On January 4, 2004, the CCTV-2 dialogue program broadcast a dialogue between Dr. Levine, President of Yale University, and Professor Xu Zhihong, President of Peking University. The host asked many questions to the two principals, and the answers from the principals of two world-renowned universities are enough to arouse the thinking of every primary and secondary school teacher. What exactly do their answers indicate?
1. What do you think are the three most important tasks for every student after entering university?
Principal Levin: ①Question everything; ②Study hard; ③Think for yourself
Principal Xu Zhihong: ①Do knowledge; ②Learn to be a human being; ③Develop the ability to serve the society
2. If two senior students are selected and interviewed, the three questions you, as the principal, would like to ask them most are:
Principal Levin: ① You said you founded Magazine, what magazine? ②What do you think has benefited the most from your studies? ③What excites you and can help you become a boss?
Principal Xu Zhihong: ① Do you think curriculum or practice is more important? ②What has China’s education system made you lose? ③What kind of teacher do you like?
The answers given by the two principals were very exciting, and there was a thought-provoking common understanding, that is: education needs to develop students' innovative spirit and practical ability, and schools must pay attention to students' practical learning .
In the past five years, many people still do not understand the introduction of comprehensive practical activity courses in primary and secondary schools, saying that "the comprehensive practical activity course has nothing to do with the high school entrance examination and the college entrance examination, and it is not worthwhile to spend time on this course." "Comprehensive practical activities cannot help improve students' test scores", "Comprehensive practical activities are a course imported from abroad" and so on. In fact, there are sufficient grounds for setting up comprehensive practical activity courses at the basic education stage in our country, but there are ten fundamental reasons.
(1) The era rejects “nerds”
One of the most prominent problems in my country’s basic education is that it has cultivated a large number of students who can’t take exams. Many primary and secondary schools focus too much on considering They are sent to higher schools or to universities. Facing the complex information society, the open era, the wave of globalization, and the fiercely competitive living environment, it is difficult to have good overall quality if you only know how to take exams and lack sufficient problem awareness, practical ability, and innovative spirit. We conducted a survey on the reasons why 400 university graduates from 4 *** universities are not employed. The results show that in recent years, 25-30% of our country’s university graduates have failed to find a job. The reasons are as follows: < /p>
Table 1.1. Reasons why university graduates are not employed
Categories and proportions
Thoughts are mainly due to
Key universities
%
General University
%
Undergraduate
3
8
< p>Poor academic test scores18
27
Interpersonal communication difficulties or insufficient ability
2
8
Sexism
19
40
Lack of practical experience
69
< p>81No articles published
67
89
Dependent on arrangements by parents and teachers
64
78
Don’t understand society and profession
61
72
Why are it difficult for these college graduates to find jobs? ? It may be related to the lack of comprehensive practical activities. The lack of problem awareness, innovative spirit and comprehensive practical ability, as well as the limitations of the overall understanding of nature, society and self, are obviously incompatible with the requirements of the information age, the era of globalization, the era of knowledge economy, and the era of sustainable development. Most "nerds" will be abandoned by society as soon as they leave school, and they will be unemployed as soon as they graduate. This is the tragedy of education!
Primary and secondary education should not just focus on the present, but should have more educational responsibilities and educational behaviors that are responsible for each student's life, set up comprehensive practical activity courses, improve the curriculum structure, and update the talent training model. , giving students complete development opportunities.
(2) "Doing things" is better than "solving problems"
UNESCO's "Delores Report", namely "Education - Where the Wealth Lies" points out that in the face of To face the challenges of the times, basic education in various countries around the world must guide students to “learn to know, learn to do, learn to live and work with others, and learn to survive”, and call these “four learnings” the “four learnings” of basic education. Big pillar".
Acquiring knowledge and being good at solving problems are not the core value pursuits of basic education.
Guide students to learn to learn, form their desire and ability to acquire knowledge independently, and develop their thinking quality; encourage students to use the knowledge they have learned to ask questions, analyze problems, and solve problems in practical situations, and develop their practical ability and innovative quality; develop students' gregariousness, Awareness and ability to cooperate, team spirit and ability; cultivate students' desire and ability to adapt to society and develop independently, guide them to share the most unique core values ??of human beings, and form good emotional attitudes and values ????for dealing with others. It has become the essential requirement for basic education in this diversified era.
In the era of innovation, the cultivation of innovative talents calls for practical education.
(3) Practice yields true knowledge
Professor Ji Baocheng, President of Renmin University of China, said that among outstanding university graduates in our country, more than 90% participated in practical learning and various Students with more social practice activities have a higher proportion in key universities. World-famous universities, such as Harvard University, Yale University, Cambridge University, Oxford University, etc., among the high school students admitted in China every year, 100% are those who often participated in various social practice activities in ordinary high school and have particularly strong practical ability. Students, these students are definitely not the students with the highest test scores in ordinary high schools across China.
For students, most of the knowledge transferred in education is "public knowledge". Only students' personal experience, understanding, insights and thoughts are their "personal knowledge". The depth, breadth, quality and structure of "personal knowledge" determine a person's success in life to a great extent.
Where does “personal knowledge” come from? Come from practice and reflection. In school education, the ways and channels for students to obtain knowledge are too dependent on teachers' teaching and the study of book knowledge, and they lack independent thinking, hands-on operation, and practical learning. This is a talent training problem that needs to be solved in current basic education.
(4) Holistic Education
Education is not just an activity of imparting knowledge, nor is the acquisition of knowledge the entire task and responsibility of education. Even if it is knowledge, it is not just a science. issues, but issues related to the fate and happiness of students. Education points to the comprehensive development needs of a whole person. Education must pay attention to students' development needs in the cognitive domain, emotional domain, motor skill domain and interpersonal skill domain.
A student is a living person who needs to be fully developed, not a container of knowledge. As the ancient Roman educator Plotarch said: "A child is not a jar that needs to be filled, but a heart that needs to be filled." "In the face of the needs of a diversified society, only regarding students as containers of knowledge, and only regarding the transfer of knowledge as the whole of education, has fallen far behind the needs of the development of the times. All-round development of people requires all-round development of education and the relationship between "formal education" and "informal education" needs to be properly handled. For the development of every student, the learning, accumulation and even training of book knowledge are indispensable. Similarly, the accumulation, perception and sublimation of life experience are also indispensable.
(5) Life is a big classroom
It has become an educational axiom that education connects students’ lives with social reality. At the same time, it is also one of the basic concepts of our country’s new curriculum. Because there is education all the time in life, life has educational significance; there is education everywhere in life, and life has rich educational resources.
Realistic basic education must pay attention to the changes in real life. Basic education is not only a need for individual life, but also a need for social life. Facing the complex social background, basic education should reflect its function of simplifying, purifying and balancing social life, integrating primary and secondary school students into the real social life background in a planned, systematic and organized manner, and embodying the meaning of life and education. meaning of life. Education itself is not only a kind of life, but also a process of children's growth and development. It is an activity to construct an ideal life. Therefore, basic education should not only enable children to experience the joy of life, but also pay attention to children's development in basic education. lifestyle, and construct children's lifestyle from a developmental perspective.
For a long time, one of the outstanding problems in primary and secondary education in our country is that education and teaching are far away from students’ lives and social reality. They only focus on the teaching and training of book knowledge, place extreme emphasis on cognitive learning, and ignore life. Learn and practice this important way of learning. The single method of education and teaching based on book knowledge deprives students of educational opportunities to develop in an open social background, social life and social practice, leading to problems such as high scores and low ability, low scores and low ability, lack of hands-on ability and social practice ability, etc. It greatly hinders students' lively, comprehensive and individual development. It’s time to change the shortcomings of education that is far away from life!
(6) "School is not a bird cage"
The open era calls for open education! "Talk on Educational Issues" said: Primary and secondary schools "cannot confine young people to books and rooms all day long. They should be allowed to participate in some social practice, open their horizons, and increase their social experience."
"This passage pointedly pointed out the problems that have long existed in primary and secondary education in our country, and put forward suggestions for reforming primary and secondary education.
For many years, primary and secondary schools have been too closed, and students' growth experience has been limited to Within the walls of the school, students are "ignored by the outside world and only read books by sages." The closed school education activities lead to students' lack of full overall understanding and understanding of nature, society, and themselves in the information society. In a learning society, the way students acquire knowledge has shown diversified and all-round characteristics. School education in particular should have an open educational concept and an open educational vision, transcending the limitations of school space on students' growth.
(7) Experience is wealth
In 2001, the major essay question in the Chinese language test paper of the National Unified College Entrance Examination was "Integrity". Chinese education research experts from the Jiangsu Provincial Teaching and Research Office found that through analysis of the candidates' essay papers, ordinary people. The examples cited by high school graduates in their essays show that their experiences are generally characterized by a lack of life experience and social experience, which has led to the candidates' lack of confidence in "integrity", which is closely related to social reality. There is nothing to say about the topic in the composition, there are no ideas, and there is a lack of basic understanding and depth. According to analysis, one of the reasons is that students lack basic social life experience and understanding and understanding of social reality issues. The lack of real social life experience and social experience has become a common problem in the development of primary and secondary school students in my country.
For everyone’s growth, experience is the wealth of life and a process resource in development. It is a conditional resource in the growth process of students. Experience is the basis of knowledge, the condition for understanding, and the background for the expression of ideas. It is always important for the formation and establishment of life wisdom, lifestyle, way of thinking and values ??that are necessary for students' growth. It is just a "material" and cannot become a "nourishment". The transformation process from public knowledge to personal knowledge requires the participation of experience, the transformation process of experience, and various "practical learning" processes. . Students' "personal knowledge" not only comes from the transformation of "public knowledge", but also from the sublimation of personal experience. For the growth of students, if we transform "public knowledge" into "personal knowledge". If the process of "knowledge" is called the "external blood transfusion process", then the process of sublimating students' personal experience into "personal knowledge" is the "self-hematopoietic process". Enrich students' experience and accumulate understanding of nature, society, self, and Personal experience and understanding of culture have become difficult problems that must be solved in the innovation of talent training models in primary and secondary schools in my country.
(8) Classroom teaching is not the main channel.
Students’ academic performance. There are many influencing factors, and classroom teaching is not the only important factor that plays a role. Data analysis of the "Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)" organized by OECD shows that in OECD countries that participate in the PISA test, for students' reading, In writing scores, school teaching explains an average of 36% of the differences in student performance. In Nordic countries such as Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, school education behaviors explain only 10% or even less of the differences in student achievement. In countries such as Germany, Austria, and Belgium, schools explain about 60% of differences in student performance. The "New Curriculum Learning Quality Evaluation Project Team" of the Ministry of Education of my country has established a student learning quality data analysis system through the application of simulated PISA tests. It shows that in terms of the learning performance of primary and secondary school students in Chinese, mathematics, English, etc., the interpretation rate of school classroom teaching is 40%.
From this point of view, the so-called teaching law that "classroom teaching is the main channel" that people have believed in for many years is worthy of questioning. It is necessary to reinterpret the connotation of "classroom" and "classroom teaching" and rethink student development. approaches and learning methods.
The new curriculum emphasizes the diversification of learning methods, opposes single receptive teaching, and advocates active participation, willingness to explore, and diligence in hands-on practice. In essence, it transcends closed classroom teaching and single receptive learning. Learning styles reflect the way students grow in the education process.
(9) The trend of world education
The establishment of activity courses and practical courses is not an original creation of new courses, but a response to the development of the times and the changes in human learning methods. *Same action. Since the 1990s, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Norway, France and other countries, as well as Taiwan Province of my country, have focused on the establishment of comprehensive practical activity courses in the reform of basic education curriculum. However, this kind of course has different titles in the curriculum standards of various countries and regions:
1. United States
In the curriculum standards of various states in the United States, there is no unified "comprehensive practical activities" "This curriculum, but each state has designed specific and different types of comprehensive practical activities courses. Mainly include:
①Studies of science, technology and society (STS). Learning through investigation and problem discussion can, on the one hand, enable students to acquire inquiry abilities, and on the other hand, enhance students' inquiry abilities, scientific spirit, sense of social responsibility and comprehensive social practice abilities.
②Design learning (project or design learning, referred to as PDL). This kind of course is an applied learning course. Compared with research-based learning of topics, design learning places more emphasis on students’ independent design and practical operations, such as comprehensive art design, applied design, product design, activity design, etc., emphasizing Solutions to real-life problems in students’ lives. ③Social participating learning. The focus of social participatory learning is to participate in the field of social life, contact with social reality, and focus on carrying out various social participatory activities, such as community services (including participation in nursing home activities, social welfare activities, etc.), social surveys, inspections and visits (including Visiting heads of government or local government officials, etc.). Socially participatory learning often reflects the historical and cultural traditions, social lifestyles and development conditions of different places, and is reflected in the curriculum plans of different school districts. [1]
2. Britain and France
The design of comprehensive practical courses in the British national curriculum standards is similar to the comprehensive practical courses designed in various states in the United States, mainly focusing on Social studies and project or design learning. Social studies in British primary and secondary schools design practice and inquiry themes around becoming informed citizenship, as well as prominent political, spiritual, moral, social or cultural issues. [2] Design learning mainly includes comprehensive art design, information and communication technology (Information and Communication Technology), etc. A type of "comprehensive learning" course is designed in the French curriculum standards. Its basic specifications are reflected in two basic aspects: first, comprehensive learning needs to span two or more learning fields and requires the comprehensive use of multi-disciplinary knowledge and skills; Second, the activities of comprehensive learning should be diverse, involving basic learning activities such as acceptance, exploration, and application.
3. Japan
Since the 1980s, there has been a type of course in Japanese primary and secondary school curriculum: "Special Activities", which includes traditional school activities, student activities and class guidance activities Three aspects. Because the "special activities" are not closely connected with the real life of society, they cannot fully meet the social needs of students' development. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan added "comprehensive learning time" in the "Study Guidance Outline" promulgated in December 1998 and March 1999. The addition of "comprehensive learning time" has changed the curriculum structure of Japanese primary and secondary schools from three sections of "compulsory subjects", "morals" and "special activities" to "compulsory subjects", "morals", "special activities" and "Comprehensive learning time" consists of four sections. [3] "Comprehensive learning time" attaches great importance to students' interests and hobbies, is committed to cultivating students' attitude towards proactive problem-solving learning and inquiry learning, guides students to master scientific learning methods and thinking methods, and requires "comprehensive experiential learning" and "project-based research learning" and other different methods. [4]
4. Taiwan Province of my country
Taiwan Province of my country promulgated the new "National Primary School Curriculum Standards" and "National Secondary School Curriculum Standards" in 1994. The new curriculum standards stipulate that primary schools and middle schools have designed a variety of comprehensive practical activity courses, which are called "comprehensive activities" in the curriculum standards. They mainly include home economics and life science and technology activities, local art activities, tutoring activity courses, group activities, etc. [5]
The comprehensive practical activity courses designed by Western developed countries and Taiwan Province of my country cover a wide range of fields and embody the characteristics of "comprehensive" in terms of activity fields. However, "comprehensive practical activities" does not mean that any activity is comprehensive, and "comprehensive" is relative. The fields involved in comprehensive practical activities designed abroad and in Taiwan generally include:
1. Theme inquiry or project research
The main inquiry is centered on the issues or topics that students are interested in, and follows the The most basic norms and steps of scientific research, and research-based learning activities. There is an inherent connection between project research and design learning. Students can propose solutions or strategies to solve problems through research on relevant issues. For example, in project research and study on environmental protection, students generally have to propose solutions to environmental protection. The problem areas involved in thematic inquiry include:
⑴The study of natural phenomena or problems. The field of natural inquiry is very broad and mainly involves the study of natural things or phenomena related to human existence environment. The core of this activity field is the natural environment of human real life. The High School Affiliated to Miyagi University of Education in Japan began to implement "project research learning" in April 1998, stipulating the design of four areas: "real life environment", "international understanding education", "information", and "health", among which "real life" "Environment" is the main area of ??"topic research and learning".
[6]
Table 1.2 Fields and problems of natural inquiry for foreign primary and secondary school students
Fields of natural inquiry
Examples of questions
Food resources< /p>
Food production, agriculture, farmland protection
Population and survival
Regional or national or world population growth, immigration, carrying capacity, construction
Air quality and atmosphere
Acid rain, vehicle exhaust and air pollution, CO2, ozone layer depletion, global warming
Water resources
Wastewater treatment, estuaries or harbors , water supply and distribution, groundwater contamination
War technology
Psychotic gases, nuclear development, nuclear weapons threat
Land use
Soil erosion, reclamation, urban development, deforestation, salinization
Energy shortage
Synthetic fuels, solar energy, fossil fuels
Hazardous materials
Waste and garbage disposal, toxic substances and their prevention
Plants
Urban vegetation and greening, plant diversity inheritance and protection
Animals
Wildlife conservation, animal characteristics research
Human health and disease
Infectious and non-communicable diseases, noise and health, diet and nutrition, exercise, mental health
⑵Social research. The study of social issues is the basic content of subject research and study in primary and secondary schools in various countries. It involves the historical changes of society or community, community culture (such as cultural traditions, inspection and discussion of local customs), and social economic issues (such as securities and stocks, industrial structure research, etc.), social politics (for example, most social studies courses in various states in the United States include topics such as "American Government" and "American Ethnicity"). The fields of inquiry into science, technology and society, inquiry into individuals, groups and institutions. [7] The field of social studies is developed around the real life of society. These fields of activities are directly related to the formation of socially responsible and knowledgeable citizens. The social study fields of foreign primary and secondary school students can be shown in the following table (Table 1.3.):
Table 1.3 The social study fields of foreign primary and secondary school students
Social study fields
Examples of questions
History
Discussion
Community and local history
Geographical changes and historical investigation of the community or hometown
Nation and national history
The formation of the nation and nation (my motherland), research on major historical events
Economy
Discussion
< p>IndustryCommunity industrial structure, emerging industry design and development, tourism, biological agriculture, industrial competitiveness, IT industry
Market
Securities and Stocks, e-commerce, market development strategy
Career
Gender and career, career adaptability, career design and choice
Politics
Governance
Explore
Discussion
Government
Government structural adjustment, military strategy, international relations
Democracy
System
Children’s interests, women’s issues, ethnic minorities, news media and criticism, law, who can be president, elections and life
Decision-making
p>
Reflections on decision-making and war issues in history
Culture
Discussion
Nation
Culture
< p>Food culture research, black music and economy, black music and politics, today's Indian culture and beliefs, ancient architecture, modern architectural art, cultural heritage site researchCultural exchange
Foreign cultural issues, understanding foreign countries (international understanding)
Society
Crisis
Discussion
Political crisis
Politician scandals, racial discrimination, war avoidance, global village
Economic crisis
Economic depression, unemployment problem, stock market Friday
Existential crisis
Drug issues, environmental protection, AIDS prevention, abortion, school violence
2. Social practice learning
The basic feature of social practice learning is social participation, that is, students as members of society Participate in the entire social life and become part of social and political life, economic life, and cultural life. The main ways are social service activities, social inspection activities, community welfare activities, etc.
⑴Social service activities. The social service activities of primary and secondary schools in Taiwan are relatively complete, including community services, school services, elderly services, child care services, transportation services, life inspection services, environmental services, blind services (i.e., disability assistance services), etc., and there are many Activity time standards. [8] Most primary and secondary schools in the United States also have similar service activity courses. The South Middleton School District in Pennsylvania stipulates a series of school service and community service activities for each primary and secondary school in the school district. and incorporated into course planning calendar implementation. [9]
⑵Social inspection activities.
Social inspection has the function of social investigation. The curriculum standards of some countries regard social inspection activities as "comprehensive experiential learning". Through inspection, students can contact and understand the society. Such as conducting research studies on the historical evolution of communities or localities, environmental protection issues, the current status and policies of school violence issues, and understanding the government's strategies for social or community development, etc. Social inspection activities include special inspections and comprehensive inspections. The Comprehensive Learning Guidelines for Japanese Middle Schools clearly stipulates that primary and secondary schools should carry out “comprehensive experiential learning”.
⑶Social welfare activities. There are two ways of social welfare activities: schools organize student group activities and student individual activities. For example, in Taiwan’s curriculum reform, middle school students are required to participate in various “volunteer” (i.e. voluntary work) activities, and students personally carry out elder-respecting activities at any time, and stipulate that students should participate in activities to respect the elderly at any time. Number of times you have participated in voluntary work. Social welfare activities in primary and secondary schools in the United States are generally set by school districts and organized and implemented by schools, such as charity activities in nursing homes, fundraising activities for African disaster victims, etc., in order to cultivate students' compassion, social responsibility and sense of obligation.
3. Life and learning
Life and learning has always been one of the basic areas of curriculum design in primary and secondary schools abroad. Life learning is practical learning related to students’ living ability and adaptability. In the design and implementation of foreign primary and secondary school curriculum, the field of life learning has been reported to include the following aspects:
⑴ Life skills training activities. American school education, starting from kindergarten to high school, has designed life skills practical activities of varying degrees. The life-study activities of the middle and lower grades of primary schools include activities such as food making, sewing, and simple handicrafts. The life-study activities of students in grades 5-9 (upper primary school and junior high school stages) include content in areas such as housekeeping management, such as family finance and family investment. , family life cultural design and other activities, as well as living environment adaptation activities, such as survival in the wild.
⑵Life technology and creative activities. In order to enhance students' basic abilities of life adjustment, value judgment, problem solving and creative thinking in a technological society, as well as their positive attitudes of hard work, cooperation, love for others and service, foreign primary and secondary schools have launched science and technology application, design and creation activities in life. . Such as clothing design, room decoration design, living architectural design and other activities. Such activities are not entirely technical. They contain complex value issues and require students to make value judgments in design and creation.
(10) Public issues in curriculum reform
With the continuous deepening of my country's new curriculum, "comprehensive practical activity courses" have gradually become the basis for a new round of basic education curriculum reform. Public issues or central topics, research and discussion of theoretical issues and implementation issues of comprehensive practical activity courses have become hot spots in the new curriculum. It is generally believed that the comprehensive practical activity course is both the highlight and the difficulty of the new curriculum. The following set of figures are worthy of our consideration:
1. Seminars on comprehensive practical activities at national, provincial, regional and inter-school comprehensive practical activities courses are held almost every day across the country. Since 2001, the Comprehensive Practical Activities Project Team of the Ministry of Education has organized five consecutive symposiums on comprehensive practical activities in the National Curriculum Reform Experimental Zone, and the participants were very enthusiastic.
2. 148 special websites for comprehensive practice activities have been established across the country; among them, "New Thinking·Comprehensive Practice Activities Network", "Dole Network", "Jiaxing Comprehensive Practice Activities Network" and other comprehensive practice websites The event-specific website has a click-through rate of more than 300,000 people per week; a network search found that there are more than 600 "comprehensive practice groups" established on various websites.
3. 18 provinces and cities across the country have established the “Comprehensive Practical Activity Curriculum Professional Committee” academic research organization.
4. "Educational Research", "Curriculum Materials and Teaching Methods", "Global Education Outlook", "Educational Development Research" and other core Chinese education journals as well as educational publications at all levels attach great importance to publishing research papers on comprehensive practical activity courses. There are countless research papers on comprehensive practical activities; 3 special issues and magazines on "Comprehensive Practical Activities" have been published across the country.
5. More than 100 prefectures and cities across the country have included the comprehensive practical ability of junior high school students into the high school entrance examination and general high school admissions indicators for comprehensive assessment.
6. The implementation of general education comprehensive practical activity courses and research-based learning has improved students' comprehensive quality. The number of Chinese high school students admitted to internationally renowned universities increased from less than 100 in 2000 to more than 2,000 in 2005.
Comprehensive practical activity courses have become a hot issue and public issue in basic education. With the approval of the State Council, the "Guidelines for Comprehensive Practical Activities" and "Guidelines for Research-Based Learning in Primary and Secondary Schools" were listed as one of the "Several Supporting Policies of the State Council on the Implementation of the "National Medium and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan" and will be implemented.