surface structure and a deep structure. Surface structure refers to a set of visible concrete theories composed of concepts and principles; The deep structure refers to the implicit research tradition, including the philosophical and scientific basis, theoretical core and research methods. The internal logic of the development of pedagogy is the internal development law of pedagogy research tradition and the replacement of research tradition [(3) d]. The existence of this internal logic shows that it is necessary to further explore the development of other disciplines related to pedagogy while studying the development of pedagogy. This view also raises another question, that is, is the development of pedagogy as strict as the development of natural science?
Another noteworthy point of view is to try to analyze the historical development of pedagogy from the perspective of the research intention of the research subject. Some researchers believe that we need to reflect on educational theory.