How to return to the essence of education in the evaluation of college teachers
A few days ago, Shao Chunfu, a teacher at the School of Transportation of Beijing Jiaotong University, and his students conducted a traffic survey, and obtained the operating status of the transportation system through data collection and analysis.
Xinhua News Agency
A few days ago, Shao Chunfu, a teacher at the School of Transportation of Beijing Jiaotong University, and his students conducted a traffic survey, and obtained the operating status of the transportation system through data collection and analysis.
Xinhua News Agency
In the laboratory of the Grape Department of the School of Food and Wine of Ningxia University, the teacher (left) instructs graduate students to carry out experiments.
Xinhua News Agency
The teacher evaluation system is an important part of the construction of the teaching team. The "Proposal on Further Improving the Diversified Classification Evaluation System for College Teachers" by the Central Committee of the Democratic League and others have become one of the 76 key proposals approved by the CPPCC Chairman's Meeting after the National Two Sessions this year. In the consultation meeting for proposal handling held by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in-depth discussions were held on improving the evaluation system for college teachers. Why comment? What to comment on? How to comment? The evaluation system of college teachers has become a hot topic of concern to members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Zhang Xuwei (pseudonym), who completed his studies and engaged in research in the United Kingdom, was introduced by a domestic university. In order to allow him and his team to enter the state quickly, the school opened a "green channel" and provided a lot of funding for scientific research and equipment. Great support.
After joining the company for less than two years, Zhang Xuwei has initially set up a research team.
It's a profession, it's an ideal.
Many college teachers, like Zhang Xuwei, pursue academic pursuits at the peak of ideology and culture, and at the forefront of technological innovation.
However, the reality is not entirely smooth. These "dream builders" will also have the pressure of "promote or go", and will ridicule top journals and national subjects as the "two mountains" that lie in front of them. Some people "insomnia" in academia because of this.
The ideological and political quality, professional ability, education level, and innovation ability of college teachers have a profound impact on the quality of higher education development and the overall situation of the economic and social development of colleges and universities.
The evaluation criteria of college teachers are like a baton. Why, what and how to evaluate, affect the motivation of college teachers to innovate and create.
Long-term assessment, giving the "10 years of sharpening a sword" system arrangement
"A university student is also a person who studies advanced knowledge." To study "university questions", you have to sit on a cold bench, and you need to have the concentration and awareness of "a sword in ten years".
But for most young teachers, investing "ten years" in a research is a luxury.
At present, many domestic colleges and universities adopt the "pre-employment-long-term employment" system of "promotion or leave", that is, no longer provide staffing for newly recruited teachers, but provide young teachers with 3 to 6 years of inspection by signing pre-employment contracts. Expect.
After the expiration of the inspection period and passing the assessment, the teacher can obtain the permanent tenure teaching position.
The original intention of the system is to encourage young teachers in the pre-employment stage so that the academic potential of young teachers can be maximized at the optimal age.
However, some people think that this pressure with eager anticipation seems to be the "sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of young teachers, always reminding them that "the time is running out."
"Teacher performance appraisal cycle is too short, which promotes academic impetuosity, and it is difficult to produce major original innovations." This problem has aroused continuous attention.
At this year's National Two Sessions, the Central Committee of the China Democratic League brought a "Proposal on Further Improving the Multi-Classification Evaluation System for College Teachers."
Lin Chenghua, a member of the Expert Committee of the Central Qizhen Think Tank of the China Democratic League and the deputy dean of the Beijing Research Institute of Zhejiang University, mentioned that the reform of the evaluation system of college teachers should follow the discipline development law, "accelerate the establishment of a dynamic adjustment mechanism for long-term evaluation of teachers, and at the same time provide for high-level Different assessment methods and assessment cycles are implemented for talents, new teachers, and on-the-job teachers."
In the "National Governance" weekly survey of young teachers in colleges and universities, on the question "What are the main reasons you are engaged in the work of teachers in colleges and universities?" It is also the option with the highest proportion.
A good evaluation system needs to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of teachers.
"The establishment of the university teacher evaluation system is to guide teachers to better concentrate on educating people. When improving the university teacher evaluation system, we must pay attention to mobilizing their enthusiasm and stimulating their endogenous motivation." Member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Beijing Post and Telecommunications Said Meng Luoming, director of the academic committee of the university.
"For outstanding talents who are concentrating on basic research, especially those who are studying major original innovations and original achievements, we should give them a system of'ten years of sharpening a sword'. In our universities, there are a lot of dedicated teaching and research,'no need to use the whip We should reduce their performance appraisal pressure for self-improving talents.” Guan Peijun, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, believes that the current performance appraisal system should give more patience and support to major original innovations.
Retain the spirit of the university, multi-dimensional evaluation to avoid "measure to the end with a ruler"
In the "Survey Report on the Ideology and Concepts of Current Young Teachers in Colleges and Universities", 71.40% of the interviewed young college teachers believe that under the evaluation system dominated by quantitative indicators, "get out of work early, get out of work happily, and do more work." It is more important than accumulating “good work”. Therefore, there is a situation of “big projects are not wanted, and projects with strong operability are in demand”. Original scientific research is often included in the application of subject projects due to its long cycle and high uncertainty in results. "Cold".
“It’s better to look at scores than not to scores, to look at papers than not to essays, to look at hats as not to hats, and to judge heroes not by quantity but by quality.” Guan Peijun pointed out that the reform of the evaluation system for college teachers should be changed to be absolute and simple. The current situation of quick success and quick gains caused by quantitative indicators introduces developmental and process qualitative evaluation, which combines quantitative and qualitative, instrumental rationality and value rationality.
“At the beginning, awards for papers were given to improve scientific research capabilities, which is a kind of progress.” Zhang Jingze, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Party Secretary of the Central University for Nationalities, said, but this evaluation mechanism has become more and more "corporate" in recent years. Scientific research results and incentives have become "piece-rate wages."
"If the university's evaluation mechanism becomes corporate, how can the university spirit continue to exist?"
To overcome the rigid quantitative assessment, it is necessary to start from the spirit of the university and develop a diversified and classified assessment and assessment system.
In January 2021, the Ministry of Education and other six departments issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Reform of the Construction of the Teaching Staff in Colleges and Universities in the New Era", emphasizing that scientific research quantitative indicators such as the number of papers, the number of patents, the number of projects, the number of project funds, etc. should not be allocated to teachers’ performance and salary. Rewards are directly linked.
The release of opinions pointed out the direction for changing the evaluation logic of "quantification as king".
In the opinion of some members of the CPPCC, to promote the multiple classification and evaluation system of college teachers, it is necessary to follow the professional characteristics and development rules of college teachers, and avoid "measure to the end with one ruler."
"We should consider the different levels of teaching, research, and social service functions performed by university teachers, pay attention to the different types of science, engineering, agriculture, medicine, social sciences, and humanities and arts. According to these principles, we should comprehensively set the classification of teachers and appropriately include them in the evaluation system. Consider different proportions." Qian Feng, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in the proposal.
"The prerequisite for the multi-evaluation of university teachers is the multi-evaluation of universities." Wang Yongtian, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a professor of the Optoelectronics College of Beijing Institute of Technology, believes that universities are encouraged to adhere to characteristic development and form more small and sophisticated majors. Only in this way can more professional top talents be promoted. nourish.
The evaluation system should return to the essence of "cultivating people" and "cultivating people"
In an interview at Peking University on "The Look of a University", around the question of what kind of people to train and how to train people, Deng Xiaonan, a professor in the Department of History, believes that it is necessary for students to have a kind of "personality nurturing, and a better attitude." Professor Wang Shiqiang of the School of Life Sciences emphasized that education is something we still keep in our minds after we forget what we have learned; Pei Jian, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, said that university is a "seeking truth". In this place, this "Tao" is not only knowledge, but also includes the principles of life and the attitude towards the world.
These answers all return "the way of being a teacher" to the responsibilities of a teacher of "preaching, teaching, and solving puzzles", and return to the essence of education of "cultivating morality and cultivating people" and "teaching and educating people."
"Learning from high to be a teacher, being a model".
Hu Gang, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the president of Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, put forward in the proposal, "Adhere to the one-vote veto system of teacher ethics and teacher style, and put the teacher's morality and style in front of various indicators of university teacher evaluation."
Qian Feng also agreed that it is necessary to adhere to the standards of both ability and political integrity to improve the evaluation system of university talents: "Strengthen the evaluation and assessment of teachers' scientific spirit, professional ethics, and professional ethics, advocate honesty and trustworthiness, strengthen social responsibility, and resist impetuousness and quick success. Strictly control fraud and academic misconduct."
After "preaching", it is "teaching" and "solving puzzles", and it is an assessment of teachers' teaching and scientific research professional qualities.
However, in order to benchmark the index needs of relevant ranking institutions, the number of published papers and the amount of scientific research funding are often given greater weight, and the teaching work with long-term characteristics often pays more attention to the evaluation of teaching hours in the evaluation process. The evaluation criteria are relatively vague, and there is a phenomenon of "emphasizing scientific research and neglecting teaching".
In this regard, Wang Rui, member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and vice president of Lanzhou University, believes that it is necessary to increase the proportion of teachers’ teaching performance in the job title (position) evaluation and annual assessment, and to improve the teaching standard, teaching operation, and classroom teaching effect. , Teaching reform and research, teaching awards and other teaching achievements, implement a comprehensive evaluation of teaching quality that combines multiple forms of teacher self-evaluation, student evaluation, peer evaluation, and supervisory evaluation.
The Central Committee of the Democratic League proposed in the proposal that different assessment requirements should be set according to the professional characteristics of teachers in different positions, and different weights should be given to teaching, scientific research, social services, cultural inheritance and innovation, and a multi-dimensional system to examine the actual contributions of teachers.
Among these indicators, Hu Gang believes that teachers’ achievements in classroom teaching, curriculum construction, textbook compilation, and student training should be the core indicators for university teacher evaluation; the second is scientific research, focusing on inspections of universities Innovative work carried out by teachers in the frontiers of world science and technology, the main economic battlefield, major national needs, and people’s lives and health; the last is to serve the society, focusing on college teachers in disseminating social culture, developing social civilization, and solving practical problems in social development, etc. Contributions made by the parties.
(Our reporter Yu Haiping, our correspondent Wu Jiaru)