Exemption from Examination for Recognition of Teacher Qualifications: Teachers do not need to return to the "starting line"
A few days ago, the executive meeting of the State Council decided to promote the reform of exempting teacher qualifications for normal graduates, and colleges and universities will assess their teaching ability. Educational graduates with a master's degree or above, and publicly-funded normal students are allowed to be exempted from examinations and recognized as teachers. Carry out the quality audit of teacher education colleges and universities. Teacher graduates who have passed the audit can be exempted from examinations to identify teacher qualifications, which facilitates the employment of normal graduates and improves the quality of the teaching team.
In order to promote the employment of more normal graduates, on the basis of the phased measures that have been introduced to "get on the job first, then verify the certification", what impact will the teacher qualifications of a certain range of normal students be exempted from examinations on the admission of teachers? When the right of identification is handed over to colleges and universities, how should colleges assess students' teaching ability and how to avoid colleges and universities from "release water"?
Institutional Recognition: Why do normal students and non-teacher students "treat differently"
Obtaining a teacher qualification certificate is the most basic threshold for teaching.
Since 2000, the teacher qualification system has been fully implemented. In 2011, the pilot of the unified national examination system for teacher qualifications was launched. All applicants for teacher qualifications, including normal students, are required to take the teacher qualification examination.
Statistics show that the number of teachers taking the teacher qualification examination in 2019 reached 9 million, which is close to the number of applicants for the college entrance examination. The teacher qualification examination has become one of the hottest qualification examinations.
"The unified national teacher qualification certification solves the problem of uneven certification quality in various places and facilitates the flow of teachers across the country. However, there are also too many provisions and excessive management." Luo Zubing, a professor at Central China Normal University, said frankly, affected by the epidemic, this year The teacher qualification examination is delayed, and recent graduates cannot apply for teacher positions as originally planned.
Among the group of candidates taking the teacher qualification examination, there is a large part of normal graduates. Even though they have received many years of professional teacher education and successfully obtained graduation certificates, they still have to take the teacher qualification examination if they want to be qualified to teach.
"No matter how good teacher education is, graduates must also take the qualification examination. If things go on like this, it will affect the enthusiasm of teacher education colleges and outstanding students to choose teacher majors." Luo Zubing said.
Wang Yunlai, dean of the Education Research Institute of Nanjing University, said frankly that the difficulty of the teacher qualification examination is no higher than the graduation requirements of compulsory courses such as pedagogy and psychology in professional normal colleges. It is not necessary for normal graduates to return to the "starting line" and take the teacher qualification examination.
"Teacher education institutions have a professional team of teachers, a complete curriculum system, and a strict evaluation process. Exemption from examinations is an institutionalized recognition of the professional competence training received by students such as masters of education." said Qin Yuyou, a professor at Northeast Normal University.
Multiple comprehensive certification: Will it reduce the quality of teacher certification
When recruiting teachers everywhere, you can always see teachers and non-teacher students competing on the same stage. This reform does not mean that the teacher qualification examination will withdraw from the stage of history. Non-teacher students who want to teach, still have to take this exam.
According to Luo Zubing, in recent years, teachers’ qualifications have undergone the transition from "locally independent certification" to "national unified certification", and now they have entered the stage of "multiple comprehensive certification", that is, the coexistence of independent certification of various institutions and national unified certification. "This is beneficial to Increase the professionalism and flexibility of teacher certification."
In fact, the layout of multiple comprehensive certification has already been launched.
In 2017, the Ministry of Education issued the "Implementation Measures for the Professional Certification of Normal Colleges and Universities (Interim)", which decided to carry out the certification of normal colleges and universities, and proposed that normal graduates who passed the second-level certification can organize primary and secondary schools on their own Teacher qualification examination interview job. Teachers graduates who have passed the third-level certification can organize written examinations and interviews for the qualification examinations for primary and secondary school teachers by universities.
"Not all graduates of teacher education colleges can be exempted from the examination and certification of teacher qualifications. Only those institutions whose school quality has passed the audit can be certified. This undoubtedly requires teacher education colleges to pay attention to the quality of school education and give full play to the teacher qualifications of normal colleges. The role of academic leadership in certification.” Luo Zubing believes.
For teacher education institutions, this move expands autonomy on the one hand, and on the other hand will force the quality of talent training to improve.
"The implementation of test-free certification is essentially to treat teacher education institutions of normal universities and comprehensive universities as both training institutions and certification institutions, and promote the integration of training and certification. This will promote teacher education reform from the source and improve teacher qualifications. Certified quality." Qin Yuyou said.
Assessment of education and teaching ability: how to ensure that colleges and universities do not "release water"
For some normal students, the qualification of teachers will no longer be a single-plank bridge for the unified national examination. As the main body of certification, how should colleges and universities assess students' educational and teaching abilities, and how can they ensure that they do not "release water"?
"Teaching ability can be assessed as a course, and even such courses are arranged every semester, and ability tests such as trial lectures are organized before graduation." Wang Yunlai believes that "self-assessment will leave enough time for colleges and universities to conduct process evaluation."
The training quality and quality level of publicly-funded teacher students and education graduate students in different colleges and universities will be different. How to ensure the quality bottom line and quality bottom line needs to be planned in advance.
Qin Yuyou said: "When necessary, standards can be set for all training institutions, and professions that have passed different levels of certification have different rights for teacher qualification certification; different levels of training institutions can be proportioned, and different teacher education institutions can set different teacher qualifications. Proportion of passing certification."
In addition to assessing the teaching ability of examinees, Qin Yuyou suggested that the investigation of teacher ethics and psychological quality should be strengthened, and students’ daily behaviors should be evaluated objectively and a scientific and responsible evaluation of mental health should be made. "Teacher qualification certification institutions should assume the responsibility of reputation and establish a back-check mechanism. If a teacher has problems, the teacher education institution should take responsibility."
"After the implementation of multiple comprehensive certification, colleges and universities will have the powers and responsibilities for certification, and they must also bear corresponding responsibilities. The qualifications of certification agencies should also be dynamically adjusted and re-reviewed every few years. If a teacher education institution is in certification In the event of violations and fraud, the credit rating should be lowered.” Luo Zubing suggested that the teacher qualification certification should be treated as a national examination, and certification procedures should be established, full-time personnel should be assigned, cross-certification, and a strong Supervision and management mechanism.
(Reporter Chen Peng)