An Exploration of Pedagogical Research Methods in Traditional Chinese Thought: The Study of Lao-Zhuang Philosophy as the Core of Discussion

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This study takes “Lao Zhuang’s Philosophy of Education” as the core of discussion, and tries to analyze the pedagogical research methodology of traditional Chinese thought, as well as to clarify the boundaries between the “study of history of education” and the “study of philosophy of education” in the study of traditional Chinese thought in education. It is found that there are two types of Lao-Zhuang's research results related to the theme of education research. First, the research on Lao-Zhuang’s thought is conducted with the concepts related to pedagogy as the main vein and analytical framework, which has the advantage of highlighting the value and characteristics of education, but the disadvantage is that this kind of research does not necessarily present the completeness of the traditional thought. The second is to take Lao-Zhuang’s thought as the core and then interpret its educational implications in the study of philosophy of education. The advantage is that it can highlight the completeness of the thought and avoid the interpretation of the meaning out of context, but the disadvantage is that many papers become mainly based on the interpretation of the meaning of the traditional thought, and the part of the educational derivation is relatively small and not systematic enough. On the whole, most of the educational research on traditional Chinese thought follows the three stages of Chinese philosophical research, and the application and explanation of research methodology is generally rare. If the study itself is a study of “the interpretation of thought itself”, then it belongs to the study of “philosophy of education”. If the study emphasizes on the ideological interactions of traditional thought in different times, or the exploration of the meaning of a certain thought in relation to the political and social context of the time, then it belongs to the study of “history of education”, so the study of the education of the current philosophy of Lao and Zhuang can be categorized as a study of “philosophy of education”.