On Chen Guisheng's Explorations in the Concept of Education

Chen Guisheng has always paid great importance to the study of basic concepts in pedagogy. His exploration of the concept of education typically prepresents the characteristics of his conceptual research. His work is closely reviewed in this article including his analysis of the name and reality of the word "education", clarifying the link between the concept and the idea of education, and the examination of the evolution of the intension of education as a concept. It is found that his hesitation in the quality of the concept of education hinders his distinction between education and teaching-learning activities. In recent years, inspired by Peters' work, he has launched a series of reflections on pedagogy from the perspective of education as an irreplaceable value, which makes him examine the concept of education in the relationship with the concept of Buildung and teaching-learning activities. On the basis of clarifying the relationship between these basic concepts, he framed the logical category of pedagogy, provided a conceptual map to understand education issues in one way only belonging to pedagogy, and went beyond the discussion of the concept of education itself. In this process, he not only perceived the similarities and differences in understanding education as one value between European pedagogy and English-speaking pedagogy, but also gained insight into the individuality of Chinese and Western education culture through the comparison of education culture, and even sprouted confidence in chinese local education culture.