Study of moral education as the objectives in College English teaching: A case from the Teaching Star final competition in 2020

Abstract

With the reform of educational evaluation in China, moral education has received much attention. Many scholars have discussed different aspects of the topic. To fulfill the fundamental task of educating students by instilling virtues as proposed by the Central Government, colleges and universities across the country are carrying out education and teaching reform by striving to combine language teaching with moral education. But how can moral education be included in the teaching and learning of English? Is it possible to improve students’ morality while developing their linguistic ability? Based on Hauenstein's taxonomy of educational objectives, this study examined the cases of the Teaching Star final competition in 2020 as examples for analysis, aiming to identify the means to effectively improve the moral education of students in the teaching and learning of College English. All of the objectives and classroom activities are sorted out and analyzed as to whether the objectives of moral education were gained, according to the framework constructed under the guidance of Hauenstein’s taxonomy of educational objectives. The analysis is undertaken from the perspectives of moral education as the objectives, classroom activities and the completeness of the moral instruction system. It is showed that the candidate teachers have awareness of combining language teaching with moral education by formulating teaching objectives at various levels and considering the moral educational function in organizing classroom activities. Despite the results reported here, it is clear there is still much room for improvement. Some moral educational objectives do not display the characteristics of moral education. Most moral educational goals appear to be set at a low level, with the result that they fall short of creating a good behavior profile and, more importantly, of achieving the government’s moral educational goals. It appears clearly that the design of the classroom activities in the cases examined could not support the achievement of the moral educational goals. In consideration of all of these concerns, College English teachers may need to reconsider the cognitive levels of the moral educational goals and design different levels of classroom activities to achieve the goals. Keywords: Moral educational goals, classroom activities, behavioral domain, behavioral profile