Mid-to-late August is the harvest season for the college entrance examination this year. The joy of receiving admission notices for students and parents is commonplace in the media. Some of the students and their families who received admission notices from Tsinghua University and Peking University have attracted much attention. Their stories often cause netizens to swipe their screens. The reason is not only the factor of the popularity of prestigious schools, but also that some of them, the inspirational story of fighting bravely and striving for self-improvement in adversity is indeed wonderful and touching. Just as the story of a freshman who was about to enter a prestigious university this year received widespread attention, the “alternative” story of a young man from Qinghai who was admitted to Peking University 12 years ago became the focus of the Internet.

  This young man in Qinghai was named Zhou Hao. In 2008, he scored more than 660 points in the college entrance examination and ranked 5th in science in Qinghai Province. Although he has loved and cultivated super hands-on skills since he was a child, he loves to study splitting machinery and home appliances, but he still obeyed the advice of his parents and teachers to "not waste high scores" and applied for the Peking University School of Life Sciences and was admitted. But I did not choose my favorite Beihang University. What he didn't expect was that after enrolling, he found that his major focused on theory and analysis, and he was "incompatible" with his interest and expertise in hands-on manipulation, and fell into confusion and pain. In the case where the problems could not be solved effectively by auditing other courses, transferring majors, transferring colleges, and suspending studies, Zhou Hao resolutely dropped out of Peking University in the winter of 2011 after collecting, analyzing, and judging information through multiple channels and transferred to Beijing as he wished. Study in a vocational college named Beijing Industrial Technician College.

  As soon as Zhou Hao arrived at the new college, he was arranged to enter the technician class to learn CNC machine tool technology. Under the guidance of a famous teacher, he began to operate the most advanced imported CNC machines, his interest and research enthusiasm was greatly stimulated, and he soon became a leader in the college. In 2014, he won the championship in the 6th National CNC Skills Competition. After graduating and teaching as a technician, in 2018, he represented the college to participate in the first national technical college teacher professional ability competition and won the first prize. When talking about the choice of dropping out from Peking University to the Technician College, Zhou Hao said that he "doesn't regret it" because his hobby is the best teacher, and the one that suits him is the best. Today, technician Zhou Hao is working hard on the journey of his dream, and together with his companions, push China's CNC machine tool technology to the forefront of the world.

From individual debugging to system reform

  Zhou Hao is a typical case of Chinese contemporary youth struggling and growing. What is special is undoubtedly that as a winner of the college entrance examination, he abandoned the Peking University he had already enrolled, and voluntarily transferred to a vocational college and achieved outstanding results. From the perspective of pedagogy and educational practice, it is of special significance to analyze the course of Zhou Hao's study and growth.

  The college entrance examination as a selective education evaluation system has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the distribution of higher education resources based on the college entrance examination results has become an important consensus of social justice.

  However, Zhou Hao’s case tells us that in the process of growth and success, educational evaluation beyond scores is also an important factor and criterion. Wen Dongmao, a professor at Peking University School of Education and a member of the expert working group of the National Education Examination Steering Committee, pointed out based on years of observation and research that candidates must fill in their volunteers after the college entrance examination, but many people do not regard it as an important self-assessment and academic choice , "Do not waste test scores" has become the basic principle of most people's voluntary submission; Affected by this, the education management department cannot implement the "volunteer first" admission method, and unified "parallel volunteers, scores first" as the basic admission rules. As everyone knows, the inner "volunteer" based on interest and expertise is the most precious to school enrollment and student growth, and needs to be cultivated and cared for. This is the case for Zhou Hao. When he applied for the college entrance examination, he was affected by his parents and teachers’ “score-only” mentality. He could not follow his own inner aspirations. Instead, he “divided and used his best” to sign up for the school and was accepted, which led to The subsequent serious mismatch and maladaptation.

  Fortunately, after some ideological training, Zhou Hao and his family walked out of the inherent thinking of the previous "high scores" and "prestigious schools", "remedied" in time, entered the Technician College and learned something. His phrase "no regrets" means self-confidence and calmness after surpassing "score only" and "aura of prestigious schools".

  As an individual student, it is not easy to update and transcend the concept, but it is undoubtedly an arduous task to form a scientific education evaluation concept and mechanism in the whole society, and the reform and development of a systematic education system must be promoted. At present, my country is ushering in an important opportunity for reform and development in this field. The Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform recently reviewed and approved the "Overall Plan for Deepening Educational Evaluation Reform in the New Era" (hereinafter referred to as the "Overall Plan"), which pointed out the direction and planned the path for the reform of education evaluation in the new era.

Prescribe the right medicine with the "four evaluations"

  Educational evaluation is one of the basic concepts of pedagogy. It generally refers to the implementation of various educational activities, educational processes, and educational results through the use of certain technologies and methods under the guidance of certain educational values ​​and based on established educational goals. The process of scientific judgment. It can be seen that education evaluation can draw empirical findings and diagnostic opinions, which can provide data support, scientific reference and effective supervision for the improvement of education quality, the formulation of policies by educational administrative departments, and the improvement of work. Education evaluation can test education work and teaching results, thereby providing a basis for improving the quality of education, perfecting the education management system, standardizing the teaching order, and strengthening the professional training of educators. Educational evaluation can diagnose the current situation, contradictions and problems of students in terms of academic performance, overall quality, development potential, etc., analyze the reasons, and "prescribe the right medicine".

  In view of the nature of education evaluation and its special importance in the entire education system and the problems facing the further development of education, deepening the reform of the education evaluation system has become an important task. Gu Mingyuan, a member of the National Education Advisory Committee and a professor at Beijing Normal University, pointed out that the 14th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform clearly pointed out the significance, main tasks and path of promoting the reform: education evaluation is related to the direction of education development, and the party must be fully implemented. Education policy, adhere to the socialist direction of running a school, implement the fundamental task of Lide, follow the law of education, improve the evaluation of results, strengthen the evaluation of the process, explore the value-added evaluation, and improve the comprehensive evaluation for different subjects, different stages and different types of education characteristics , Strive to get rid of the chronic problems of only scores, only advancement, only diplomas, only papers, and only hats, and establish a scientific education evaluation system that meets the requirements of the times.

  Regarding the formulation and core content of the "Overall Plan", Gu Mingyuan believes that it conforms to the trends and characteristics of current Chinese education and the overall development stage. At present, China's education has reached a new stage. Compulsory education is fully popularized, high school education is about to be popularized, and higher education is moving towards popularization. Promoting education evaluation reform is an inevitable requirement for further promoting education equity, improving education quality, realizing education modernization, and cultivating high-quality talents for the second "100-year goal". The "Overall Plan" proposes to improve the evaluation of results, strengthen process evaluation, explore value-added evaluation, improve comprehensive evaluation, reverse the wrong orientation of only entering higher education and only using scores, and take leadership as a fundamental task to allow students to develop vividly, lively and actively. It is of great practical significance to improve the overall quality of all citizens and cultivate a new generation of new people with awareness of the times, innovative thinking, and dedication. In view of the characteristics of learning stages and school types, the "Overall Plan" proposes that it is very scientific to follow the laws of education and carry out educational evaluations for different subjects, different stages of education, and different types of education characteristics.

  Gu Mingyuan spoke highly of the concept of "value-added evaluation" proposed in the "Overall Plan", believing that this kind of evaluation respects the differences of students' talents and environments, values ​​the longitudinal comparison of students' development levels, and regards progress as value-added, focusing on positive incentives. Gu Mingyuan emphasized that the "value-added evaluation" proposed in the "Overall Plan" is also applicable to schools and teachers, and the progress of schools and teachers should be seen from the development.

  For the multiple functions of education evaluation, such as diagnosis, evaluation, selection, etc., Gu Mingyuan believes that the main function should be diagnostic, that is, to check the results and problems in education and teaching, and to improve the quality of education. Therefore, it is necessary to combine the result evaluation represented by the high school entrance examination and the college entrance examination with the comprehensive evaluation. In his view, result evaluation, process evaluation, value-added evaluation and comprehensive evaluation constitute the education evaluation system, and the relationship between them must be viewed dialectically.

Practice and exploration yielded initial results

  In recent years, relevant parties have actively promoted education evaluation reform at the practical level, done a lot of work, and achieved initial results. Among them, the comprehensive reform of the college entrance examination is eye-catching.

  Ordinary colleges and universities have gradually implemented a comprehensive evaluation and multiple admission mechanism based on the unified college entrance examination and high school level examination results; promoted vocational college entrance examination and registration. Some students applying for higher vocational colleges may not take the college entrance examination, and the school will rely on their high school level Admission of test scores and professional orientation test scores.

  The "Strong Base Plan" launched this year, which combines the candidates' scores in the college entrance examination, the results of the comprehensive assessment of colleges and universities, and the comprehensive quality evaluation of the candidates in proportion, is a welcome step along the direction of innovation in the educational evaluation mechanism.

  In addition, in the elementary and junior high school entrance examinations, various localities explored various ways to achieve compulsory education exemption from entrance examinations; improve the junior high school level examination and comprehensive quality evaluation system, and encourage all localities to actively explore based on the junior high school level test scores and comprehensive quality evaluation. Enrollment methods; improve the method of reasonable allocation of high-quality high school enrollment quotas to junior high schools in the region; secondary vocational schools implement enrollment based on the results of junior high school level examinations.

  At the beginning of this year, the evaluation criteria for teachers ushered in a heavy policy. "Several Opinions on Regulating the Use of Indexes Related to SCI Papers in Colleges and Universities to Establish Correct Evaluation Guidance" is issued and implemented, which stipulates that SCI papers related indexes shall not be used as the direct basis for professional title (position) evaluation and as a precondition for personnel employment, and SCI papers shall be removed Related indicators are directly linked to resource allocation and performance rewards. The elimination of "thesis only" is of great significance for promoting teachers' peace of mind in teaching and curbing the chaos of thesis.

  It is worth mentioning that some places have tried in value-added evaluation. For example, Baotou City, Inner Mongolia, launched the general high school value-added evaluation project in the fall of 2017. During the evaluation, it was found that although the college entrance examination scores of a high school were lower than the city's average, the students' learning adaptability, teacher-student relationship, peer relationship, and moral behavior were superior to the city.

  Gu Mingyuan recounted the value-added evaluation cases he had seen during his inspection in Zhongshan, Guangdong. There is a weak school in the local area, and many of its students are not accepted by other schools. The school has implemented a positive incentive method, setting up "study awards" and "learning Leifeng awards", which are reviewed once a month. Those who make progress in their studies will receive the "study awards" and those who do good deeds will receive the "learning Leifeng awards." Those so-called "poor students" regained their self-recognition while rejoicing after winning the awards, and made continuous progress and changed their appearances.

  Knowing is easy and doing is difficult, the "five wei" chronic diseases have their deep roots, and there is a long way to go to cure the chronic diseases. Kong Fanzhe, a professor at the School of Education of South-Central University for Nationalities, pointed out that for a long time, it is very important for students to use only result evaluation because of the lack of accurate, objective, fair, true, and developmental information to evaluate students' academic achievements. Therefore, Kong Fanzhe advocated that full use of modern information technology means, with "Internet +" and "Intelligent +", establish a school, county, city, and provincial level of student academic evaluation database to lay the foundation for building a scientific academic evaluation system.

  Yang Zhiming, director of the Evaluation Research Center of Hunan Normal University, suggested that in order to better promote the "four evaluations", it is necessary to vigorously introduce third-party professional education evaluation institutions to avoid the emergence of evaluation methods that government management departments are both "athletes" and "referees" . In addition, he also suggested the establishment of a National Steering Committee for Education Evaluation to specifically develop industry standards and the promotion of education evaluation theories and methods.

  Our reporter Zhang Baoshu