Mental health education/problems/countermeasures

The mental health problems of primary and secondary school students have aroused widespread concern, and mental health education is also being carried out in depth. However, there are some unhealthy phenomena in the process of mental health education in primary and secondary schools, such as exaggerating students' psychological problems, confusing teachers, excessively praising psychological tests, moral preaching and discipline, and so on. We must seek effective countermeasures to fundamentally solve these problems in order to improve the performance of mental health education in primary and secondary schools.

Since the mid-1980s, China's primary and secondary schools have successively carried out mental health education, which has been included in the work plan, and started theoretical and practical research on mental health education. Looking at the development of mental health education in schools in China and examining the various modes and operation modes of mental health education in primary and secondary schools, it is not difficult to find that although they have achieved good results in improving the psychological quality of primary and secondary school students and promoting the healthy growth of teenagers, their bad tendencies have also affected the effect of mental health education.

First, the problems of mental health education in primary and secondary schools

1. Overexaggerates the psychological problems of primary and secondary school students.

Most contemporary primary and secondary school students are only children, and their physical and mental development is in a special period of life. Under the influence of complex social environment, they are prone to form many unhealthy mentality. Especially in junior high school, this is a transitional period from adolescence to early youth, a semi-naive and semi-mature period; It is a period of contradiction between independence and dependence, consciousness and naivety; This is a "dangerous period" for physical and mental development. With the rapid development of their body and mind, the change of their way of thinking, the rich social experience and the increasing competition pressure for further studies, they are prone to breed various psychological problems and sprout psychological diseases in their study, life and interpersonal communication. Therefore, in the current social environment, the psychological problems of primary and secondary school students exist objectively, and mental health education is imperative. Nevertheless, we should not exaggerate the psychological problems of primary and secondary school students. Some media believe that 34% of primary and secondary school students have psychological barriers; 12.5% had psychological defects; 28. 1% has psychological abnormality [1], and it has even been reported that only 17% of primary and secondary school students are mentally healthy [2], and the text about the incidence of mental illness among primary and secondary school students is rising linearly or year by year is even more common in newspapers. Undoubtedly, it is understandable to emphasize the importance and necessity of mental health education, but it is doubtful that the psychological problems of primary and secondary school students have reached such a sensational level. At present, due to different understanding of mental health standards of primary and secondary school students, different testing tools, improper statistical sampling, subjective arbitrariness of judges and other factors, many contradictory statistical results have been obtained, which is not conducive to the scientific research and effective development of mental health education, and even has a negative impact, misleading people's evaluation of the all-round development of primary and secondary school students.

2. Miscellaneous mental health education teachers

Mental health education is a highly professional job, which requires teachers to have certain psychological theoretical literacy and excellent interpersonal communication strategies. Although various forms of psychological counseling education activities have been carried out in some places at present, and the curriculum research of mental health education has been initiated, on the whole, because mental health educators in primary and secondary schools are basically non-professionals, in order to meet the needs of starting classes, the phenomenon of mixed teachers is more serious, and some teachers do not understand psychological professional knowledge or psychological counseling strategies and skills, so it is difficult to achieve the due results. The reasons leading to this formalization tendency are as follows: First, there is no correct understanding of mental health education, which is regarded as a dispensable thing, while the nominal work is only to cope with the inspection or embellishment of the school image, and the mental health education institutions exist in name only; Second, a set of standardized school mental health education system has not been formed, and there are no standardized requirements for institutional setup, organizational planning, implementation methods and the quality of teachers. At the same time, the lack of necessary inspection and evaluation system makes mental health education out of control or even ineffective. The Ministry of Education's "Several Opinions on Strengthening Mental Health Education in Primary and Secondary Schools" points out: "People whose professional knowledge and practical ability can't meet the requirements must not be arranged as full-time psychological counseling teachers at will." Therefore, in order to improve the standardization, scientificity and effectiveness of mental health education, we must put an end to the phenomenon that mental health educators are mixed.

3. In the process of implementing mental health education, moral education tends to be serious.

At present, the moral education tendency of mental health education in primary and secondary schools is mainly manifested in two aspects: first, due to the lack of understanding and improper positioning of mental health education, it is considered that school moral education includes mental health education, and there is no need to carry out any mental health education, and there is no correct distinction between school moral education and mental health education. Second, simply replacing mental health teachers with moral education teachers or ideological and political workers in specific operations, putting mental health education in moral education management institutions, transplanting and applying moral education methods or means in work, making mental health education appear mechanical and inflexible, similar to ideological and political education, with little effect. Although moral education and mental health education are both carried out around the basic function of "educating people", they are different. The core of school moral education is outlook on life, and its goal is to improve students' moral conduct. In operation, it emphasizes the application of moral indoctrination, model demonstration, practical exercise, edifying education and moral evaluation. The core of mental health education in primary and secondary schools is the growth and development of young students. Its goal is to enhance the ability of primary and secondary school students to adjust themselves, endure setbacks and adapt to the environment, cultivate their sound personality and good individual psychological quality, improve their mental health level and self-development ability, avoid simple mechanical indoctrination and theoretical enlightenment in operation, and emphasize the application of psychological consultation, psychological counseling and psychotherapy. Of course, in school work, moral education and mental health education cannot be completely separated or opposed. Moral education cannot replace mental health education, and students' moral quality education cannot be ignored because of the development of mental health education. Only by combining them organically, complementing each other and infiltrating each other can we achieve the goal of "educating people".

4. One-sided emphasis on the discipline of mental health education

Mental health education is an educational activity that comprehensively applies the basic principles of psychology, pedagogy, modern medicine, sociology and other disciplines, exerts influence on the psychology of primary and secondary school students in various ways, promotes their normal physical and mental development, and improves their mental health level. There are various ways to realize it. As far as psychological counseling is concerned, there are heart-to-heart, role-playing, confidence training, behavior correction, psychological communication and psychological measurement. However, at present, mental health education in some schools tends to be subject-oriented and knowledge-oriented. They unilaterally pursue mental health education courses, forcibly instill relevant nouns, definitions and concepts into primary and secondary school students, forcibly memorize psychological knowledge and principles, and even mechanically set knowledge systems, goals and tasks, just like knowledge teaching in other disciplines. This way of operating mental health education by imparting subject knowledge will inevitably bring great negative effects. It is not only not conducive to maintaining and promoting the mental health of primary and secondary school students, but also increases their learning burden and psychological pressure in disguise, which affects their mental health. In some places, textbooks for students' mental health education have been compiled and required to be purchased, which seriously violates the spirit of relevant documents of the Ministry of Education [3]. This is obviously an unreasonable operation in the process of mental health education in primary and secondary schools and must be solved. It is true that under certain conditions, the opening of mental health courses and the development and application of related teaching materials are of certain positive significance to the development of mental health education, but it cannot be operated unilaterally according to the educational methods of other disciplines. Because psychological problems are sporadic, multifactorial, hidden and slow-dominant, they can never be solved by instilling knowledge or explaining principles. The maintenance of mental health and the improvement of mental quality of primary and secondary school students can not be achieved simply by offering a certain course. Only when classroom teaching, subject infiltration and extracurricular education are organically combined, families, society and schools work together, and leaders, teachers, parents and students participate together, and can be carried out persistently for a long time, can the task of mental health education be truly completed, otherwise, one-sided emphasis on subjects and knowledge will only make mental health education a mere formality.

5. Excessive praise for psychological tests

At present, in the process of developing mental health education in various places, one of the routine tasks is to establish students' psychological files. It should be said that the establishment of psychological files is helpful for teachers to understand students' physical and mental development, to strengthen the research on teenagers' psychological problems, and to promote the further development of mental health education. However, in the construction of psychological files for primary and middle school students, some schools put too much emphasis on psychological testing, and even violate the moral standards of psychological testing, resulting in adverse consequences, which are mainly manifested in the following aspects: First, some psychological testers have not received professional training, are not familiar with the test content, the measurement procedure is unscientific, and the environment at the test site is chaotic, which affects the psychological measurement results; Second, misuse and abuse of psychological tests. Qualitative description of all aspects of students' physical and mental development by means of tests, even using game tests published in popular publications or self-made questionnaires to test students' mental health level, forcing students to take the test; Third, we do not follow the confidentiality principle of psychological measurement, arbitrarily dispose of the measurement results, expose students' privacy, or use students' psychological files as the basis for moral evaluation and personnel files. Therefore, all kinds of unhealthy phenomena in psychological tests have seriously affected mental health education, and may cause some bad social effects. Cases of legal disputes caused by improper handling of students' psychological test results by relevant departments are seen in the media [4], which should arouse our deep thinking. In fact, any test tool for mental health may have its limitations, not to mention that the psychology of primary and secondary school students is in rapid development and change. It is extremely serious and wrong to give developing students a "lifelong" exam. Therefore, in the process of mental health education in primary and secondary schools, psychological tests should be used cautiously and students should not be forced to accept psychological tests. The mental health problems of primary and middle school students must not be judged by measurement alone, otherwise they may fall into the misunderstanding of psychological test.

Second, mental health education in primary and secondary schools, countermeasures against unhealthy trends

At present, all kinds of bad tendencies or wrong operation modes of mental health education in primary and secondary schools have affected the smooth development and effect of mental health education, which is not conducive to maintaining the mental health of primary and secondary school students. In view of the development trend of popularization, modernization, specialization and localization of school mental health education, we must adopt effective strategies to improve the quality of mental health education.

1. Change ideas and raise awareness of the importance of mental health education.

Although strengthening mental health education has become a new field of school education reform, some traditional educational concepts or misconceptions have seriously hindered the normal development of mental health education. Under the thinking mode of "exam-oriented education", some schools regard mental health education as irrelevant, and think that it is enough to manage students and grasp the enrollment rate. As for students' psychological problems, that is the business of psychologists, and it is difficult for primary and secondary schools to solve them, or simply replace them with ideological and political work. It is this understanding that leads to the failure to carry out or promote mental health education in schools, so that students with psychological problems are sent to hospitals for treatment with drugs and medical devices, which makes mental health education tend to be medical. Therefore, in order to effectively carry out mental health education, we must first do a good job in the publicity of mental health education and raise the awareness of school leaders and teachers on the importance and urgency of this work. Because mental health education is not only a matter of methods and techniques, but also an advanced and scientific educational concept, which is one of the basic elements of comprehensively implementing quality education. Only by changing thinking and raising awareness can mental health education really develop.

2. Strengthen management evaluation, and construct the implementation organization of mental health education.

The Ministry of Education's Opinions on Strengthening Mental Health Education in Primary and Secondary Schools pointed out: "Educational administrative departments and schools at all levels should take mental health education in primary and secondary schools as an important task to deepen educational reform and comprehensively promote quality education." "Education administrative departments at all levels should have special personnel responsible for or in charge of mental health education in primary and secondary schools." Mental health education is a far-reaching and wide-ranging work, which not only needs the attention of leaders, but also needs to be organized and implemented as an important measure. Therefore, the school must establish a strong mental health education organization, led by the principal, formulate a set of education plans, set up psychological consultation centers or consultation rooms, improve rules and regulations, and ensure the operation of mental health education. In order to prevent the work from becoming a mere formality and ensure the quality, we should strengthen supervision and inspection, do a good job in evaluation, and make an appropriate evaluation of mental health education with scientific methods, so as to promote and improve mental health education. The evaluation time limit can be regular and irregular, normal and phased; The evaluation methods can be school self-evaluation, inter-school mutual evaluation, superior evaluation and students' evaluation of health education. Through effective management and reasonable evaluation, mental health education can develop scientifically, orderly, efficiently and stably.

3. Improve the team and form a team of high-quality mental health education teachers.

Teachers are the leading force to promote mental health education in primary and secondary schools, and the formation of high-level teachers is an important condition to ensure the normal development of mental health education. Generally speaking, every teacher should be a psychological counselor. They should have knowledge of mental health care, master certain psychological counseling skills, be familiar with common psychological problems and counseling strategies of young students, master the psychological development track of young students, and influence students with good psychological characteristics. Mental health education in primary and secondary schools in China started late, and the development in different places is extremely uneven, far from achieving the expected results, and there are some bad operations. Besides ideological understanding and other reasons, the important factor is the level of teachers. Many schools are unable to carry out mental health education because of the lack of teachers. Establishing a team of high-quality teachers is not only the need to carry out mental health education, but also the need to ensure the quality and effect of this work. At present, an important development trend of school mental health education is that teachers will change from part-time to full-time, which requires teachers to constantly improve their own quality to be competent. Teachers engaged in mental health education in developed countries, Hongkong and Taiwan Province all have the qualification accreditation system, and some have taken psychological counseling as an important part of teachers' teaching assessment. Therefore, on the one hand, we should do a good job in pre-job training for teachers engaged in mental health education and strengthen the cultivation of this professional talent in colleges and universities; On the other hand, on-the-job teachers should be trained as soon as possible, so that they can have the knowledge and skills of mental health education and hold posts with certificates, and gradually reverse the current phenomenon of mixed teachers, thus solving the situation of poor mental health education.

4. Full participation, * * * to create a good psychological education environment

With the popularization of this work, mental health education has become an inherent requirement for the development of modern schools, and it will also become an essential professional ability for every teacher. This concept will penetrate into the modern education quality view and student view, and be reflected in the whole process of school education, and become an important connotation of students' potential development. Therefore, mental health education is not only a matter for professional practitioners, it is not aimed at any student, it points to all teachers and students. Teachers' awareness, knowledge and ability of mental health education should be improved through various ways (such as going out for further study, school-based training, expert lectures, distance education, etc.). ), so that professional psychological counseling and non-professional channels go hand in hand. On the one hand, through the optimization of classroom teaching, the infiltration of subject education, the influence of extracurricular activities and the role of hidden education in schools, a good mental health education environment can be constructed; On the other hand, we should make the school, society and family "three religions in one", fully mobilize students' subjective participation consciousness, create a good psychological development atmosphere, abandon the bad tendencies of moral education, curriculum and medical treatment, and expand mental health education in a benign direction.

5. Regional cooperation and the acquisition of mental health education resources.

Although mental health education should be based on the school, proceed from the actual situation of the school and carry out the work according to local conditions, this work is not just behind closed doors and self-imprisonment. In order to make the mental health education work that started late achieve immediate results and great benefits, we must also absorb the effective experience of other schools and develop our own mental health education work with advanced research results as the reference system. To this end, first, strengthen regional education cooperation, carry out cross-school contact, complement each other's advantages and share the superior resources of mental health education; Second, actively carry out curriculum research on mental health, relying on the advantages of relevant universities and research institutes, and extensively carry out school-based applied research on mental health to solve new situations and problems in the process of mental health education. At the same time, with the rapid development of science and technology, the extensive use of computers and their networks has provided modern technical means for the resource utilization, regional cooperation and research of mental health education, and further accelerated the popularization process of mental health education. It is reasonable to believe that with the extensive development of mental health education, all schools will benefit greatly from regional cooperation and make their mental health education develop rapidly.

[1] Lin Jianhua: Principles and Course of Psychological Education for Middle School Students, Nanjing University Press, 1999.

[2] Li Jianping, Jin Zhiming: "Understanding Function, Defining Purpose", China Education News, 199 1.20.

[3] Document of the Ministry of Education: Several Opinions on Strengthening Mental Health Education in Primary and Secondary Schools, Ji Jiao [1999] 13.

[4] CoCo Lee: "intelligence test" into "mentally retarded" students sued the District Education Commission, "Only Child", 2000, No.7. ^