Research Framework of Basic Education's Differentiation Based on Space-Time Behavior

• Main Authors: Liu Tianbao, Ye Zicong, Wang Tianyi
• Format: Article
• Language: zho
• Published: Editorial Committee of Tropical Geography 2021-09-01
• Series: Redai dili
• Subjects: basic education; education geography; multiple differentiation; space-time behavior
• Online Access: http://www.rddl.com.cn/CN/10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.003382

In recent years, with globalization, adjustment of the national welfare system, and social and cultural changes, studies on education has been receiving increased attention from disciplines such as education, geography and sociology, and different perspectives of society, showing obvious interdisciplinary characteristics. These studies have demonstrated a "new" look of education characteristics. Differentiation in the field of basic education is an important social and academic concern at home and abroad. This research focuses on learning in school, from the perspective of the interaction between resource supply and consumers, and provides details on education activities, their influencing factors and social spatial responses. In addition, non-traditional issues, such as supplementary tutoring and learning at home after school, have also attracted researchers' attention. However, a basic framework covering different fields and interpreting multiple differentiation has not yet been created. One reason is the different and dynamic topography, which leads to different factors and differentiation, requiring various frameworks. The complex integration of education resources and learning results for different social groups needs different framework, based on the researchers' perspectives. Moreover, the evolution of basic education's definition and its contents usually reduces the applicability of existing frameworks. Using the current situation of basic education and aimed at multiple differentiation, this paper proposes a research framework based on theories of socio-spatial dialectics, space-behavior interaction theory, and time geography. The framework is centered on students and their family—the consumer of education in different forms, emphasizing the interaction between students, space, and time. The main contents of the framework include learning at school, learning at home, and learning in tutoring agencies. The first focus of learning at school is the general differentiation pattern, including supply of education resources and its spatial distribution; students, family and their spatial representation; and finally, the classification of the differentiation types and its spatial depiction. The second focus is the interaction between school and community, including spatial structure of school districts and their evolution, schools' influences on communities (e.g., residents' formation and housing price), and community's influences on school (e.g., students' formation, school education, and governance). The third focus is education consumer's migration and commuting patterns, including social and economic features of moving people and the related projections, the commuting route, distance, mode, and related projections. For learning at home, the first focus is the mode, time, and contents relating to the type of self-learning: learning under tutoring or learning online, the consumption of time and money, the companion, and related projections. The second focus is the learning conditions and situations, concerning hardware facilities, environment conditions, companion, cost, and related projections. The third focus is the learning effects and related evaluation, concerning influences on academic performance, health, and family projections as well as the attitude toward learning. For learning in tutoring agencies, the first focus is the content and its space-time features, including social and economic features of the consumers, learning activities' spatial characteristics, time and money cost, and related projections. The second focus is the supporting conditions, especially travel and companion. The third focus is the effects and evaluation, including both daily and long-term influences on students and their family members, and consumers' attitude to and evaluation of the learning. The framework can work as the base for dialogue between disciplines as well as to promote the description and explanation of basic education's complex differentiation.