Mindset Breaking and Its Integration with Multi-culture —— Inheritance and Development of Humanity Higher Education



Mindset Breaking and Its Integration with Multi-culture
—— Inheritance and Development of Humanity Higher Education

Zhang Min1,2

(1. College of MarxismShandong University，JinanShandong250010;2. School of Humanity and LawQilu University of Technology，JinanShandong250353)

Ⅰ.The integration of breaking the mindset and access to multiple culture, is designed to meet various demands for humanity higher education

Innovation-driven education holds the key to the growth of higher education institutes, yet demands a strong talent pool. However, humanity education is at the hub of competency-oriented education, thereby, the college education will be a failure if students are deficient in humanistic quality. The synergy of innovation-driven thinking and multiple cultures available, offers a novel thinking for humanity education in colleges and universities.〔1〕This can be explained as humanity education gives priority to the effectiveness and efficiency of improvement in students’ quality, rather than confining humanity education to the stereotyped forms of cramming knowledge and taking exams.Attention attached to the fundamental demands of teachers’ instruction and students’ personal growth will boost the coordinated development of proficient expertise and humanity education, cultivate college students equipped with academic knowledge and humanistic quality. That’s how we can improve the quality of talent cultivation in higher educational institutes and foster the further development of colleges and universities.

Ⅱ.The integration of breaking the mindset and accessing to multiple cultures represents realistic requirements of inheriting humanistic higher education

1. Identify break-points of stereotyped thinking and crush step by step

Firstly, abandon instrumentalization of humanity education. We should set social development as the basic starting point of demands for talents, and explore the practical values of humanity education from the utilitarian perspectives. Secondly, abandon the preference on academic knowledge and proficient expertise in humanity education. Such tendency gives rise to severe hazards to the current higher education. We should not treat the scientism as the mainstream of quality education in university; instead, we should tap potentials of humanity education, recognize its greatness as substantive educational pattern, and abandon its academic orientation. Meanwhile, we should equally highlight the humanistic and academic education and dispose of the rational teaching pattern in higher education. In the process of humanity education, we cannot simply equal the instruction of humanistic knowledge to human education, nor adopt objective outlook to knowledge to combine individuals and situations closely.〔2〕While selecting teaching materials for humanity education, we should not just focus on logical and systematic textbooks, but pay attention to the process of humanity education and actual outcomes that we have achieved.

2. Have a keen understanding of new demands of multiple cultures to make it for self-regard

While looking into the unitary civilization, we should pay more attention to diversified cultures, to try to utilize for our own sake. If we admit the civilization monism only, but not the cultural pluralism, it is inevitable to impose a cultural model on the process of humanistic inheritance, while just giving emphasis on Chinese cultural greatness, but ignoring external multi-cultures, we will get trapped into the Eurocentrism-like vicious cycle. For these reasons, we must raise our self-awareness towards culture. In respect to increasingly frequent cultural exchanges, how we see them and what means we can adopt to learn from their best experiences will play a direct role in cultivating college students’ mind set, developing their humanistic value orientation and improving their comprehensive qualities.〔3〕Thereby, on the one hand, we should bring in the best practices of foreign cultures in the critical thinking, instead of indiscriminate imitation, on the other hand, with our time-honored culture at the center, we should develop our due self-consciousness and confidence, introduce the advanced experiences in diversified cultures, to apply to our practices for our own sake.

3. Determine the relations between the breaking point of fixed mindset and the entry point of multiple cultures to echo the demands of our contemporary times

In order to circumvent the intrumentalization, scientism and knowledge orientation, we must define the correlations between the breaking point of fixed mindset and the entry point of multiple cultures, look into some realistic issues in humanistic higher education, and more importantly, think about how to develop new ways to conduct humanity education from the perspectives of multi-cultural development. That means, we not only help students to learn proficient expertise in a scientific outlook, but also encourage them to have an understanding of history, music, philosophy and among other humanities. In the case of good integration of the two types of knowledge, we able to highlight the demands of the contemporary times and respond to the calling of the world, as ways to make humanity education more pragmatic.

Ⅲ.Strategies for the inheritance and development of humanistic higher education featured by integration of breaking the mindset and accessing to multiple cultures

1. Based on modern communications technologies,establish situated teaching to inspire students to thinking

Equipped with modern communications techniques, higher educational institutes should emphasize on innovative thinking to expand the development spectrum in the process of inheriting humanities. That requires that teachers should actively change their minds, adopt various teaching methods by discussion, studying and dialogues, and comprehensively combine the processes of self-teaching, studying, instruction and practices, so as to bring the dominant role of students into full play, and change their ways of accessing to humanistic knowledge from “know-how” to “learn-how”. Nowadays, the higher education give more attention to practical skills, such as the development of innovative thinking, and strengths in observation, analysis, and imagination, but nowadays, we need to do more in some “unseeable” aspects, set up teaching situation, and guide students to conduct in-depth analysis, evolving humanity education towards exploration.

2. Improve teachers’ humanistic qualities, get involved in interactive communication, and foster an exploration-oriented teaching process

It is imperative for colleges and universities to improve teachers’ humanistic qualities.The excellent college teachers not only are aware of their own behavior and personal images, but more importantly, set a good example for students, meanwhile, they impart professional skills and humanistic knowledge to students, make full use of educational resources to build a favorable cultural environment for students, so that students are subtly influenced and achieve self-improvement in terms of their thinking styles, values and outlooks and moral orientation. Nowadays, we need to calibrate the basic requirements of teachers to be of both high knowledge and moral integrity. When teachers fully grasp fundamental academic and humanistic knowledge, and are equipped with good practical ability and pioneering spirit, they should be more active and positive, with the right political orientation, and cultivate more lofty sentiments and integrity personality, with a sense of social responsibility and social conscience. Teachers bear the responsibilities to impart knowledge to students, but adopt the best ways to introduce relevant information towards virtues, skills, and knowledge to students, as a way to guide them for sound growth. While bringing the dominant role of students into full play, teachers should attach more importance to maintain the noumenal existence of students, build up equal relationship between teachers and students, concern about their sound development through interaction. By doing so, teachers are able to play a significant role of instructing and influencing students by words and deeds and achieve the outcomes of their career that values cultivation of students.

3. Build the atmosphere honoring humanistic spirit, and achieve diversified development of humanity education

The higher education in humanities should place the cultivation of humanistic spirit at its core. Humanity education cannot easily be accomplished by textbooks or classes. Instead, the nurture of humanistic spirit consists of the quality education in humanistic knowledge, and students experience and inspiration, requiring universities to establish strong humanistic atmosphere for students to perceive of humanistic and academic spirit, get inspired in arts, and arouse pioneering ability with good cultural tastes and guidance of opinions. Under the culture shock, followed the guideline of advanced theories, the higher educational institutes should cultivate students’ humanistic spirit, make the dialogue of humanistic spirit and science be real, effectively connect foreign cultures with China’s traditional culture. Students are able to dialogue campus culture and social life in the a variety of campus culture campaigns, so as to influence and enlighten their personality shaping, value development and upright moral behaviors. In so doing, an even more informative platform is erected to cultivate their humanistic qualities, guide campus culture to develop into high culture, and improve their moral sentiments. The active participation in campus cultural activities, can lead students into in-depth thinking on the issues of environmental protection, social reform, and sustainable development, outperform themselves to be bold players in everything they do.

4. Construct ties of between breakdown of fixed thinking and integrating diversified cultures to pass on positive energy

While inheriting and developing humanity education, the higher educational institutes should construct a tie binding the breakdown of fixed thinking and integrated multi-cultures to conform to the mainstream socialist values. In particular, the synergy with the great 'China dream' requires interpreting and practising the initiative in an all-around way. By doing so, universities establish their 'Chinese dream' by learning the dream for every Chinese, raise their sense of responsibility and social morality. The activities themed by 'China dream' literacy, helps students know more about China, be aware of social responsibilities, elevate their humanistic qualities, and pass on more and more positive thinking and actions.

Ⅳ.Conclusion

All in all, breaking the fixed thinking and integrating diversified culture, is in line with the contemporary calling for humanity education, effectively broaden the horizon and tap the potentials of students, and is conducive to developing new ways of humanity education. Meanwhile, the two-way practice is able to meet multiple demands of universities in humanistic education. And its reality elements require identifying the breaking point of stereotyped thinking, and remove their obstructions step by step, on the other hand, determine the demands of multiple cultures to utilize for our own sake. The definition the relationship between the breaking points of fixed thinking and the entry points of diversified culture conforms to the timely demands of the world. In conclusion, the inheritance and development of humanity education, based on breaking fixed thinking and integrating multiple culture, can be practiced by launching a wide range of activities equipped with modern communications tools, creating suitable teaching situations to trigger students to think deeply and to be individuals with sense of responsibility. Teachers play a leading in humanity education by paying attention to the demands of students, interactively communicate with them, analyze the teaching process, and foster strong humanistic atmosphere in classes, to perform multiple humanity education. Finally, construct a tie between breaking stereotyped thinking and integrating multiple cultures, to improve positive thinking as a way to ultimately better-off inheritance and development of humanity education.

References:

〔1〕Weng Lihua, Existing Issues and Tactics in Humanistic Higher Education,Exploration in Education,2012(4),pp.137-138.

〔2〕Xiao Yanfei, Wang Li,An Analysus on the Integration of Academic Education and Humanity Education,The Party Building and Ideological Education,2012(12),pp.80-81.

〔3〕Zhao Fuchun,Humanistic Higher Education from the Pointview of Constructivism,Jiaosu Higher Education,2010(1),pp.94-96.

In the new era of the 21st century, it is highly relevant to improve humanity higher education and cultivate college students to be equipped with humanistic spirit and excellent academic skills. How to create an innovation-driven model for humanistic inheritance and development in higher education, and enhance the level of humanity education in universities has played an important role in social education. Thereby, the paper puts forward a brand-new model to integrate thinking out of the box initiatives and multi-cultures, which is valuable to write a new chapter for the humanity higher education.

fixed mindset; multiple culture; colleges and universities; humanity education

About the author：Zhang Min(1978—), doctoral candidate at College of Marxism, Shandong University, lecturer at School of Humanity and Law , Qilu University of Technology.