Trained thousands of students in 10 years, and obtained more than 800 research results.
University and middle school joined hands to fly innovative eagles
Allowing middle school students to participate in specific scientific research projects in universities can first change the dependence psychology of high school students' "use doctrine", and at the same time enhance high school students' information retrieval ability and awareness of academic norms, and enhance their comprehensive ability and scientific literacy.
——Zhang Yuxin, Professor, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University
◎Our reporter Yong Li
How to make children grow up to become scientists is a concern for many parents.
From Nobel Prize winners to academicians, professors and other scientific experts, they will mention one sentence in unison: Keep children's curiosity!
Children and teenagers are natural scientists.
The guidance and cultivation of interest in science should start from the baby.
In Chongqing, a "Young Eagle Plan" for the cultivation of innovative talents in ordinary high schools has been implemented for 10 years.
At present, on the basis of a 10-year pilot project, Chongqing has exploratively rolled out the innovative talent training plan throughout the city, and established and improved a primary and secondary school innovative talent training system covering elementary, middle and high schools.
So, what are the difficulties of innovative education?
How should the cultivation of innovative talents start from the doll?
In this regard, a reporter from Science and Technology Daily conducted an interview.
Cultivating innovative reserve talents faces problems in concepts, faculty, and selection
"The higher education stage is the golden period for forging innovative talents, and the basic education stage is the key period for discovering and enlightening innovative talents." Fan Qingze, secretary of the party committee and deputy dean of the Chongqing Academy of Educational Sciences, said that since the 1980s Since the 1980s, my country has begun to explore the cultivation of innovative talents.
From 2018 to 2020, the Chongqing Academy of Educational Sciences conducted surveys in the four regions of North China, East China, Southwest, and Northwest China, and found that in the training of innovative talents, there are generally deviations in target concepts, inadequate resource construction, and inadequate selection and evaluation. Science and other aspects.
“In terms of the goal concept, the value orientation tends to be utilitarian and overemphasizes the purpose of further studies.” said Wang Hua, an associate professor at the Chongqing Academy of Educational Sciences. After investigation, the research team found that some schools use the cultivation of innovative talents as a bargaining chip for further education, and through additional Some parents even stated that if they are not good for further education, they would not agree to students' participation in related activities, ignoring the original intention of "learning is".
Imperfect curriculum system and weak professional teachers are also problems.
The science and technology teachers in most schools are part-time teachers of information technology, physics, chemistry, biology and other subjects. The schools lack scientificity, system, and continuity in cultivating teachers' innovative education ability.
Information asymmetry, opaque processes, and one-sided standards... In the selection and evaluation, there are also problems with unreasonable mechanisms. In the selection of talents, some schools one-sidedly emphasize students' academic performance, ignoring innovative thinking and innovative ability. Survey.
"Chongqing has also faced three problems in terms of the training of innovative talents: insufficient teachers, insufficient cultivation motivation, and insufficient training combined force." Yang Ying, project leader of Chongqing Youth Innovation College, said that Chongqing actually has the resources and talent advantages to develop innovative talents. According to the survey, Chongqing has 102 university key laboratories, 37 engineering technology research centers, 70 experimental teaching demonstration centers, hundreds of scientific research institutes, and thousands of high-tech enterprises. In the 1950s, high-quality middle schools that successively developed innovative education.
Chongqing has carried out a series of explorations in the cultivation of innovative talents for young people. The Chongqing Municipal Education Commission also approved the establishment of the Municipal Youth Innovation College, which is responsible for the exploration and research of the cultivation of innovative talents in the city.
Two-school learning and dual-teacher guidance "Young Eagle Plan" has achieved initial results after ten years of implementation
In the Materials Science Laboratory of Chongqing University, sophomore students Zhao Chenhao and Wu Yizhuang from Chongqing No. 1 Middle School are proficiently operating experimental equipment.
As students of the tenth phase of the "Young Eagle Project", they have been engaged in diatomite nanocomposite research with Professor Zhang Yuxin of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Chongqing University for more than a year.
"High school education is a critical period for the formation of students' personality and independent development. Therefore, the "Young Eagle Project" first started the pilot work in high schools." Yang Ying introduced, starting in 2011, Chongqing has established 22 high-quality high schools in 9 districts and counties in the city. Jointly launched the "Young Eagle Project" with 10 universities in Chongqing, allowing universities and middle schools to "hand in hand" and jointly cultivate young creative talents.
It is understood that the "Young Eagle Project" selects a group of first-year students with innovative potential and ability to learn in ordinary high schools. Each training cycle is two academic years. The students study in the "three places", namely, Chongqing University and Southwest China. Innovative talent training bases such as universities participate in general education training, and relevant research required for special subject research in high school
Supplementary course study, special subject research is carried out in the laboratory of a university (or scientific research institute, high-tech enterprise), and the course of innovative talent training is completed through the method of "two-school study and double-teacher guidance".
"I realized that scientific research is not as simple as I thought." Zhao Chenhao said that once he discovered that the experiment had precipitated and thought it was a new substance, but the seniors in the same group reminded him not to be so determined and to be bold in research. Be more careful to verify.
Sure enough, in the second experiment, it was discovered that substances that should not be added were accidentally added.
"Allowing middle school students to participate in specific scientific research projects in universities can first change the high school students' dependence on'usage doctrine', and at the same time enhance their information retrieval capabilities and awareness of academic norms, and improve their comprehensive ability and scientific literacy." Zhang Yuxin said. , University teachers lead middle school students, it seems a little overkill, but if the seeds of scientific research can be planted in the hearts of middle school students, it will lay the foundation for the cultivation of basic research talents in the future.
The participation of high school students also has the effect of teaching and learning.
During the period when Li Weiguo, a professor at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Chongqing University, served as a trainee for the "Young Eagle Project", a student put forward a new idea based on the hypothesis he put forward, breaking the convention. Li Weiguo carefully analyzed and adopted it, and the result was declared as a major national special project.
Statistics show that since 2011, Chongqing has cultivated a total of 3,029 students of the "Young Eagle Project" and achieved 868 research results. More than 380 students have entered the scope of independent enrollment of universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University. Students have been commended for participating in science and technology innovation activities. More than 620 awards.
Improve the evaluation system to solve the contradiction between useful and effective talent training
"Cultivating students' innovative ability requires the establishment of a multi-evaluation system for students' comprehensive quality." Luo Jian, head of the creative talent training studio at the High School Affiliated to Southwest University, said frankly that for innovative education, in addition to training methods, evaluation is another key point.
"Relying on the'Young Eagle Project', the school has established a training base for innovative talents and established a file of student evaluation information." Luo Jian said, through the students themselves, classmates, class teachers, class teachers, technology counselors and other diversified and comprehensive Evaluation, students can fully understand themselves and develop personalized.
"The establishment of the evaluation system will solve the contradiction between the'useful' and'effective' training of young innovative talents." Fan Qingze said that in the next step, they will establish an innovation ability evaluation system, conduct process evaluations of students, and create students Growth record files from elementary school to high school.
Avoid too one-sided evaluation, provide a reference for colleges and universities to independently select talents, and guide students and parents out of the misunderstanding of "only looking at test scores".
"Now we adopt process evaluation for the assessment of trainees." Yang Ying explained that each session of trainees has to go through five links: selection of base schools, joint selection of trainees, selection of trainee topics, joint training of trainees, and final evaluation and acceptance.
The students will not be required to have research results, but they will dynamically record the growth files of the students, carefully examine the whole process of the students' research, whether they follow the academic standards, abide by the academic ethics, and complete the research according to the standards, so as to find those who truly love scientific research and innovation "Seed" students.
"By 2022, we will establish and improve the innovative talent training system covering elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools." Fan Qingze said. Next, we will coordinate the creation of innovative education pilot schools, innovative education demonstration schools, and innovation education throughout the city. Educational base schools, innovation demonstration laboratories, innovation base laboratories, implement the "seed plan", "the young eagle plan" and "the talent plan" in the basic education stage, and organize a wide range of innovative education activities for all students to form a pyramid-shaped Echelon of young innovative talents.