The spring equinox has just passed, and most of our country has really entered spring. However, for experts and scholars engaged in science education research and many front-line teachers, the spring of science education has arrived earlier.
Last year, 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."
Not long ago, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed at the third collective study of strengthening basic research by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee that "we should do a good job in adding science education in the 'double reduction' of education, stimulate young people's curiosity, imagination and desire for exploration, and cultivate young people with the potential of scientists and willing to dedicate themselves to scientific research." ”
As early as 2001, China's primary school nature course was changed to science class, but it is undeniable that at present, science education is still a short board in basic education. "For a long time, under the influence of fractional theory, primary and secondary school students lack the opportunity to get close to nature and understand society, and miss the sensitive period, critical period, and best period, so that students who originally have the potential for scientific exploration lose the conditions for growth and development in this regard, causing huge losses to the children themselves, society and the country." Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Education Sciences, said.
How to answer the must-answer question of rejuvenating the country through science and education? The top-level design has solved the problem of basic education.
The top-level design was quickly transmitted and collided with the reality of school education. The reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network saw in the interview that more "problem-solving ideas" were stimulated, and what and how to "add" the "addition question" of science education have become the key points to answer the question, and when the "double reduction" policy has landed and is taking root, how to find a breakthrough in "addition" in "reduction" and how to clear obstacles has become the core of the problem.
Lesson time cannot be "added to it"
A physical education teacher from a township primary school in southwest China told a reporter from China Youth Daily about his experience.
Once, the physical education teacher was about to give a lesson to the student, and the math teacher came to him to discuss the occupation of the class, and the physical education teacher agreed. A week later, when the PE teacher went to class again, the math teacher who wanted to occupy the class was already standing in the classroom and said in amazement, "Didn't I take this class after discussion?" ”
The reporter found in the interview that the story of the sub-subject teacher giving the main subject teacher a lesson is not uncommon in primary and secondary schools, and in the teaching line, the most direct reflection of the importance attached to a certain subject is the number of class hours.
However, on how to strengthen science classes in primary and secondary schools, front-line voices oppose the practice of simply adding class time.
"We can't simply understand the strengthening of science classes." Hong Wei, secretary of the party committee and chief president of the Shijia Education Group in Dongcheng District, Beijing, said that we cannot stick to the previous strict division of disciplines, strengthening science classes is not equivalent to adding a few science class hours, and the key to strengthening science courses lies in comprehensiveness and practicality. In general, the curriculum at the primary school level is not very difficult, in a sense, all courses at the primary school level should shoulder the task of cultivating the quality of children's thinking, there must be a concept of all subjects, and all subjects must shoulder the task of science education.
Especially today, more than a year after the implementation of the "double reduction" policy, how to "add" and how to "subtract" school education is no longer a simple arithmetic problem, and behind every "addition" and every "subtraction" means a change in educational concepts.
These days, the sophomore students of the Affiliated High School of Capital Normal University in Beijing are happy and excited that they will have a week-long study trip in the coming April.
"Since 2016, the school has cooperated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to start comprehensive social practice activities in high schools." Shen Jie, principal of the Affiliated Middle School of Capital Normal University, said that the school has opened up a number of study routes covering many provinces in the eastern, central and western parts of China. Students go deep into various branches of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, participate in scientific research, and receive expert guidance. "It can not only cultivate students' sense of innovation and practical ability, but also promote the improvement of students' core literacy."
"What I'm most looking forward to is the experiment," said a sophomore at the Affiliated Middle School of Capital Normal University, who wants to major in biology in the future, and the study guides them at the Nanjing branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where the research project happens to be related to biology.
"The addition of science education is to increase scientific inquiry and practice, students put down repeated brushing exercises, enter science and technology museums, museums, go to nature observation, go to the laboratory to operate, increase rich practical experience, expand comprehensive ability." Liu Xiya, chief principal of Chongqing Xiejiawan Primary Education Group, said.
There is also a tendency to criticize the unreasonable and unscientific curriculum of science classes whenever the problem of science education in primary and secondary schools is mentioned.
Luo Xingkai, vice chairman of the Science Teaching Special Committee of the Basic Education Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education and professor at Guangxi Normal University, believes that the board cannot always be hit on the curriculum, "China's basic education curriculum reform since 2001 has been in line with international standards in science education. The newly revised Compulsory Education Curriculum Plan and Compulsory Education Science Curriculum Standards in 2022 also affirm and inherit the previous concepts and practices, and the key to the problem lies in how to implement them. ”
The reporter of China Youth Daily found through combing that in the 2011 and 2017 editions of the compulsory education stage science course curriculum standards mentioned to pay attention to the cultivation of students' scientific inquiry ability, in the 2022 newly revised "Compulsory Education Science Curriculum Standards", "exploration", "practice" and "comprehensive" have become high-frequency words, the course standard clearly emphasizes "advocating a diversified learning style based on inquiry and practice, allowing students to actively participate, use their brains, and actively experience, through the process of scientific inquiry and technical and engineering practice".
Many principals in the field of education agree.
"For the front line of education, curriculum plans and curriculum standards are an important starting point for school work, and it is also a way for us to improve the quality of education, through these two ways to normalize education reform." Hong Wei said. Liu Xiya believes that schools should get out of the misunderstanding of opening top classes and key classes, adopt advanced and super-syllabus and promote teaching, focus on the big concepts and situations advocated by the new curriculum and new curriculum standards, use science to solve real problems, and drive children to learn science like scientists studying science.
However, from policy provisions to front-line teaching, it is not always "all the way". A science teacher at a primary school in Haidian District, Beijing, who did not want to be named, gave a simple example in an interview with a reporter from China Youth Daily Zhongqing Net, science classes require students to have divergent thinking and the ability to solve problems, "However, the standard material package of the course is fixed, which itself is already a limitation, students use the materials given by the teacher to practice, and there is not much room for trial and error in students' exploration." ”
Teachers cannot be "matched"
"The key to science education is to do it in a scientific way." Chu Zhaohui said.
The key to teaching in a scientific way lies with teachers.
The shortage of science teachers in primary and secondary schools is a very significant problem at present. "China's teacher education still focuses more on training teachers in traditional disciplines, and the total number of science teachers is far from meeting the needs of future development." Liu Lin, president of Beijing City College, said.
However, there are still many experts who believe that the larger and deeper problem of primary and secondary school science teachers is not only the quantity, because the quantitative gap can be completed as soon as possible by accelerating and increasing training, and the important problem at present is that the education concept and education teaching methods of science teachers themselves need to be changed and updated.
"Some teachers' education methods are more rigid, and in the teaching method, the teaching method is repeated, and the single teaching method does not have many opportunities for students to participate in learning and activities, and cannot mobilize students' enthusiasm, which affects the development of students' educational innovation quality." Shi Weidong, president of Nantong University, said.
Yu Shuwen, a master's student at the Institute of Science and Education of Beijing Normal University, was deeply impressed by her undergraduate internship.
"The Primary Science Curriculum Standards require first-grade students to know the common plants around them and understand that plants need water and sunlight to survive and grow, so I designed a driving task during my lessons: ask students to bring their own seeds to observe and record the growth of plants. There was a little girl in the class who brought watermelon seeds because she loved watermelon. Yu Shuwen said.
Since then, every day at noon, the little girl will go to water the watermelons she grows. A few days later, the plants planted by other students began to sprout, and her watermelon still did not move, so she ran to ask the teacher, who told her not to worry, and then wait and see.
In this way, after asking a few more times, the little girl stopped asking the teacher.
Until the 51st day after the watermelon was planted, Yu Shuwen suddenly saw the little girl after eating at noon and then went to water the pot of watermelon that had not sprouted. She said to the teacher aggrievedly: "My watermelon has not yet sprouted, I am making a wish."
"I was very uncomfortable at this moment, and I asked myself why, in the last 51 days, every time she asked, 'Why hasn't the watermelon sprouted yet?' I haven't taken the issue seriously and didn't respect her." Yu Shuwen said.
Fortunately, first-graders have a strong enough thirst for knowledge and patience; Fortunately, the teacher is aware of his problem before the child gives up.
Immediately, Yu Shuwen took the little girl to think about what factors might cause the watermelon seeds not to germinate, they thought that it might be that the temperature was low in winter, and the seeds needed to be warmed and warm, so they improved the method and re-experimented, unfortunately, the second planting was still unsuccessful. Yu Shuwen also mobilized the whole class to study together, adjusted the seed selection, indoor temperature, etc., and they also learned how to promote germination. In this process, the whole class worked together to find problems, think of solutions, try and improve, and almost every student in the class participated in each process, and finally, the watermelon seeds germinated.
"If the little girl's scientific problems are not paid attention to and encouraged by the teacher, I am afraid that her curiosity and desire for inquiry will be lost a little. Students do not feel the joy and value of inquiry, do not gain recognition and sense of achievement in the process of inquiry, and naturally give up, which is a very scary thing! This incident also gave a great warning to all front-line teachers. Yu Shuwen said.
"It is said that science education should cultivate children's innovative spirit, and I think more important than the innovative spirit is the scientific spirit, and the starting point of the scientific spirit is to question." Chu Zhaohui said that the first thing to change is teachers, teachers cannot teach science in the traditional way of instilling scientific knowledge, "that is not science education." ”
Evaluation, can not "one test"
"When the school did not attach importance to science education, I really wanted to get the attention of the school, and now that the whole society attaches importance to science education, I am a little scared, worried that the attention will become the result of paying too much attention to education." A science teacher at a primary school in Beijing said.
Pei Hongxia, secretary of the general party branch and principal of Shijiazhuang Foreign Chinese School, said that the fundamental reason why students had a heavy homework burden and off-campus training burden before the "double reduction" was the examination and promotion evaluation system.
Under the command of the long-term idea of taking exams, primary and secondary schools have embarked on a strange circle of "promoting teaching with examinations", "teaching what revolves around examinations", and "not taking exams is not the focus of teaching". "Therefore, we must make key breakthroughs in deepening the reform of educational examination evaluation, change the concept of examination-oriented education of 'only grades and only further education', reverse the unscientific examination evaluation orientation, and form an examination evaluation oriented to cultivating people with virtue and developing students' core literacy." Pei Hongxia said.
In recent years, China's education reform has entered the deep water area, and in 9 years, 29 provinces in China have entered the ranks of comprehensive reform of the college entrance examination in 5 batches.
The college entrance examination is called the "baton", and the changes in the college entrance examination affect all aspects of basic education, so behind the reform of the college entrance examination is the change in the way of education brought about by the evaluation reform.
Knowledge is used, not tested.
Chen Hongbin, director of the supervision office of Yancheng No. 3 Primary School in Jiangsu Province, told reporters that the school's first and second grades had adopted the self-developed "Music Criticism Carnival" evaluation mechanism six or seven years ago, and the paper-based exam was also canceled after the "double reduction"; In recent years, grades 6-<> have adopted a combination of "Music Criticism Carnival" and final exams to evaluate students. "The cancellation of paper-based exams does not mean the cancellation of assessments, but rather planning and arranging in advance, setting up projects in different areas, and conducting assessments at the end of the semester." Chen Hongbin said that taking labor education as an example, students will learn various labor skills in ordinary times, such as sweeping projects, which are both infiltrated in daily household work and reflected in daily class work, and the final assessment is based on speed and cleanliness as the evaluation standard, and the difficulty increases with age. After the evaluation, each student obtained a "radar chart" can intuitively see whether the students' "five educations" go hand in hand and whether there is progress in one semester, so as to carry out more targeted teaching activities.
"The key to strengthening science education in primary and secondary schools lies in removing key barriers to science education." Chu Zhaohui said that the current school teachers and parents arrange their children's time, space and learning content to be full, and the overly single standard test score competition is precisely the most prominent obstacle to science education. Only when the child's autonomy and autonomy continue to improve, and the problems he is interested in are explored to a new level, can it be possible to truly cross the threshold of science. The child has his own time, space and self-selected learning content, and experiences, investigations, research, and exploration of natural and social issues that interest him, and in this process, the school and teachers must provide the conditions for his creativity.
Spring means breaking ground. Science education in primary and secondary schools is facing a thorough renewal and change, and reform has begun.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Network Reporter Fan Weichen Ye Yuting Zhang Qian Intern Zhang Xiaofan Source: China Youth Daily