Research on the Cultivation Path of Design Thinking in China’s Basic Education Stage Based on Attribute Construction

Abstract

Against the dual predicaments of fragmented educational theories and formalized practices, this paper focuses on the philosophical inquiry into the essence of aesthetic education and constructs a theoretical framework centered on the "unified cognitive system of truth, goodness, and beauty." By integrating ontological reflections on truth, goodness, and beauty in Chinese and Western philosophies, it reveals the core proposition that "beauty is the symbolic unity of truth and goodness," and clarifies the unique value of aesthetic education as a symbolic integration mechanism for human cognition of the world and as a quality dimension in the integration of the five educations. Through conceptual clarification and logical deduction, the study incorporates classifications of thinking modes into the analytical framework of the integration of the five educations, demonstrating that aesthetic education, as a quality vector dimension permeating the cultivation goals of moral, intellectual, and physical education, essentially promotes the integration and sublimation of the values of truth and goodness through symbolic practices. Ultimately, it constructs a "cognition-ethics-symbol" triangular theoretical model, providing an underlying cognitive foundation for the construction of aesthetic education theories in the new era and responding to the fundamental educational questions of "what kind of people to cultivate," "how to cultivate people," and "for whom to cultivate people."