Abstract: The social demands and value cognition of small-scale schools in rural areas of China in various periods have shaped the stage development characteristics of "expansion, contraction and coordinated return". At present, to promote the construction of small-scale schools in rural areas, most of them are based on "defective discourse". In view of the shortcomings in the construction of small-scale schools in rural areas, the improvement path of schools mostly depends on financial investment, policy tendency, teacher training and other ways. If we only start from the construction concept of cognition from the perspective of defects, it is easy to cause the conflict between the value concept and the instrumental rationality of small-scale rural schools, showing "the total amount of financial investment is insufficient, the distribution structure is unreasonable", "the implementation of policies is not perfect, the pursuit of short-term goals", "the construction strategy of teaching staff is not perfect", etc. This paper attempts to replace "defective discourse" with "appreciative inquiry" and explore the positive core strategies for the development of small-scale schools in rural areas: practice the principle of equal educational opportunities, build schools with rural characteristics, strengthen teacher training, and help the revitalization of rural culture, so as to seek a new path for the construction of small-scale schools in rural areas.