Opinions on Strengthening Science Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era (Abstract)
Main objectives
Through 3 to 5 years of efforts, the measures to do a good job in the addition of science education in the "double reduction" of education have been fully implemented, the science education system of primary and secondary schools has been further improved, the resources of all parties in society have been organically integrated, practical activities have been rich and colorful, the scale of science education teachers has continued to expand, the quality and ability have been significantly enhanced, the collaborative education mechanism of universities, primary and secondary schools and home-school communities has been significantly improved, the quality of science education has been significantly improved, the scientific quality of primary and secondary school students has been significantly improved, and science education has been promoted in promoting the healthy growth of students. It will play a major role in comprehensively developing and promoting the construction of a modern socialist education power.
Improve school teaching and services
● Strengthen the guidance of domestic software application in science education textbooks. Incorporate teaching aids into the supervision system to ensure the ideological and scientific nature of teaching aids. Implement curriculum plans and curriculum standards, organize the development of appropriate curriculum resources and provide them to schools free of charge. Integrate school curriculum, after-school services and extracurricular practical activities.
●Explore the use of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other technical means to improve and strengthen experimental teaching, and pay attention to the use of advanced education technology to make up for the lack of high-quality education and teaching resources in weak areas, weak schools and special children's groups.
●All localities should carry out experimental and inquiry practical activities in accordance with curriculum standards, and implement the teaching requirement of no less than 10% in principle for interdisciplinary theme learning. Each school should have a school leader or hire experts and scholars as vice presidents for science, and in principle, set up at least one science and technology counselor, and pair at least one institution with certain science popularization functions (libraries, bases, parks, enterprises, etc.).
Make good use of the social classroom
●Encourage all relevant departments and units to establish expert teams of "science education social classrooms" to develop science education courses and programs suitable for primary and secondary school students.
●Encourage and support colleges and universities and scientific research institutes to establish incentive mechanisms, guide scientists (scientific and technological workers) to research and participate in primary and secondary school science education, arrange laboratories and other scientific and technological resources to be appropriately opened to primary and secondary school students, and coordinate the organization of scientific summer (winter) camps, etc., to provide a strong guarantee for scientific practical activities.
●Link science education resources in the national smart education public service platform, encourage all sectors of society to produce and launch "science open courses" and "family science education guidance courses", and continuously enrich platform resources. Establish a resource bank of scientists (scientific and technological workers), science courses, and science education sites, strengthen resource collection, docking, and scheduling mechanisms, and efficiently and orderly arrange local and school selection and use. According to the official website of the Ministry of Education
In recent years, science and technology and education systems have paid close attention to the issue of science education. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that education, science and technology, and talent are the basic and strategic support for the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country. It has become a consensus that science education at the basic education stage shoulders the important mission of cultivating young people's interest in science and establishing scientific aspirations.
How do teenagers stimulate curiosity, imagination and desire to explore? How to transform scientific and technological resources into educational resources? What role can the group of scientists play in the cultivation of young talents? ...... With these questions, the Beijing News reporter talked to Song Shaowei, executive director of the Learning Science Laboratory of the Department of Psychology of Tsinghua University, and Liu Bing, professor of the Department of History of Science of the School of Humanities of Tsinghua University, to talk about how to do a good job in science education addition in the "double reduction" of education.
What is science education
Cultivate students' core competencies in various disciplines
The addition of science education should first begin with the redefinition of science education.
"Every subject that children learn in school is science." For example, Song Shaowei said that mathematics, biology, geography belong to natural sciences, history and politics belong to social sciences, humanities, in fact, each course is a particularly important scientific dimension for observing the world. In addition to these disciplines, he pointed out that science education includes the cultivation of scientific spirit, scientific thinking, scientific method and scientific inquiry ability.
It can be said that the connotation of science education is very broad, the cultivation of scientific literacy, the understanding of the essence of science, the understanding of the spirit of science, scientific education technology and learning methods... Liu Bing concluded that all aspects of educational activities related to science are included. "More importantly, we are talking about what we care more about in science education."
Under the background of "double reduction", what is the importance of doing a good job in "science education addition"? Liu Bing pointed out that the "double reduction" is to reduce the excessive burden of students, but it does not mean that all content must be "reduced" equally. From the current national conditions, scientific and technological development and innovation talent training have outstanding importance. "Science education can lay a better foundation for the cultivation of top-notch talents and leaders in the future."
"This is the need of the national talent training strategy." Song Shaowei analyzed that where is the national competitiveness reflected? It is not only reflected in the large-scale production of manufacturing, but also in whether there can be innovative talents and leaders in a certain industry, "one person is worth thousands of troops". It is very necessary to do a good job in the cooperation between the double reduction of education and the addition of science education.
Some people may ask, not every child wants to be a scientist when he grows up, from the level of personal growth, what is the value of scientific literacy cultivation for students? Many experts pointed out that even if a child grows up and does not engage in research scientific work, truth-seeking and pragmatism, innovative exploration, and critical thinking are inseparable from everyone's life.
"From healthy eating, the use of technology products, personal privacy protection, job selection, to the judgment of public affairs, scientific thinking mode is very important. The impact of science and technology on social development and human survival has penetrated into all aspects of life, and ordinary people cannot avoid it. Science education is of great help both in personal life decisions and in personal career development. With considerable scientific literacy, we can live better, develop better and adapt to society better in the future social changes. Liu Bing analyzed.
More importantly, Song Shaowei believes that "double reduction" and "science education addition" are corrections to the phenomenon of excessive test-taking and utilitarianism in the current education ecology. "There are a lot of kids, you ask him why he studied math? He would answer, 'Because the test is going to be tested,' basically for the purpose of taking the test." For various reasons, we have gone astray and overly pursued grades, which deviates from the essence of education, and our main appeal is actually to cultivate students' core competencies in various subjects. ”
What are the current bottlenecks
There is an urgent need for adjustments in the training of science education teachers
"With the development of the times, the concept of science education has also changed." Liu Bing, who participated in the revision of the curriculum standards for compulsory education science curriculum (2022), pointed out that for a long time, people's perception of science education has been misunderstandings such as mainly imparting scientific knowledge and being more accustomed to testing learning results through examinations.
Under the new situation, this view can no longer meet the country's needs for the cultivation of scientific and technological innovation talents. Liu Bing analyzed that compared with the three-dimensional goals of "knowledge and skills, processes and methods, emotional attitudes and values" proposed by the old version of the course standard, the new course standard has undergone great changes, and the three-dimensional goal has become an emphasis on the core literacy of the subject. "In contrast, three-dimensional goals are actually independent or even separate, while core literacy integrates all aspects of teaching goals."
Taking science courses as an example, core literacy comprehensively integrates scientific concepts, inquiry and practice, scientific thinking, and social responsibility, in addition to knowledge learning, more emphasis is placed on cultivating students' ability and character, and emphasizing the use of acquired knowledge and thinking to solve practical problems.
What is "literacy"? Liu Bing explained by analogy: After people receive education, they may forget a lot of specific knowledge, but people will retain some character, which can be understood as ability and literacy.
After the change of course standards, some shortcomings in front-line actual teaching cannot be ignored.
Science courses learn to solve problems lightly; General activities remain at the level of interest, and the cultivation of scientific knowledge, methods, skills and scientific spirit is lacking... In Song Shaowei's view, the traditional classroom teaching mode needs to be changed into "teaching with scientific thinking". He suggested that teachers should break the rigid thinking of taking tests, do not "eat the old book", and do not oppose the examination and quality education.
"Teachers must be clear that every subject they teach is a particularly important dimension of observation in the world. Teachers themselves must change their thinking and consciousness, which is no longer a question of 'change or not', but must be changed, and then strive to adjust from specific educational technologies and methods. Song Shaowei said.
Another important problem is the overall shortage of science education teachers. Liu Bing pointed out that science education has received different degrees of attention in different regions, because it is not a "main subject", so there is no special teacher establishment. "Especially in some remote areas, there are no full-time science teachers, and even some physical education teachers are also responsible for science teaching tasks."
Secondly, even professional science teachers need to be improved in terms of the integrity and comprehensiveness of science education. Liu Bing explained that because in primary school, science education is a open subject, not divided into separate fields such as physics, chemistry, and biology. In the process of teacher training in normal colleges, many science teachers only graduated from sub-disciplines such as physics or chemistry, and lacked knowledge and mastery of knowledge and methods in other fields. "This makes it difficult for them to teach science courses to take children to study the material world and natural phenomena from a holistic perspective."
In Liu Bing's view, there is an urgent need to adjust the training of science education teachers. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the training of new teachers, and pay attention to cultivating their ability to grasp the integrity and comprehensiveness of science education from the aspects of professional direction, teaching objectives, and curriculum design; On the other hand, some effective measures should be taken to adjust, supplement and upgrade the existing teachers to broaden their vision and thinking on science education.
Due to the uneven development level of science education in various places, many parents also have the problem of insufficient understanding of science education. "This involves the scientific literacy of the public group, and also requires the support of the larger social background and social operation mechanism outside the education system." On the one hand, it is also important to do a good job in home-school communication, on the other hand, the dissemination of science education to the whole society is also very important, and it is necessary to raise everyone's attention to this matter. Liu Bing explained.
Do a good job of science education addition
Schools should become discoverers of new forms of scientific and technological activities
What exactly does science education addition add? Many experts said that the addition of science education is not necessarily how much to add to class hours and knowledge points, but the first thing that should be added is the degree of attention. "Science education is a complete set of education system from knowledge to ability to ideology, and the addition here is more of an increase in educational concepts." Song Shaowei said.
In his view, first of all, in terms of content and form, the first thing is to turn the course into a course with scientific thinking and content, which is a change to the original curriculum. From the educational concept, in addition to imparting knowledge, we should pay more attention to adding the cultivated students' scientific awareness, scientific thinking, scientific spirit and scientific methods into the curriculum.
For example, after the addition of science education, mathematics classes not only have the ability to do problems, but also cultivate their awareness and ability to use knowledge to study and explore real problems. In the same way, you can also increase scientific thinking in labor classes and scientific thinking in sports.
从业态上来说，宋少卫认为，传统教育模式下，学生主要是在校内学习，未来完全可以增加学生在科技馆、科学教育基地的学习。这些科学基地不一定是政府的，也可以是企业甚至个人的，通过更多的业态让孩子们来探索科学思维。
青少年在学校期间，接受的科学素养培养是最集中、力度最大的，学校教育非常重要；同时，仅仅靠课内是不够的，也需要课外资源来补充。社会上的科学教育资源及科普活动对于提高人们的科学素养同样重要。“我们提倡青少年走出课堂，去科技馆、博物馆、去参与社会实践，校内外科学教育结合。”刘兵表示。
在宋少卫看来，学校在资源上的应用和结合上其实是具有先天优势的，学校非常容易和科技馆、企业科学教育基地等建立起联系，学校应当成为科技活动新业态的发掘者。
同时他认为，家长其实是需要指导和培训的。另外，家长中也有很多资源有待发掘，包括一些大厂资源、研究机构等，可以尝试建立互通有无的机制，“如果能够把这些资源组织协调好，是非常有意义的。”
宋少卫强调，在应用层面的加法非常重要。要让学生从简单的被教育的状态，转化为学生主动去应用知识。科学教育的目的不是为了教会孩子知识，而是为了让他们具备科学探究和创造的能力。“所以，让孩子们去应用、去创新，去研究出相应的成果特别关键。尽管学生尤其是中小学生的科学创新能力还比较弱，但这种意识被激发以后，可以在中学进行一些尝试，到了大学或者研究生时期就能够真正受益。”
In addition, he pointed out that to do a good job in the double reduction of education, learning science is indispensable, "on the one hand, to ensure the reduction of burden, on the other hand, to improve quality and efficiency, which puts forward higher requirements for education." In Song Shaowei's view, learning science is the underlying logic of reducing burden and improving quality.
Authoritative release
The Ministry of Education and 18 other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Science Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era", and deployed to do a good job in adding science education in the "double reduction" of education
Explore the use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to make up for the lack of high-quality education and teaching resources
Beijing News (Reporter Feng Qi) On May 5, the Ministry of Education and 29 other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Science Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), deploying the addition of science education in the "double reduction" of education.
Improve school teaching and services Build and strengthen professional teachers
"The basic education stage is a decisive stage for 'incubating' students' scientific spirit and innovative quality, and the quality of science education in primary and secondary schools is crucial to cultivating students' scientific quality." The head of the Department of Supervision of Off-campus Education and Training of the Ministry of Education pointed out. In view of the problems such as insufficient attention to science education in some localities and primary and secondary schools, low teacher allocation rate and large gap in science education, and low degree of implementation of practical teaching, the Opinions propose to improve school teaching and services.
The "Opinions" requires that science courses be opened in accordance with the curriculum plan, curriculum standards and teaching materials should be revised and improved, and teaching aids should be included in the supervision system to ensure the ideological and scientific nature of teaching aids; Integrate school curriculum, after-school services and extracurricular practical activities.
Carry out experimental and inquiry practical activities, and implement the teaching requirement of no less than 10% in principle for interdisciplinary thematic learning. Strengthen experimental teaching, and widely organize primary and secondary school students to go to science education places to carry out scene-based and experiential science practice activities. Implement heuristic, inquiry-based teaching to improve homework design and cultivate students' deep thinking. Explore project-based, interdisciplinary learning to enhance students' problem-solving skills.
At the same time, we will provide equipment, equipment, books, software, etc. for weak areas and schools, and explore the use of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other technical means to improve and strengthen experimental teaching to make up for the lack of high-quality education and teaching resources.
The "Opinions" pointed out that each school should have a school leader or hire experts and scholars as vice presidents for science, and in principle, at least one science and technology counselor should be set up, and at least one institution with certain science popularization functions (libraries, bases, parks, enterprises, etc.) should be paired.
In terms of the construction of the teaching team, we will increase and strengthen a number of teacher training majors for primary and secondary school science course teachers, and strengthen experimental teaching capabilities. Explore the selection and training of a group of high-level and composite high school science teachers. Implement the establishment of science teacher positions in primary schools, strengthen the allocation of primary and secondary school experimenters and science teaching and research personnel in teaching and research departments at all levels, and gradually promote the realization of at least one science teacher with a master's degree in science and engineering in each primary school. Increase the proportion of teachers training in science courses in publicly-funded teacher training students and the "Excellent Teacher Program" program, and encourage high-level comprehensive universities to participate in teacher training.
In addition to strengthening the top-level design in terms of curriculum teaching materials, experimental teaching, teacher training, practical activities, and condition guarantees, the "Opinions" also proposes to fully integrate internal and external resources, promote the organic connection between the main position of the school and the social classroom, provide more high-quality science education for primary and secondary school students, comprehensively improve the scientific quality of students, and cultivate a group of young people with the potential of scientists and willing to dedicate themselves to scientific research.
Pilot the construction of science and technology high schools, and promote the reform of the content of the high school entrance examination
In terms of strict management of competition activities, the Opinions guide primary and secondary school students to rationally choose to participate in the "whitelist" competition, build a platform for the growth of primary and secondary school students, discover potential students, and guide them to actively participate in scientific research.
The "Opinions" pointed out that all localities and relevant colleges and universities should actively explore effective models for the selection and training of top-notch innovative talents, clarify the respective focuses of projects such as "middle school student talent plan", "strong base plan", "basic discipline top-notch student training plan" and "college science camp" in selection, cultivation and use, promote orderly implementation, and improve training efficiency. Pilot the construction of science and technology high schools, and strengthen the connection between university and high school education in talent training.
At the same time, we will promote the reform of the content of the high school entrance examination and improve the proposition of the academic level examination. All localities should improve the form of test questions, adhere to the intention of literacy, enhance the basic, applied, comprehensive and innovative nature of test questions, reduce mechanical brushing questions, guide classroom teaching to improve quality and efficiency, and cultivate students' scientific spirit. Strengthen experimental examination and improve students' hands-on operation and experimental ability. Establish a high-level proposition (review) team composed of discipline question (review) personnel, subject secretaries, educational measurement experts, proposition organization managers, etc., and optimize the team structure. Strengthen the career development planning education of middle school students, and guide students to clarify their interests and specialties and career goals.
In terms of family science education, the Opinions are clear and promote the collaborative education of families, schools and communities. All localities should highlight the value of popular science, gather the strength of science popularization experts, launch open courses on family science popularization, carry out various forms of family science popularization activities, create a "doorstep" science education position, promote science education into thousands of households, and enhance parents' awareness of science popularization and students' scientific quality.
In addition, the "Opinions" also proposed to encourage the establishment of elective courses in the history of science and technology at the undergraduate level; Strengthen the support of national science and technology plans for research in areas related to science education; Set up a number of pilot district schools and bases to play a leading role in demonstration; Regularly carry out national monitoring of the scientific quality of young people.
Make good use of social classrooms and standardize off-campus training in science and technology
The person in charge of the Department of Supervision of Off-campus Education and Training of the Ministry of Education pointed out that in recent years, China's off-campus education has developed rapidly, and the construction of various high-quality off-campus venues (institutes) such as science and technology museums, museums, youth palaces, and children's activity centers has been continuously strengthened. At the same time, universities, scientific research institutes, enterprises and institutions have also established various social practice bases for science education, which has greatly enriched the resources of off-campus science education. However, there are also problems such as scattered distribution of resources, uneven quality, and poor connection between supply and demand.
The "Opinions" emphasizes that it is necessary to make good use of the social classroom. Coordinate and mobilize colleges and universities, scientific research institutes, science and technology museums, youth palaces, children's activity centers, museums, cultural centers, libraries, planning exhibition halls, industrial and agricultural enterprises and other units, open to students their venues, bases, camps, parks, production lines and other positions, platforms, carriers and resources, and provide a material basis for the extensive implementation of scientific practice education.
Specifically, all relevant departments and units are encouraged to establish expert teams of "science education social classrooms" to develop science education courses and programs suitable for primary and secondary school students. All relevant departments and units are encouraged to establish expert teams of "science education social classrooms" to develop science education courses and programs suitable for primary and secondary school students.
At the same time, the "Opinions" requires all localities to actively mobilize all kinds of enterprises, especially those closely related to high-precision technology, to build science education sites for weak areas and schools in the form of enterprise donations, listings, and titles, provide equipment, equipment, books, software, etc., and train professional interpreters. Guide high-tech industrial and agricultural enterprises to carry out "self-confident and self-reliant technology product experience" activities.
Encourage colleges and universities and scientific research institutes to take the initiative to connect with primary and secondary schools, arrange laboratories and other scientific and technological resources to be appropriately opened to primary and secondary school students, and coordinate the organization of scientific summer (winter) camps to provide a strong guarantee for scientific practical activities. Promote joint teaching and research between universities and secondary schools, and advocate the joint construction of innovation laboratories, science popularization stations, and talent cultivation classes.
In addition, the "Opinions" emphasizes that standardizing off-campus training in science and technology will form a useful supplement to school education. All localities should reasonably plan the overall scale, set standards, and approval procedures for science and technology non-discipline off-campus training institutions, guide the legal operation and standardized development of institutions, and effectively meet the individual needs of students. All non-discipline off-campus training institutions of science and technology will be included in the national comprehensive platform for off-campus education and training supervision and services, and the whole process supervision will be implemented. According to actual needs, through government procurement of services, etc., compliant non-discipline training courses in science and technology can be appropriately introduced.
"Focus on integration and revitalize resources." The "Opinions" clearly states that on the basis of the existing science education resources and working mechanisms, integrate internal and external resources, accurately match the needs of students, rely on the national smart education public service platform, and provide the national primary and secondary schools and students with a menu selection method for independent choice, promote the integration of school and school, both "invite in" and "go out".
The person in charge of the Department of Supervision of Off-campus Education and Training of the Ministry of Education explained that science education resources are widely distributed in various departments, fields and industries, and problems such as duplicate construction of resources, structural shortcomings, and lack of accurate docking between supply and demand often occur, resulting in waste of resources or inability to use them effectively. To this end, on the basis of the existing science education resources and working mechanisms, we will do a good job in the construction of science education social classroom position clusters.
Make full use of digital technology to explore intelligent management, rely on the special construction of "science education" of the national smart education public service platform, build a discussion and exchange platform for science education in primary and secondary schools, and integrate various science education resources across the country in the way of "online" and "offline" integration. Through "menu-style" and "self-service" modes, the docking of science education resource providers and demand parties is realized, and high-quality resources are further promoted, high-quality services are provided, and utilization efficiency is improved.
Beijing News reporter Feng Qi