| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立大學 === 學習與媒材設計學系課程與教學碩士班 === 105 === Through “tonal-expression-based teaching” grounded in care-ethics, this study aims to shift the emphasis of reading aloud in the Chinese language teaching in elementary schools from an esthetically-oriented approach to a representation that combines “aesthetics” with “ethical excellence”. In addition, through learning activities of tonal expression, students are expected to enhance their awareness and concern in interpersonal relationships.
In this study, fourth-grade students from an elementary school in New Taipei City, Xin-Fu Elementary School (pseudonymous) were invited to participate in a 3-month action research project using a tonal-expression-based teaching approach. Using the four moral education strategies proposed in care-ethics—modeling, dialogue, praxis, and confirmation as basis, and through the knowledge of the DISC personality types —this experimental teaching project emphasizes integrating emotions in vocal expression and guides students to become aware of the personality types and emotions during communication. In addition, students were encouraged to develop their understanding of and care for the actual feelings and thoughts of their peers from varying perspectives and enjoy communication in interpersonal relationships.
Discussion, observation, interviews, document analysis and work sheets with their analysis, were employed for data collection as an aid for the teaching process and to examine the effectiveness of this tonal-expression-based teaching project. Moreover, this study examines whether the awareness of caring for others had been effectively enhanced among the students to provide further reflective thinking and modifications for teaching designs.
The numerous processes and results included in this study were as follows: (1) voicing for understanding: after watching a video, students are divided into small groups for a discussion of their thoughts on the video to facilitate communication of their understanding and emotional resonance; (2) voicing for empathy: students are introduced to an experiential learning activity using dubbed versions of picture books to understand the personalities of the characters and tensions provided in the storylines through dubbing and experiencing the specific emotions of a character in a given context; (3) voicing for joy: through the tonal-expression-based teaching approach, students are provided with simulated situations to perceive the specific types of emotions implied in their dialogues with their peers or of their peers; and specifically, they are instructed to trace a “significant event” that the individual thinks has happened to him/her back to the original true emotions in the depth of his/her heart. Through conversation and acknowledgement, they can then restore the mutual relationship, resolving what was formerly perceived as a “significant event” into a “minor ”one, which may later even become a “story”told with resolved feelings.
In the final process of the teaching program, students are able to express their inner feelings using appropriate tones of expression in their caring actions toward others, thereby ensuring the greatest understanding and acceptability. Furthermore, students are capable of analyzing their needs and those of their care receivers through attentive listening, facial expressions, and appreciating their own distinctive thoughts and reflections. Thus, they learnt to use caring actions to develop a healthy selfhood in group life. Finally, this study suggests that, more than merely an aesthetic-recitation teaching method for Chinese language education, a tonal-expression-based teaching approach plays a key role in developing the essential emotions and capabilities for caring, achieved through the proper integration of“aesthetics and ethical excellence” in the teaching.
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