The so-called educational research topic is the problem or phenomenon that researchers want to study in the field of education. In the process of educational research, once an educational research topic is determined, it means that the task and direction of the whole educational research are also determined. The subject of educational research is related to the value of educational research and determines the success or failure of educational research. Therefore, some people vividly compare the determination of educational research topics to the core of the whole educational research process. This shows the importance of selecting topics for educational research. However, many kindergarten teachers, especially novices with little experience in kindergarten education research, often choose too broad educational research topics, and their personal research energy is difficult to control; In other words, the related knowledge and the research task of the subject are far beyond the scope of personal research. Choosing this "too big and too difficult" topic for research will often make it difficult for research to run on a scientific and effective track. The research of the subject either falls by the wayside or casually talks about the so-called "research results". This will not only seriously dampen the research enthusiasm of researchers; It will also bring some negative effects to educational research, such as damaging the dignity that educational research should have-respecting facts. The author believes that there are two main reasons why kindergarten teachers have the above-mentioned "too big and too difficult" problem in the choice of educational research topics.
1, lacking the skills to determine a suitable research topic.
Research begins with problems, and when problems are found, it is necessary to make a good choice from' problems' to' topics'. The complexity of education determines that the actual content of an educational problem is often not single, but multi-level and multi-faceted. Questions usually only represent the fields or categories involved in the research. If researchers want to study the "discovered problems" in depth, they must analyze the information contained in the problems in detail, and then choose a problem that can be studied and needs to be solved according to the actual situation (the subjective and objective conditions of the researchers). The problems that can be studied and need to be solved are the topics to be studied.
For example, a researcher found that many kindergartens have carried out "children's English education" at present, and some even claim that "English education" is the characteristic of the kindergarten, and there is a vague tendency of "children's English education" in the preschool education circle. Researchers think it is necessary and capable to study this issue. Then, when doing substantive research on this issue, she must first make a detailed analysis of the "information" covered by this issue. In my opinion, as far as the content is concerned, this problem (kindergarten English education) at least includes the following "small" problems: the research on the goals, principles, approaches, methods, management and evaluation of preschool English education, the research on the construction of teaching materials, the design of teaching AIDS and the creation of environment for preschool English education, the research on the relationship between preschool English education and children's physical and mental development, and the research on the learning content of other courses. As for the research methods adopted, there are at least literature method, educational investigation method, educational experiment method, educational action research method and educational experience summary method. As far as the research objects are concerned, there are three age groups in urban parks and rural parks: big, middle and small. Wait a minute. On the basis of this analysis, researchers can choose a "small" problem as the key research according to the actual situation. Obviously, if researchers directly take the problems found as their personal research topic, that is, "research on English education for young children", the scope of this "topic" can be imagined. Many beginners in kindergarten education research choose a "big" topic because they may directly study the "problem" as a "topic". On the contrary, it is more appropriate and feasible if researchers only use the educational action research method to study "the effective methods of English education for young children".
2. There is a psychology of doing research like an expert. For various reasons, the role of kindergarten teachers in primary and secondary schools has been detached from researchers for a long time. In their view, educational research seems to be the patent of researchers in universities or specialized research institutions. Therefore, once the right of educational research is returned to teachers who have never met for a long time, they can only try to carry out some research in accordance with the paradigm of expert research with trepidation, and they will have the psychology of doing research like experts.
. This is manifested in the following aspects: when many kindergarten teachers talk about research, it seems that it must be something that others have not done, and the research results are the best.
Fill a blank ",or it must be" experimental research ",and unilaterally think that only such a topic is" meaningful "and belongs to" normative "research. So every time I choose a topic, I will always rack my brains on the "innovation" and "standardization" of the topic. As we all know, the more you want to realize the "innovation and standardization" of the subject at the expert research level, the farther away from their educational practical experience and practical research ability, the less "feasibility" the research will be. This may be the reason why some kindergarten teachers choose "difficult" questions.
This is due to the different nature of professional training and work. It is unrealistic to ask kindergarten teachers in primary and secondary schools to conduct research like experts specializing in art, and to evaluate or manage the educational research work of kindergarten teachers in primary and secondary schools with the standards of expert research, both in theory and in fact. For example, for the "experimental research" that many kindergarten teachers are optimistic about, and regardless of the development of "overall causality" in the past "multi-factor design" or the current "educational experimental research", some kindergarten teachers often talk about how to carry out experiments in the report "Experimental research on ××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××××× What are the experimental factors? ) The introduction is few or vague. As for irrelevant factors, how to control them effectively? How are the experimental results reliably obtained? Wait, don't say anything. From such an experimental report, we can infer that some kindergarten teachers need to further understand some basic norms of "experimental research"; In other words, the strength of kindergarten teachers' participation in scientific research is not "experimental research", but perhaps "narrative research" and "action research" are more suitable for them. How can such facts be studied like experts?
In view of this, more and more school education researchers realize that teachers' educational research should be different from experts' research. This is not only because the emphasis of their educational research is different, that is, the so-called "indomitable spirit" research, but also because their research paradigm is different, including the understanding and construction of the value, nature and characteristics of teacher education research, as well as the corresponding management and evaluation mechanism. In short, the paradigm of expert research cannot be simply imposed on teachers' educational research. As far as the selection criteria and sources of teachers' educational research topics are concerned, many experts are increasingly inclined to understand that "teachers' research topics should be real problems that teachers encounter in their own educational and teaching practice, problems that they are interested in studying, problems related to improving and upgrading their teaching practice, and problems that really need to be studied in depth in the form of topics"; For kindergarten teachers, finding problems from their own practice and taking it as their own research topic is the basic idea for them to establish research topics. "
Second, master the choice of research topics for kindergarten teacher education.
Whether a good subject can be selected depends mainly on the professional accomplishment (professional sensitivity and professional insight) of the researcher and the specific orientation of the researcher to participate in educational research. Of course, we need to know and be familiar with some common ways of selecting topics, especially for beginners in kindergarten education research, which is of more practical significance and is a "compulsory' one lesson'" for them to engage in educational research.
1. Selecting topics from educational practice
Choosing a topic from educational practice is determined by the purpose, nature and characteristics of teacher education research, and it is also a basic idea advocated by the current teacher education research institute. To choose a topic in this way, more specifically, we can start from the following aspects.
① The educational work of cultivating and shaping people from difficult problems is a creative mental work and a complex systematic project. In the concrete educational practice, we often encounter various problems with certain universality. For example, in kindergarten, we often meet some "naughty children" who give teachers a headache.
"So, what are the characteristics of" naughty children "? Why? And effective educational strategies and so on? Undoubtedly, this is worthy of our study. If we can choose the topic from this point, it can better reflect the guiding role of scientific research in practice.
(2) Choosing a topic from the contending problems is often a hot issue that needs to be solved urgently in the educational reform and development. If researchers can choose a suitable topic from controversial issues with different viewpoints, they can test various viewpoints and form their own opinions. For example, on the question of whether preschool children can learn a foreign language, some people advocate teaching children to learn a foreign language, thinking that preschool is a critical period for the formation and development of a language, and it is a pity to miss this period; Some people also object to this practice. They think that children should have a happy childhood, and monotonous study should not occupy children's childhood. In this deadlock, researchers can choose some related topics for empirical research, such as "experimental research on English learning of children in large classes" and "investigation and research on children's interest in English learning".
(3) Select some problems in the field of preschool education from the problems of blind spots, some of which may be ignored and some may be new. Such problems are often ignored or ignored. Especially for some interdisciplinary problems, researchers are easily in a "blind spot" state because of their own professional qualities and other factors. If researchers can choose a topic from the "blind spot" problem to do some research, it is often easier to produce results. Such as "children's computer-aided education research" and "children's ecological education research".
2. Choose a topic from the questions of interest.
Generally speaking, researchers usually put more energy into the problems they are interested in. Therefore, its understanding and mastery of this issue is often more comprehensive and in-depth. If we start from the topic, it will not only help to dig out valuable topics, but also help to complete the research task with high quality. Because researchers are interested in their own research topics, even if they encounter difficulties in the research, researchers can often persevere, overcome many difficulties and devote themselves tirelessly to the research work of the topic.
3. The topic of theoretical research.
There are a large number of theoretical documents in the field of education, which need teachers to learn and understand. Strengthening theoretical study can not only improve the theoretical level of researchers, but also provide researchers with many valuable research topics.
Cross-cultural research, a feature of the development trend of contemporary educational science research, can be verified and used for reference from a certain theoretical perspective, that is, to repeat the existing research and explore the uniqueness and differences of education under different cultural backgrounds. For example, China preschool education researchers verified Piaget's theory on children's thinking development, and the practical research of Reggio's preschool education thought in Chinese mainland. , belong to this kind of topic.
② Educational research can start with sorting out and learning educational heritage. Of course, we should pay attention to the international development trend and strengthen the study abroad, but we should not weaken the inheritance and prosperity of local excellent educational heritage because of "worshipping foreign things and obsessing foreign things". As far as preschool education research is concerned, if everyone can deeply study Mr. Chen Lao's educational thoughts, perhaps in this new round of curriculum reform, we will not be so noisy or even confused as we are now.
4. Choose a topic from the research plan.
Educational administrative leaders at all levels, from the central to the local, will regularly make educational and scientific research plans according to the needs of the country's four modernizations, reform and opening up and the development of education itself; Educational research associations at all levels and various educational magazines will also provide some topics. Researchers can choose competent topics according to their own subjective and objective conditions.