Focus on
the changes and changes in the reform of the new college entrance examination that were implemented
in 14 provinces in three batches in seven years
The 2021 college entrance examination season has come to an end, but discussions related to the college entrance examination are still continuing.
This year is the year when the "New College Entrance Examination" of the eight provinces and cities of Liaoning, Hebei, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Fujian and Guangdong has been implemented.
Since the release of the State Council’s Implementation Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Examination Enrollment System in 2014, as of now, 14 provinces across the country have initiated comprehensive reforms of the college entrance examination in three batches.
The college entrance examination is related to thousands of households, and the effectiveness of the college entrance examination reform is also related to the destiny of millions of students.
Recently, reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily interviewed a number of experts and scholars to interpret the results of the three batches of college entrance examination reform practices and the new situations and problems encountered, and analyze how the reform measures have been continuously improved in practice.
What has not changed is selectivity, but what has been reduced is the difficulty of implementation
Experts point out that any reform is gradually improved in the development process, and the college entrance examination reform is no exception.
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporters found through combing that, from a policy point of view, the most significant change in the three batches of reform plans is that the setting of examination subjects has changed from the original "3+3" model to the "3+1+2" model.
"The State Council's Implementation Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Examination Enrollment System" proposes to strengthen the correlation between the college entrance examination and high school study, and the total score of candidates is composed of the three subjects scores of the unified college entrance examination: Chinese, mathematics, and foreign languages and the scores of three subjects of the high school level examination. .
The subjects of the high school proficiency test included in the total score are selected by the candidates in ideological and political, history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology and other subjects according to the requirements of the university and their own specialties.
The first and second batches of reform pilot provinces adopted the "3+3" model, while the third batch was changed to the "3+1+2" model.
Among them, "3" is the national unified examination subject language, mathematics, foreign language, all students must take the test; "1" is the preferred subject, candidates must choose one of the physics and history subjects in the high school level examination; "2" is the second subject Choose subjects. Candidates can choose two subjects from four subjects: Chemistry, Biology, Ideology and Politics, and Geography.
"From the 20 subject combinations of '3+3' to the 12 subject combinations of '3+1+2', it should be said that the difficulty of organizing education and teaching in middle schools has been greatly reduced, and it is more conducive to the reform of the college entrance examination in the central and western regions and in the central and western regions. The basic conditions are relatively weak to implement in middle schools." said Dr. Wang Xinfeng, China Education Policy Research Institute, Beijing Normal University.
Moreover, the "3+1+2" selection test model is still under the "3+3" overall framework, maintaining the concept of college entrance examination reform to increase student selectivity.
By fine-tuning the reform measures according to local conditions, it has further reduced the difficulty for subsequent provinces to promote reforms.
"The second and third batch of reformed provinces have adjusted the number of examinations and examination time for selected subjects." Wang Xinfeng said.
One of the goals of the reform of the college entrance examination since 2014 is to solve the drawbacks of "one exam for life" in the traditional college entrance examination. Many examination opportunities have been explored in subjects such as selected subjects and foreign languages.
In the first round of pilot reforms, Zhejiang Province implemented more thoroughly. Both the selected subjects and the foreign language test were conducted twice a year, giving students multiple opportunities to take the test.
After the implementation of the first round of pilot reforms, some people in the society reported that while the college entrance examination reform has increased the selectivity of students, measures such as "two exams a year" have also increased the learning burden of students and the workload of teachers.
According to Wang Xinfeng, the Beijing Normal University College Entrance Examination Reform Research Team conducted follow-up evaluations in Zhejiang Province in 2019 and 2020 by means of large-scale questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews. The results show that the student population has a high degree of recognition for the two-year examination. The main reason is the chance of lowering the test scores in the two exams, and one more exam has one more chance.
The high school teacher group's recognition of the two exams is relatively low, because it "causes interference with the existing high school teaching order, and also increases the work and psychological burden of high school teachers."
"In order to ensure the safe and orderly conduct of the college entrance examination every year, the whole society must mobilize more than 20 departments to work together and manage them. The selective examinations in the academic proficiency test must also be included in the candidates' total scores of the college entrance examination. Its nature is equivalent to the college entrance examination. The arrangement also meets the security level of the college entrance examination, which will cause a waste of social resources and increase social costs." Liu Haifeng, director of the Examination Research Center of Xiamen University, once said in an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that multiple examinations are implemented a year. , It may increase the test preparation burden of some students, and at the same time disrupt the normal teaching order in middle schools.
Therefore, in the second and third batch of reformed provinces, there is only one examination for the selected subjects in the number of examinations, and the foreign language or foreign language listening and speaking examinations explore two examination opportunities.
At the same time, the examination time for selected subjects is relatively fixed during the unified college entrance examination.
"Such adjustments were made on the basis of full consideration of local middle school education and teaching practices and examination rules." Wang Xinfeng said.
Gradually improve the guiding mechanism for the selection of subjects
After the first round of reform of the college entrance examination was implemented, due to factors such as insufficient guidance for the selection of examinations and the utilitarian choice of some students and middle schools, some middle schools had "abandoned studying physics".
"The basic status of physics in natural sciences cannot be replaced by other disciplines." said Chen Zhiwen, a member of the expert group of the National Education Examination Steering Committee. More importantly, physics plays an extremely important role in constructing scientific thinking methods. Moreover, if you do not receive relevant training in basic subjects in your adolescence, you may miss the best learning opportunities, which will be a great regret for the life-long development of students.
"From our follow-up evaluation of the 2017, 2018, and 2019 students of Zhejiang colleges and universities, if the selected subjects in the middle school do not effectively meet the university professional training requirements, some students will have learning difficulties after entering the school." Wang Xinfeng's team conducted The investigation also confirmed the concerns of the experts.
The problems arising in the reform must be resolved through reform.
"The core purpose of '3+1+2' is to curb the utilitarian choice of candidates and parents to'maximize scores'." Chen Zhiwen said, we should not blindly criticize candidates and parents. If you look at the candidates from their personal perspective, It is also a "rational" choice to choose subjects that have achieved higher scores for combination.
"Even from a utilitarian point of view, I would like to call on candidates and parents to apply for more traditional science subjects represented by physics." Chen Zhiwen said that choosing traditional science subjects represented by physics has three major advantages: First, science and engineering majors are better. Employment.
Second, it is better to take college entrance examinations.
If you choose physics, more than 90% of the majors are not restricted. More importantly, more than 60% of the majors in universities are for science students, making it easier to go to university.
According to statistics, in 2017, the undergraduate rate of students who chose physics in Zhejiang Province was 23% higher than that of other selected subjects.
Third, it leaves room for children to adjust in the future. It is relatively easy to transfer text to text. "But to transfer text to text, unless you are a genius."
However, the researchers also found that the phenomenon of "abandoning physics" that appeared in the first batch of pilots did not appear in the second and third batches of reforms.
"From our just-concluded sample survey of the second batch of pilot provinces in Beijing, the proportion of physics candidates is about 67.9%, and Hainan physics candidates are more than 40%." Wang Xinfeng said.
Such results are related to differences between provinces and schools, as well as national and local policy guidance.
For example, since 2017, the Teaching Steering Committee of Higher Educational Institutions of the Ministry of Education has carefully guided the requirements of 92 professional subjects in colleges and universities, and most colleges and universities have further optimized the requirements of selected subjects.
"At the beginning of the reform, many colleges and universities did not have a deep understanding of the selected subjects, and many majors did not put forward clear requirements." A teaching steering committee expert said that colleges and universities should combine the actual training of professional talents, link up the curriculum system of colleges and universities, and put forward clear requirements. The subject requirements to promote the effective connection of talent training between higher education and basic education.
Judging from the requirements for elective subjects announced by colleges and universities, most of the science and engineering majors have put forward the requirements for "physics" subjects; there are also many specialties that also have special requirements, such as the public security category requires the elective "politics" , The medical category requires the selection of "chemistry" and "biology", and the history category requires the selection of "history" and "geography", etc., which give strong guidance to the teaching of middle schools.
“The more clearly the subjects in colleges and universities are mentioned, the easier it is for candidates to choose.” A middle school principal said, in fact, the choice is not as many as possible, nor is it better to choose subjects that are closely related to their future development.
More profound changes are still "on the road"
It should be said that this round of college entrance examination reform launched in 2014 is not only related to "how to take the exam" but also to "how to recruit". It is a systematic reform in my country's education system. The reform is difficult and involves many stakeholders. After three batches, there are still some difficulties in reforms.
Difficulties are also key points.
Some experts pointed out in an interview with the media that the most important part of this reform is the establishment of a "two basis, one reference" admissions model for college entrance examinations.
Among them, the "two basis" refers to the scores of the 3 national exams and the 3 selected subjects of language and mathematics, and the "one reference" refers to the comprehensive quality evaluation as a reference condition for enrollment and the right to use it to colleges and universities.
"For not only using scores, but using comprehensive quality evaluation as admissions conditions, we currently have no way to do it in one step, because our society has not yet formed a complete credit system, and it can only be a'one reference' at present." Chen Zhiwen said.
However, some provinces are also making some attempts to reform the college entrance examination.
For example, Zhejiang Province has tried the "three-in-one" comprehensive evaluation and enrollment.
On the official website of Zhejiang University, the reporter saw the enrollment guideline for the comprehensive evaluation of the school’s "Trinity" in Zhejiang this year, and clearly stated that the enrollment targets are: to meet the registration requirements for the 2021 Zhejiang Provincial General Higher Education Enrollment National Unified Examination, and to pass the high school level examinations in various subjects. (No unqualified subjects), the final evaluation of moral performance in the comprehensive quality evaluation during high school is "excellent (A)" or "good (B)", with outstanding subject expertise, clear professional intentions, physical and mental health, good character and learning, comprehensive Development of outstanding general high school fresh graduates.
Candidates who have submitted materials and passed the preliminary examination shall participate in the school's interview, and are finally admitted according to the "comprehensive scores" after the different proportions of "college entrance examination results", "interview results" and "high school level examination results" are added up.
"We conducted a follow-up survey on the students who enrolled in a comprehensive evaluation. The results found that although these students were not top students in the traditional sense of college entrance examination when they enrolled, their comprehensive qualities were very high, such as language expression ability, organization and management ability, and learning ability. The planning abilities are relatively high, and they have shown good development potential in their studies." Wang Xinfeng said.
According to authoritative data from the Ministry of Education, the gross enrollment rate of higher education in my country will reach 54.4% in 2020, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" proposes to increase the gross enrollment rate of higher education to 60% during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.
In other words, my country's higher education has entered the stage of popularization, which also means that people have a higher demand for higher education to provide high-quality and balanced talent training, which undoubtedly puts forward higher requirements for the college entrance examination and admission reform. .
Reform is always on the way.
Deeper changes in the college entrance examination are still being explored, and subsequent reform measures will be introduced one after another.
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Fan Weichen Source: China Youth Daily