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Under the "double reduction", teachers usher in an "inflection point" in their careers
This past Spring Festival, Xia Jing, a math teacher at No. 3 Primary School of Huaihe Road, Hefei City, Anhui Province, also rarely caught up with the hit drama "The World".
This film and television work, which traces the 50-year life history of Chinese people, made her emotional resonance with tears in her eyes when she was over fifty.
After graduating from a normal school that year, Xia Jing obeyed the assignment and stayed in the most remote village in Hefei for 9 years, dedicating her best youth to rural students. Later, she was transferred to a famous school in the urban area. During the leap-forward development of basic education, Gradually grow into a senior teaching teacher.
Along the way, Xia Jing reflects the tenacity and dedication of teachers as a professional group.
"Human World" is also regarded as a history of reform, in which one can truly feel the baptism and pain brought by reform to individuals.
Not only for old teachers like Xia Jing who are about to retire, but also for newly recruited teachers born in the 1995s, the "double reduction" is undoubtedly a career "turning point" that teachers must face.
With fewer homework and exams, how should this book be taught to ensure that the burden is reduced and the efficiency is increased?
This is a question of the times that they will eventually face.
Leaving a lot of homework and exams, is it really impossible to teach?
The introduction of the "double reduction" policy forced the reform of education and teaching to speed up the process and go deeper. As the key practitioners of the reform, teachers can only break through the bottleneck of career development and make a smooth transition if they reform themselves.
As one teacher said in the interview: the focus of "double reduction" is not only on students, but also on teachers.
In September 2021, Tong Yu, born in 1995, successfully passed the "enrollment" examination in Hefei City and became a language teacher in a public school. Before that, she had two years of experience as a substitute teacher.
For her, "double reduction" is the starting point of a formal career, and it is also the "inflection point" in the formation of education concept.
"In the past, a lot of homework and exams were like an 'invisible' whip. That's what the teacher taught, and we learned this way, and we're all used to it." Tong Yu said frankly, "At the moment of entering the job and learning the double reduction policy, I really I was stunned, and suddenly realized that such practices as exam rankings and detentions can no longer be used.”
Tong Yu originally thought that two years of substitute teaching experience would allow her to embark on a career track with ease, but now she realizes that "it is really difficult to stand on the podium."
At the beginning of the implementation of the "double reduction", facing some bewildered colleagues, Li Xia, the principal of Huaihe Road No. 3 Primary School, asked back: "If we leave a lot of homework and exams, will we really not be able to teach?"
Many teachers began to take the initiative to examine the gap between their educational philosophy and educational laws, and the reading and sharing activities around educational theories suddenly heated up.
Even Xia Jing learned from young people and listened to the lectures of Wei Shusheng, a famous educator, on her mobile phone.
This round of collective "charging" is undoubtedly setting the direction for the next reform, and is also "squatting energy" for the next leap.
"The role of teachers has changed from 'transmitters' to 'leaders' and 'accompaniers'. If they still stay on the concept of 'organizing' students' learning, there is no way to go." Li Xia said that everyone gradually formed a consensus, The past teaching method is no longer feasible. "Double subtraction" means to reduce the repeated instillation of knowledge and boring exercises. In effective classroom teaching and homework, focus on students' interest in learning and the cultivation of core literacy and autonomous learning ability.
From Tong Yu's point of view, it is still a long way to think about professional titles and awards. The first task is to thoroughly understand the new language teaching materials and teach them well.
She tried her best to innovate teaching methods. She introduced video materials in the classroom to stimulate students' interest. In the morning, she led students to read together in the morning, randomly checking words and consolidating knowledge.
Teaching and research is no longer the "single fight" of a different teacher, and must fight collectively
"Subject training institutions have been greatly reduced, and the impact on students' test scores is objective. In addition, in the past, most of our teaching, research and lesson preparation focused on teaching materials and teaching methods, pointing to how to teach, and now lesson preparation must be turned to as soon as possible. Study the academic situation and the law, and focus on how students learn, especially the uncertainty brought about by changes in the academic situation." A local educator in Hefei analyzed to a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily.
In the view of Wang Xiaojun, the principal of Luyang Middle School in Hefei City, it is difficult to implement the "double reduction" without the improvement of teaching and research level.
Under the current situation, teaching and research is no longer the "single action" of individual teachers, and collective teaching and research must be carried out to achieve overall improvement.
To this end, the school has intensified its efforts to "group lesson preparation in large units". In addition to the weekly routine lesson preparation, each subject will open 3 lesson preparation demonstrations every month. Comments in the teaching and research group one by one.
In Wang Xiaojun's view, this "rigid" requirement makes teaching and research activities more standardized, and also allows many newly recruited young teachers to have a fast-growing learning path.
In addition, from the perspective of reducing the burden of teachers, as the result of collective lesson preparation, multimedia courseware can be shared among teachers of the same subject, and then improved in combination with the learning situation of their respective classes, thereby improving the efficiency of lesson preparation and reducing the burden on teachers.
This semester at Huaihe Road No. 3 Primary School, the "Story Chinese" curriculum reform led by Li Xia, a super teacher from Anhui Province, has been rolled out.
In fact, as early as 8 years ago, she and her team members realized that the rigid teaching method and the fixed content lead to students being uninterested in Chinese learning, narrow reading vision, and difficult to improve their overall Chinese literacy.
The simplification of disciplinary literacy makes it difficult to form an interdisciplinary comprehensive literacy suitable for future development.
To this end, the team continues to explore the use of story resources to reconstruct a new classroom style, break through the barriers of disciplines horizontally, strengthen the integration of storytelling and other disciplines, open up the school period vertically, and connect the six-year study life of primary school to achieve continuous and in-depth learning.
At the same time, we will change the traditional paper-based homework form, and achieve the educational goal of "Bacon casts the soul, enlightens the mind and nourishes the heart" in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and thinking.
Now, when studying the second grade text "Where is the Fog", teachers abandon the traditional teaching mode of speaking and reading. After creating a story situation in multimedia pictures, they focus on the three sentences of "Mist Children", and organize students to read individually and read together at the same table. , Teachers and students read to each other, and students wear headwear to perform reading, so that students can internalize the story language and literate in the situation, which has the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort.
This research result, which has been explored for 8 years, won the first prize of Hefei's first basic education achievement award last year.
When the "double reduction" was fully implemented, the young backbone teachers represented by Li Xia "tested the water" in advance, providing theoretical support for the curriculum reform.
In order to help young teachers get out of the adaptation period of education and teaching, Tong Yu's school is carrying out the "Blue-Blue Pairing" project. The masters are all urban-level backbone teachers, who are bundled with young teachers in teaching and research to accompany their growth.
In addition, a series of basic teaching skills training, such as daily reading and punching, weekly chalk punching, etc., prompted these young teachers to practice internal skills diligently and lay a solid foundation.
At the beginning of the year, the school also held a "Tucao Conference", where young teachers complained about problems in their work, and "experienced" teachers offered advice and paid attention to teachers' mental health.
"Young teachers are more malleable, and their innovative consciousness and the advantages of information technology will soon appear. To a certain extent, the 'double reduction' provides greater possibilities for teachers' professional development." On the day of the interview, Luyang The principal of the middle school, Wang Xiaojun, just concluded a symposium with the newly recruited teachers of Luyang Middle School, he told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily.
The innovative design of student work puts higher demands on teachers
For the teaching reform of basic education, the innovative design of students' homework is not only a breakthrough point, an entry point, but also a difficult point and a key point, which puts forward higher requirements for teachers' teaching and research level.
This seemingly ordinary job often requires the strength of the team to go through rounds of brainstorming and repeated polishing.
Li Xia was deeply touched by this.
Before the winter vacation last year, she asked teachers whether they could change the traditional mode of assigning vacation homework for each discipline, and assign a "integrated" homework to each discipline.
"It took more than a week, and when it was handed over to me, it was already the third draft of the plan. It looked varied, and maybe everyone still had a deviation in understanding." For this reason, she stayed up late and worked overtime to correct the final plan, It has been unanimously approved by everyone.
For 4th graders, this vacation homework that condenses collective wisdom is a paper turntable in physical presentation.
Each student divides the turntable made by themselves into different areas, marks the daily learning content on it, rotates the pointer randomly every morning, and completes the learning task according to the instructed content.
Interestingly, if you point to "homework-free", you can still rest for the day.
"Students can mark the content of each subject in the fan-shaped area, design areas of different sizes according to their own conditions, and arrange student tasks." A teacher analyzed that this assignment not only exercises manual skills, but also interprets what the fifth grade will learn. Mathematical "possibility" concept.
"Some children deliberately enlarge the 'homework-free' sector, and it seems that they really understand the 'possibilities'," she said with a smile.
In Huaihe Road No. 3 Primary School, the collective teaching and research give full play to the respective advantages of old, middle-aged and young teachers, and the development of "interesting" assignments for all subjects, such as tangram puzzles, seed growth documentary, reading mind maps, etc. On, encourage students to use their hands and brains, and cultivate innovative consciousness.
Reform always makes the prepared stand out.
For Kuang Hao, a famous math teacher born in the 1970s at Luyang Middle School in Hefei City, the arrival of the "double reduction" did not add much anxiety to him about "being helpless".
As early as a year ago, Kuang Hao started a classroom experiment of "one question a day". Taking the study group as a unit, he selected a junior high school math question every day, discussed the problem-solving method together, the students explained it, and the teacher commented on it.
"It's like everyone has a key to solving problems. After the discussion is perfect, more keys are found, which improves the students' thinking ability and cultivates the ability of independent learning." He concluded.
He uses his mobile phone to record the process of students explaining on the podium into a short video, and publishes it on his WeChat public account and the class's QQ group every week. There have been more than 200 episodes.
In his view, the release of the video has stimulated interest in learning and led to the formation of a learning atmosphere.
Through the teacher's "less but fine" selection of exercises, the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort is achieved, and the burden of schoolwork is also effectively reduced.
A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily saw on the first floor of Luyang Middle School that the daily homework of each class was neatly posted on the bulletin board.
The school has also recently introduced a "homework circuit breaker mechanism" to effectively reduce the burden on students who cannot complete their homework in time.
According to Wang Xiaojun, the principal of Luyang Middle School, in the past winter vacation, the school organized teachers to compile school-based winter vacation homework collectively.
"This kind of homework is more in line with the learning situation of our students. We hope to realize 'one lesson, one assistant', freeing children from after-school tutoring materials and reducing their burden."
On the night when reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily visited Luyang Middle School, the Hefei Municipal Education Bureau released "15 items to strengthen the work of reducing the burden on junior high schools" on the official WeChat account, and threw a heavy punch, directly attacking "long time in school, Pain points and difficulties such as long homework time, high number of exams, more class occupancy, and less sleep time.
"The high school entrance examination is only 3 months away. At this time, the introduction of this policy is enough to show the determination of the education department to reduce the burden on junior high school students!" A person from the education industry in Hefei analyzed to reporters that the school and teachers have realized that , this reform can only go forward, not back, and education must be returned to its original state.
The enthusiasm of many "successful" backbone teachers has been stimulated again
After the double reduction, the first and second grades of primary school cannot assign written homework, and the time for after-school club activities increases. How to ensure that students with different receptive abilities can master the knowledge points that should be learned is a problem that needs to be overcome urgently.
To this end, Xia Jing, who has rich teaching experience, was transferred from the senior grade to the first grade.
"In the past, there was homework to strengthen, and individual students could be retained for targeted tutoring and filling up vacancies. Now it's not enough, and I can only ask for benefits from the 40-minute class!" As a teacher who is about to retire, Xia Jing is in The school took the lead in trying to use information-based teaching methods, which surprised my colleagues.
Before her son went to the United States to study for a Ph.D., Xia Jing specially asked him to help him make mathematics teaching software for grades 1 to 6.
"PPT presentation is more intuitive, of course it is used, but the traditional method can't be lost!"
The experience of teaching in a rural school made her deeply realize that she cannot give up a backward student, otherwise it will be a dereliction of duty as a teacher.
What made the "Master Yan" in the eyes of this colleague and his parents relish was that a "student with disabilities" from a rural area he brought with him later was admitted to a higher vocational college and became the manager of a catering company.
What she calls the "traditional method" is to "insert the needle", integrate the fragmented time of students during school, check their acceptance, keep abreast of the learning situation, and dynamically adjust teaching strategies.
Every day, she would appear in the classroom 20 minutes in advance, and when she saw the students, she would "catch" by her side and check the knowledge of the previous class one by one.
"As soon as the class bell rang, I would immediately 'rush' to the podium, for fear of wasting a minute of my time." She explained that now there are only one or two Chinese and math classes a day, and other time must not be taken up. Teachers generally feel that, If you do not hurry up in class, teaching tasks are difficult to guarantee.
The rhythm of the class has obviously accelerated.
As Xia Jing's colleague, Fang Huamei also has this sense of urgency.
Although she has been teaching mathematics for more than 30 years, she now re-does the problems in the book every day before class - just to feel from the students' point of view which links are difficult.
"In the past, we could learn about the situation through homework feedback, but now we need to predict in advance and focus on explaining the difficulties that may arise."
In Fang Huamei's view, for lower grade students, for mathematical operations, from "unfamiliar" to "understanding" to "proficient", this is a process that must be achieved through repeated practice.
Since homework cannot be left after class, it must be made up in class.
To this end, she will list key topics on an A4 piece of paper and send them to students for testing in the classroom.
She has calculated that after a class, at least 30 laps are needed under the podium to check the students' accuracy and make corrections on the spot.
For teachers of this age, both physical strength and energy are a test.
Kuang Hao recently discovered that after the "double reduction", the enthusiasm of teachers born in the 1980s and 1970s in teaching and research has been stimulated again.
An obvious signal is that the school encourages the "successful" backbone teachers to step on the stage again, continue to learn and improve through exchanges, and at the same time play a leading role in the school.
Not long ago, Kuang Hao and his colleague Xu Liehu won the special prize in the mathematics proposition competition for junior high schools in Luyang District, and three other teachers won the first and second prizes.
In the view of Li Xia, the principal of Huaihe Road No. 3 Primary School, in the face of "double reduction", many middle-aged teachers have no idea of "laying down" at all, and they are more strict and strict about classroom teaching.
"Many of them are famous teaching teachers with brilliant achievements. Out of a sense of professional responsibility and honor, they are actively involved in this reform, which has also set an example for young teachers."
On the same day, during the discussion with the newly recruited teachers, Wang Xiaojun, the principal of Luyang Middle School, a veteran in the education field, still talked passionately about the original educational ideals with the normal graduates present.
"Why did we want to be teachers in the first place, what kind of educational ideas did we receive in the university, what kind of education do we hope to see..." Wang Xiaojun said with emotion, "We bury our heads and walk too far, always looking up at the starry sky. People, idealistic feelings cannot be extinguished, and the pursuit of educational laws cannot stop."
China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily reporter Wang Lei and Wang Haihan