Transforming by Following Forces: Introducing Chinese Philosophy of SHI and SHUN SHI into Developmental and Educational Psychology

Abstract

Educational intervention has been narrated for a long time as a battle between two agentive subjects, educators and students. In this article, we introduce two interrelating concepts of SHI (势 in Chinese) and SHUN SHI (顺势 in Chinese) from Chinese philosophy into psychology to provide an alternative perspective to understand students’ development and educational intervention. The concept of SHI sheds light on the propensity of open system’s becoming process toward the future underlying system’s present configuration derived from system’s historical interaction with its environment. SHUN SHI is to grasp the opportunity of SHI evolving into being prominent and to transform the system by alertly following its unfolding process. Understanding and applying SHI and SHUN SHI in the area of developmental and educational psychology is discussed and clarified based on a comparison with the dynamic system theory and zone of proximal development. An empirical research is also provided to respond to the method challenge posed by the two concepts.