教育生物学杂志

本杂志的筹划源自于我和杜祖贻教授之间的一次有趣的学术对话。杜教授是一位满怀爱国热情、深爱中国文化的国际著名教育学专家，他长期在密西根大学和香港中文大学任教职，近二十年来钟情于教育与医学的结合，因此，与我这位总喜欢异想天开的发育儿科医生有不少共同语言。在对话中我提出的观点是，教学的过程是在复杂环境（context）中进行的，其中，心理学因素的重要性已经有较多的认识，教育心理学已经成为教育学中的重要组成部分，国内外的教育学院没有不开教育心理学课程的。但是，生物学在教学过程中的重要性却甚少有人过问。而事实上，教学活动中仍然有许多现实的生物学问题需要回答。例如，我们都说学生的课业负担太重，那么，目前的课业负担是否已经超出了他们生理学意义上的承受范围？要知道，学业负担太重不好，学业负担太轻也同样不好，现在有些发达国家教育界人士正在反思，他们国家的孩子是否花在学习上的时间太少了，甚至将这个问题提到民族兴旺和存亡的高度。他们的担忧虽然有些夸张但不无道理。因此，到底什么样的负担对孩子来讲生理上是可承受的？什么样的负担对孩子来讲生理上是合适的？显然，我们没有研究。类似的宏观层面上的问题还有不少。微观层面上的问题也有许多。例如，课桌椅和身高的比例应该怎样才更符合学生的发育生理？不同年龄的比例应该怎样？黑板的照度和课桌桌面上的照度应该多少更符合学生的视觉生理，两者之间是否需要合适的比例而使得学生不用频繁调节瞳孔的大小以减少视觉疲劳？不同年龄的学生的书包重量应该在什么范围才符合生物力学的原理而使得脊柱的生理发育不受影响？不同年龄的学生每天应该保证多少睡眠时间才能够使其生理和心理机能维持在高效学习的水平？这林林总总的问题引发了我们热烈的讨论，讨论的结果是：其一，我们不但需要教育心理学，我们也需要教育生物学；其二，办一本杂志，把教育界和医学界的相关研究归结起来可能是一个好的开端，同时这也可以为这项跨学科研究提供一个学术平台。于是，我们相约共同为这个目标努力。

We herewith present a new scientific journal dedicated to a new field of inquiry：bio-education. It is the result of several years of cooperative research，planning，and experimentation involving scholars and researchers in various specialties in Shanghai and Hong Kong，China. This journal is dedicated to the promotion of cross-disciplinary inquiry between the bio-medical sciences and socio- educational disciplines. Its forum is open to all interested scholars，nationally and internationally. At this first stage，it is a bilingual，（Chinese and English）publication. It welcomes contributions on relevant topics from researchers as well as practi-tioners from bio-education related fields. As the journal aims at introducing the most significant and current research discoveries as well as critical and judicious reviews and opinions on relevant develop-ments，its intent is to become a peer-reviewed periodical with occasional solicited presentations from leading authorities. The journal is published by Xinhua Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine，which specializes in pediatric medicine. The editor is Dr. HUANG Hong，Professor of Pediatric，Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.

The predecessor of the Journal of Bio-education was an experimental journal with an identical title that began in the spring of 2006. It was a collaboration between Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine（then Shanghai Second Medical University）and The Chinese University of Hong Kong（Honorary Advisors：Dr. GUO Di，Senior Professor of Pediatric at Shanghai Second Medical University；and Profes-sor Charles K. Kao，Emeritus President of Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nobel Laureate in Physic；Co-Editors：Professors SHEN Xiaoming and JIN Xingming of Shanghai Second Medical Univer-sity，and Professor TO Choyee of The Chinese Uni-versity of Hong Kong）. Five full-scale trial issues were circulated internally for critique and improve-ment，during which time permission for official publication and circulation was requested.

“Bio-education”is not yet a term in either the Chinese or English dictionaries.“Biology edu-cation”refers to teaching and learning the science of biology，and“biology and education”refers to biology as a subject in educational curriculum. “Bio-education，”however，refers to a systematic study of the educative process from a scientific，biological perspective. It may be understood as the biological foundation of education，explicitly recog-nizing the biological nature of human learning. While human growth and development are substantially shaped by education and environment，they are basically controlled by the bio-physiological systems of the human body. Bio-physio-medical studies，which have made tremendous advances in the past decade，have confirmed that learning，thinking，memory，decision making，stress，emotions and sleeping are all linked to the nervous system，as are perception and senses and related cognitive functions. And intelligence was recently reported to be determined innately in one’s DNA；even what is call“mind，”a combination of complex sets of mental and emotional experiences，originates in the brain as a result of the individual interacting with his environment.

All physiological systems，nervous，cardiovas-cular，respiratory，digestive，endocrine，muscular skeletal，immune，reproductive，etc. are related in one way or another to growth，health，fitness，as well as habit formation，nutritional balance，atti-tudinal change，etc.. If education is responsible for the intellectual，mental，social and physical devel-opments of the child，how can educators，as pro-fessionals，not seek knowledge and expertise from the bio-physio-medical fields for the construction of sound and comprehensive education programs，curricula，methods，and facilities？The fact is that educational researchers and practitioners have been slow to incorporate scientific knowledge and exper-tise into the field of education. For teacher training，there are required courses，such as psychology of education，history of education，philosophy of education，sociology/anthropology of education. Al-though these are very useful，they do not provide much insight about the child as a biological entity. Hence，teachers，in general，except those with a minor in biological studies as their specialty，could hardly detect learning and behavioral problems in their students due to bio-physio-medical reasons. On the other hand，bio-physio-medical researchers and practitioners have been slow to address educational deficiencies in the child，other than treating illness and providing preventive medical services when needed. It is envisaged that，if the two groups have the opportunity to cooperate actively and systematically in research and in transferring knowledge and information through the platform of the new field of bio-education，education as a science-based profes-sion will progress and improve more rapidly，and bio-physio-medical science as a multidisciplinary enterprise will develop a vast realm of research opportunities for challenging and meaningful pursuits.

In 2000，medical and education researchers from Hong Kong and Shanghai joined forces to con-duct a cooperative，experimental study of language acquisition to inquire into how the human nervous system is physiologically programmed to learn the mother tongue and a second language and whether the brain functions differently while processing the two languages.（Note：the Hong Kong Project focused on elementary school students，whereas the Shanghai Project focused on pre-schoolers）. Through EEG and fMRI，the“blackbox”was opened for observation，experiment and analysis. Consequently，new teaching and learning approaches and curricula were designed，tested，and applied，and useful results were achieved for language teaching and learning. The study provided a basis for the estab-lishment of the field of bio-education. It is expected that new case reports will be introduced for review and further investigation in the near future.