The construction of one’s knowledge and ideas is subject to social structure and culture. According to the analysis of principles of sociology of knowledge, the mission of Open University of China is building a knowledge system. In light of the path to acquiring objective realism and subject constructionism, teacher knowledge covers practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge. Based on the analysis of sociology of knowledge, the teachers of Open University of China should be equipped with modern educational technology knowledge, subject knowledge, adult education knowledge, TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge), project management knowledge and so on.
The Open University of China, a new-typed college, will make an important reform in its function, teaching model and development mechanism [
The sociology of knowledge holds that “Man’s social being determines his consciousness, and the formation of all the knowledge and ideas is subject to social structure and culture [
As to the classification of teacher knowledge, there are many ways, ranging from two types to seven types [
Opinions vary as to the definition of knowledge. The project discusses the essence of knowledge based on epistemology. As to what is knowledge, objective realism holds that “knowledge is justified true belief (Plato)” [
Teacher knowledge means teachers, in order to teach effectively, possess a series of understanding, knowledge and skills [
Based on the theory of objective realism, teacher knowledge has been widely justified and accepted. With literature review of teacher knowledge, the classification of teacher knowledge put forward by Shulman is the final authority. Shulman classified teacher knowledge into content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, curriculum knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, knowledge of educational context and knowledge of educational ends, purposes and values [
According to theory of subject constructivism, in the process of constructing knowledge, teachers are not “silent objects”, and they emphasize the subjectivity and reflection in the construction of knowledge. The Research on Teachers’ Practical Knowledge project members from Peking University believe that teachers can understand teaching more clearly after reflecting on their own teaching. Teachers firstly acquire the experience, secondly reflect on their own teaching, and lastly form the value to guide their teaching, which is teachers’ practical knowledge [
The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. It is not a specialized area of sociology but instead deals with broad fundamental questions about the extent and limits of social influences on individuals’ lives and the social-cultural basics of our knowledge about the world [
According to sociology of knowledge, knowledge lies in some context, and without this context, knowledge is meaningless, let alone cognizer and cognitive behavior [
The author believes that the way you analyze “actor’s self” put forward by Florian Znaniecki is conforming to that you deal with the issue “what kind of teacher knowledge should the teachers of Open University of China acquire?” In other words, in order to meet the requirements of “some social circle”, what kind of knowledge should you acquire?
As mentioned above, from the perspective of sociology of knowledge, when analyzing the issue “what kind of teacher knowledge should Open Universities teachers acquire?” we must firstly consider the knowledge system this knowledge belongs to. How can we define the knowledge system Open University teacher knowledge belongs to? What is system? It means a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole (Wikipedia). Then what items are related to Open University teacher knowledge? The author analyzes it from the perspective of sociology, especially from the aspects of politics, economics, and education.
Secondly, what is the relationship among these items? The author holds that the development of politics and economics needs education, therefore, the Party Central Committee and the State Council, taking China’s conditions into consideration, promulgates An Outline of National Medium-and-Long-Term Program for Education Reform and Development and puts forward three educational strategic objectives. In order to finish these strategic objectives, Open University of China is founded and its mission is decided. Based on the mission of Open University of China, core beliefs of Open University of China are formed. Therefore, these related items are the mission of Open University of China. The author regards the mission of Open University of China as knowledge system in which teacher knowledge lies, namely social circle.
Open University teachers, the members of social circle, must be actors’ self in their social circle in order to carry out actors’ function. In other words, according to the requirements of social circle, Open University teachers must acquire or build teacher knowledge in order to finish social function granted by their social circle.
The mission of Open University of China is founding a distance Open University without walls, open to all members of society. It uses modern information technology to support a school network covering all urban and rural areas in China. In order to finish this mission, Open University of China puts forward four tasks in its construction project: 1) rapidly developing non-degree education; 2) steadily developing degree education; 3) pushing to integrate modern technology with education; 4) building an “overpass” for lifelong learning. The author analyzes the construction of teacher knowledge of Open University teachers based on the four tasks of Open University of China.
The construction project of The Open University of China holds that public service platform (including online training) and online open course resources supermarket are two ways to develop non-degree continuing education in Open University of China. Besides, degree continuing education is being upgraded from the former Radio & TV University. At present, the teachers of Radio & TV Universities conduct degree continuing education in the aspects of curriculum management based on online learning platform, online teaching materials construction, teaching support service, face-to-face tutorial, teaching evaluation and educational practice organization and execution. In fact, degree education of Open & Radio University is a kind of educational form which gives priority to students’ autonomous learning and teachers’ learning support as a supplement. The students spend more time on online teaching materials. The main way of conducting non-degree education and training based on public service platform is developing amounts of high-quality open teaching materials, so as to satisfy the needs of various levels of non-degree education and training. Full-time ordinary institutions of higher learning focus on class teaching quality, while Open University of China pays attention to teachers’ ability to develop curriculum and construct online open resources. The teachers, the major designers and participants of curriculum and online open resources construction, take on the job of designing instruction, providing affluent teaching materials and implementing teaching. It is well known that teachers must acquire some knowledge including subject knowledge and course knowledge. The former can ensure students to learn accurate subject contents so as to reach the goal of training, and the latter includes the formation of curriculum objectives, development and design of curriculum, teaching, curriculum organization and curriculum evaluation, which are useful for students’ learning. Therefore, curriculum knowledge covers instructional design knowledge. In a word, teachers should collect, list all the materials of this course and present them in a way the students easily accept based on the students’ learning style. Besides, building “overpass” for lifelong learning requires subject knowledge and curriculum knowledge. According to the experience in the accumulation and transformation of credits in Europe, America and North America, teachers are in charge of curriculum accreditation. For instance, in North America, the teachers are in charge of designing the course syllabus which is used for curriculum accreditation or evaluating other schools’ application for curriculum accreditation [
To sum up, the author charted construction of teachers’ knowledge of The Open University of China from the perspective of sociology of knowledge. Chart 1 is as follows:
Chart 1. Construction of teacher knowledge from the perspective of sociology of knowledge: exemplified with the Open University of China.
Knowledge system can be to a large extent explained from the perspective of sociology, which is the focus of sociology of knowledge [
Chen, J.X. (2018) On the Construction of Teacher Knowledge from the Perspective of Sociology of Knowledge: Exemplified with Teachers of Open University of China. Open Access Library Journal, 5: e4397. https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1104397