The article “Review and Interpretation: Disciplinary Practices as the New Direction to Learning Style Transformation”, written by Prof. Cui Yunhuo, Zhang Zihong and Guo Hongrui, was published on Educational Research. This paper attempts to examine the dialectical relationship between discipline and practice. In order to clarify the new direction of learning style transformation in primary and secondary schools, Prof. Cui and his group review the development of discipline practice in the curriculum field and interpret its connotation.

Prof. Cui Yunhuo

Director of ICI

Zhang Zihong

Master Student of ICI

Guo Hongrui

Doctoral Student of ICI

Review and Interpretation: Disciplinary Practices as the New Direction

to Learning Style Transformation

Abstract: Disciplinary practices, a breakthrough in the discipline- and practice-based cultivation of talents, provide a new paradigm of talent cultivation in the era of core competencies. As far as the dialectical relationship between discipline and practice is concerned, discipline derives from and grows in professional practices, and helps improve human practices. As the logical necessity of the curriculum reform, discipline practices have a certain theoretical and practical foundation. They indicate human, professional, and educational practices, emphasizing the goals for competencies beyond knowledge, the norms for discipline experts' thinking and doing，the integration of process and manipulation skills，and problem-solving in real situations. The connotations of disciplinary practices are reflected in the unity of theory and practice, the unity of truth and value, the unity of particularity and universality, and the unity of individuality and sociality. A new direction to learning style transformation, disciplinary practices transcend such learning methods as knowledge giving and receiving, and inquiry-based learning.

Keywords: disciplinary practices; core competencies; learning style; inquiry-based learning

01. Review: the dialectical relationship between discipline and practice

In order to clarify the essential connotation of discipline practice, it is necessary to look back upon the relationship between discipline and practice. As early as in ancient Greece, Aristotle was involved in the study of academic disciplines. Aristotle divides human knowledge into three categories: episteme, phronesis and techne. Goodson, a famous curriculum specialist, has made an important historical investigation on the formation and development of school disciplines. He believes that there are three traditions in the discipline development of the school, namely, academic tradition, utilitarian tradition and pedagogic tradition.

Just as Aristotle regards episteme and theoretical disciplines as the top of the pyramid (pursuing definite and essential rationality and rejecting changing and phenomenal practice), Goodson also believes that in the development of school disciplines, academic tradition has been in a higher position, while utilitarian tradition and pedagogic tradition has been in a relatively low position.

To some extent, the above two views also confirm a long-standing misunderstanding: equating the subjects set by the school with the discipline, and the knowledge of the discipline, instead of talking about the human practice and experience behind the knowledge.

02. Disciplinary practices: contributions from the field of curriculum

Disciplinary practices originated and developed in the field of curriculum in the United States. In China, the core content of Chinese traditional culture has long influenced the future direction of disciplinary practices.

03. Disciplinary practices in the field of curriculum: an interpretation

The above investigation of the dialectical relationship between discipline and practice, as well as the review of the ideological roots and practical exploration of disciplinary practices, provide the necessary theoretical groundwork for clarifying the connotation of disciplinary practices, but it is not the disciplinary practices itself. The combination of discipline and practice as a professional term in the field of learning style may be a contribution of Chinses curriculum scholars.

Disciplinary practice is the iterative development of learning style, it transcends knowledge reception and inquiry learning. When we talk about the learning essence, disciplinary practice is the unity of theory and practice. As to the purpose of learning, disciplinary practice is the unity of seeking knowledge and cultivating people. At the content level, disciplinary practice is the unity of particularity and universality. Finally, from the aspect of the course of learning, disciplinary practice is the unity of individuality and sociality.