What kind of off-campus study do we need
In recent years, venue learning, research trips, summer and winter camps, and off-campus training have flourished. Off-campus learning has indisputably become an important part of the complete study and life of contemporary Chinese primary and middle school students.
Off-campus learning has played a positive role in cultivating students’ interest, enriching extracurricular life, improving student performance, sharing parental education pressure, and even promoting national economic development and building a learning society.
However, its negative effects should not be underestimated-it not only endangers the foundation of lifelong learning, but also involves the national education system of the family, school and society, and even education equity.
Learning outside school has become a social problem
●Remedial learning outside school leads to avoidance learning
"Five days of school, two days of (extracurricular) classes", "during the day and evening (tutoring) classes" are the portraits of the living conditions of primary and middle school students in our country. Extracurricular classes have almost become the standard for primary and secondary school students, and nationwide tutoring is a sign of tutoring outside school化.
The harm is: First of all, "qualification only" downgrades the purpose of learning.
Off-campus tutoring clearly aims at improving examination ability and obtaining certificates, and directly refers to all kinds of "qualifications" to increase competitiveness. As for the learning purpose of promoting students' socialization and subjective development, they have been ignored. Learning has become a qualification. process.
Second, "exam-oriented" is limited to learning content.
The content of off-campus tutoring is closely related to the entrance examination. It focuses on skillful and test-oriented learning methods such as brushing questions, learning in advance, and recitation. Even piano learning is planned and selected according to the logic of the examination. "Non-exam repertoire, less practice Don't even practice".
Not to mention the implementation of the fundamental task of Lide Shuren.
Third, "paternalism" destroys the internal motivation of learning.
Although some parents will respect their children's personality and opinions, most of the decision-makers for off-school tutoring for primary and secondary school students are parents.
This not only directly leads to the externalization of students’ learning motivation, learning has become a behavior that pleases their parents; it also ideologically transforms competition at a deeper level. “Improving competitiveness” and “stronger than others” have become learning motives. Theory" therefore happened.
Finally, "Zhu Xuehua" excludes interpersonal interaction.
Off-campus tutoring takes place in various off-campus training institutions. Children are tied to their seats by invisible ropes. Social practices, public welfare activities, and societies that can promote children’s interaction with others and understand social culture are ignored.
Out-of-school learning has been alienated due to "remedialization" and has become abominable, causing primary and secondary school students to "escape from learning" before they are exposed to colorful and charming real learning.
●Schoolization of off-campus learning destroys the national education system
The survey shows that in terms of frequency of participation and time of participation, the first extracurricular learning activities of primary and secondary school students are “continue to do their homework and complete learning tasks”, while urban students participate in academic courses of training institutions as high as 81.26%, and Focus on improving academic performance.
The value of the various physical and artistic skills learned by primary and middle school students is measured by whether they can be used as specialties to help them enter the school. As a result, some children who have passed the tenth level of piano can only play the exams.
The current off-campus study of primary and middle school students exists and develops to improve the competitiveness of children in the school system.
Out-of-school learning is supposed to be the field where family education and social education play a role. However, due to the mechanism of “schooling”, family education and social education have become vassals of school education. Family has become a “second classroom” and social education has been Replaced by "training institutions".
The national education system in which the home, school, and social education are coordinated has been structurally damaged, and the school education is dominant.
●The stratification of learning outside school widens the education gap
The leader of learning outside school is the family, which is affected by the family's financial ability, educational concept, and atmosphere.
Off-campus learning requires payment. The more high-end off-campus learning institutions and programs, the higher the cost. "Crazy Huangzhuang" has been prohibitive, but it is still "not worthy of dreams" in front of "Mother Shunyi".
As far as ordinary families are concerned, there is a significant difference in education expenditures between urban and rural families. The educational expenditures of urban families in elementary, junior and senior high schools are 1.95 times, 1.34 times, and 1.53 times that of rural families, respectively.
In addition, the US "Coleman Report" stated that the inequality imposed on students is brought about by their family, neighbors, and peer environment, and it also exists in China today.
The reality is that when some children use Douyin outside of school, others are writing questions in institutions outside school, and some children use museums, science and technology museums and even become assistants in laboratories in the planning and organization of their parents.
It is imperative to reform study outside school
●Incorporate out-of-school learning into the scope of government public services
Although out-of-school learning is "private" in terms of investment and decision-making, the problems it raises are "public."
Moreover, although many chaos in off-campus learning are driven by parents’ utilitarian attitudes and by training institutions for profit-seeking, the ambiguity of government governance powers and responsibilities is also an important factor that cannot be avoided.
With reference to the experience of the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries in governing off-campus education, the Chinese government should assume the public responsibility of guiding and supporting off-campus learning, and incorporate it into government public services so that it is no longer an “outside the law”.
In terms of capital supply, it is recommended that the government unite social forces, enterprises, individuals, and families to jointly undertake.
In terms of curriculum supply, the government should, under the guidance of learning theory, understand the current types of off-campus learning methods and their suppliers, stipulate the purpose of off-campus learning, design the framework of off-campus learning content, and formulate national quality standards for off-campus learning.
In terms of policy design, based on the national conditions and with reference to foreign countries, construct China's off-campus education policies, regulations and practice management system, set up management departments and specify responsibilities, and integrate off-campus institutional governance, after-school services, and social venue education services into the off-campus education system. , To make the management and governance division famous.
●Narrow the gap between tutoring outside school and learning outside school
At present, there are many investigations and studies on extracurricular tutoring, such as "the influence of extracurricular tutoring on academic performance", "class and shadow education income", and "study on education tutoring for urban students".
Although there are individual surveys on extracurricular learning, there are often problems such as small samples and lack of theoretical foundation.
Therefore, it is recommended that the Ministry of Education or local education departments organize or entrust themselves to conduct a survey of the current situation of learning outside the school.
Taking off-campus learning as the theme, conduct general surveys covering off-campus learning providers, learning objectives, learning content, learning methods, learning time, family input, etc.
At the same time, special investigations on off-campus learning should be carried out, such as the concept of off-campus learning, the mode of off-campus learning in venues, and the off-campus learning management department.
Among them, the out-of-school learning situation of the two special populations should be paid special attention. One is the out-of-school learning concept and practice of middle-income children, which represents the trend; the second is the out-of-school learning concept and practice of left-behind children, which represents the bottom line.
Optimizing the bottom line and looking forward to the trend are the basic ideas for the overall planning of out-of-school learning in my country.
●Change the status quo where outside school learning is narrowed to outside school tutoring
When we observe the objective reality of out-of-school learning with theories of human growth and development, learning theories, the expected relationship between school education and extra-school education, educational sociology, educational economics, etc., although different results will be obtained, However, there is a consensus among these results, that is, "out-of-school learning" urgently needs to rise from "objective reality" to "pedagogical concept", and then become an "educational proposition" loaded with rich theories.
Among many theories, the relationship between school education and off-campus education is the premise, which determines the scope of off-school learning; the fairness of off-school learning revealed by educational sociology and educational economics provides the basis for policy formulation; human growth and development Laws and learning theory are the foundation. They can not only reveal the current problems of learning outside of school, but also provide reform ideas.
Studies have shown that the best way to activate a child's brain is exercise, reading and games.
In another example, "Reflective Education" redefines learning as "no longer just a cognitive process, but a process in which the entire mind and the entire spiritual world participate in the learning behavior." In this way, it is currently narrowed to extra-school tutoring. The problems of off-campus learning can be seen at a glance, and the government has a basis and direction for the planning of the off-campus learning system.
With the emphasis on people’s personality and strengths in the new economic business, it is no longer because of "I am better than you" to obtain or even create a job because of "I am unique." Off-campus learning will focus on stimulating students' personality potential, Cultivate comprehensive qualities.
At that time, school-based off-campus learning will be quiet due to the improvement of school education efficiency and the governance of off-campus training institutions, but the real off-campus learning that can not be enhanced by schools will flourish.
(Author: Niu Nan Sen, an assistant researcher at Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, Institute of Basic Education)