Recently, the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on the Comprehensive Implementation of Aesthetic Education Infiltration Action in Schools" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which requires further strengthening school aesthetic education based on current scientific and technological development progress, educational reform trends, and the physical and mental characteristics of young people.
The "Aesthetic Education Smart Education Empowerment Action" is one of the eight major actions required to be implemented in the "Notice". The "Notice" proposes that schools should rely on the national smart education public service platform and local platforms to develop high-quality aesthetic education digital education resources such as education and teaching, exhibitions and displays, and interactive experiences, and continue to update online high-quality aesthetic education courses and teaching results.
In addition, the "Notice" also mentioned cloud exhibitions, digital cultural museums, virtual performances, holographic technology, big data, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other technologies. With the help of these new technologies, school aesthetic education can activate teaching content, innovate teaching methods, enrich artistic experience, improve the evaluation process, etc.
As an important part of quality education, school aesthetic education has always received widespread attention from society. Especially in recent years, aesthetic education has received more and more attention, and many practical experiences have been explored in various places.
"New technologies will help expand the coverage of high-quality aesthetic education resources and help transform school aesthetic education teaching methods and evaluation mechanisms. We should make full use of information technology to solve the current 'dilemma' of aesthetic education." Department of Education, East China Normal University Professor and doctoral supervisor Fan Guorui said.
School aesthetic education still faces many difficulties
Data released by the Ministry of Education in 2023 show that in the past ten years, my country's school aesthetic education has made great breakthroughs: 99.8% of compulsory education schools have offered music and art classes; 97.7% of high schools have implemented compulsory art course requirements; the national basic The number of aesthetic education teachers in the education stage increased by 304,000, an increase of 50.3%.
Fan Guorui said that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, aesthetic education teaching in schools in my country has achieved remarkable results, resource guarantees have continued to improve, and brand projects have achieved fruitful results. It can be said that school aesthetic education has made breakthrough progress. "However, due to some subjective and objective reasons, school aesthetic education work still faces many problems and difficulties." Fan Guorui said.
At present, society's understanding of aesthetic education is still insufficient, and misconceptions such as "aesthetic education equals art education" and "aesthetic education means music and art classes" still exist. Fan Guorui believes that one of the most important goals of aesthetic education is to cultivate high-quality citizens with aesthetic and humanistic qualities. Curriculum goals and systems should be established with art courses as the main body and various disciplines interpenetrating and integrating, and aesthetic education should be implemented into the entire process of school education and teaching. , fully mobilize the school’s social resources and participate extensively.
On an objective level, aesthetic education has long faced the impact of examination-oriented education, and it is easy to fall into the tendency of utilitarianism and craftsmanship. The shortage of teachers is also a practical problem that restricts the development of aesthetic education in schools, especially in rural areas, where the problem of insufficient teachers is particularly obvious. At present, the number of aesthetic education teachers in most provinces has basically reached a balance with actual demand, but some provinces still have a large gap. These gaps are mainly found in rural schools.
In addition, the evaluation system of aesthetic education work is relatively weak and lacks scientific and objective evaluation standards and methods. Music, art and other related courses are minor subjects in schools, and some schools do not pay attention to aesthetic education courses. There are also schools in some areas that lack assessment of students’ aesthetic education achievements. Due to the imperfect evaluation mechanism, art teachers are prone to encounter obstacles in terms of class remuneration, professional title evaluation, performance appraisal, excellence evaluation, and further training.
In response to the above problems, various localities have actively promoted the reform of school aesthetic education based on actual conditions, and have accumulated a lot of valuable experience. In this process, digital technology plays an important role.
“Treat the right medicine” through digital technology
Digital technology has further enriched educational resources. Relying on the Internet and digital resource libraries, aesthetic education resources can flow from "rich" areas to "scarce" areas, helping to solve problems such as uneven resource distribution and unsmooth flow.
"The most significant feature of the digitalization of aesthetic education is the massive expansion of digital education resources and the diverse opening of learning scenarios." Zhen Wei, a professor at the School of Art and Media at Beijing Normal University, said that the national smart education platform for primary and secondary schools combines high-quality art courses, art skills and art Activities are concentrated online, bringing together large-scale aesthetic education resources shared online. Among them, the virtual teaching and research room construction project can deliver high-quality educational resources such as famous aesthetic teachers and golden courses to remote areas, realizing the universal implementation of high-level educational resources.
“With the help of information technology, we can expand the coverage of high-quality aesthetic education resources, develop high-quality digital education resources for aesthetic education courses in universities and primary and secondary schools that are matched with course materials, and can also better obtain them from museums, libraries, cultural centers, student activity centers, etc. All kinds of resources realize the integration and linkage sharing of aesthetic education resources in schools, families, communities and society." said Fan Guorui.
In addition to sharing resources, another major contribution of digital technology to school aesthetic education is in standardizing and upgrading evaluation mechanisms. For example, Beijing's Dongcheng District has established a resource sharing platform and a primary school students' artistic quality assessment database with the support of information technology. The completion of art course learning indicators can be input into the database at any time, and student growth files can be automatically generated. Hebei Province uses new technologies and new platforms to carry out quality monitoring of school aesthetic education, conducts special supervision on a regular basis, and promptly reports the monitoring situation and supervision results. Shaanxi Province has explored and carried out the "Internet + Aesthetic Education" artistic quality assessment, relying on online classroom public welfare projects, jointly building an aesthetic education resource network platform, and promoting the promotion and implementation of the school aesthetic education Internet platform throughout the province.
Zhen Wei believes that digital technology can promote the reform of aesthetic education teaching evaluation. For example, artificial intelligence-assisted homework correction and big data analysis can better evaluate teaching effects. By using pictures, videos, text and other means to digitally record students' learning process, it can help students review learning content, improve the quality of learning, and form a personalized aesthetic education learning report.
Efforts to improve the quality of aesthetic education in various aspects
Taking artificial intelligence painting, which has sparked heated discussions in 2023, as an example, Zhen Wei analyzed the impact of digital technology on aesthetic education.
"Currently, big data and artificial intelligence generative art have had a profound impact on school aesthetic education teaching. Taking art as an example, generative art created with the assistance of computer artificial intelligence saves teachers and students the energy and energy to process images and search for information materials. Time. Teachers and students can concentrate on realizing more creative ideas, providing more possibilities for the release of imagination and creativity," Zhen Wei said.
Digital technology has a huge enabling effect, but it is not a panacea. Zhen Wei emphasized that while using digital technology to empower school aesthetic education, we should also try to avoid problems that are prone to online learning, aim at cultivating students' core competencies, and explore deep learning methods under the conditions of digital technology.
Cai Yuanpei, a famous educator in my country, once pointed out: "All courses in schools are not related to aesthetic education." Fan Guorui believes that many courses contain a lot of aesthetic education connotations, and aesthetic education courses cannot be relied upon solely to improve students' aesthetic and humanistic qualities. Similarly, improving the level of aesthetic education in schools cannot rely solely on new technologies.
"To comprehensively improve the quality of aesthetic education in schools, the most critical thing is to have a team of high-quality aesthetic education teachers with noble ethics, superb professional skills, reasonable structure and full of vitality. Schools at all levels and types must strengthen the allocation of aesthetic education teachers and improve the incentive mechanism for aesthetic education teachers. , reform the teacher evaluation mechanism and stimulate teachers' enthusiasm for work. Based on this, management departments and various schools should strengthen the support of aesthetic education resources and strengthen the research and formulation of the national aesthetic education standard system." Fan Guorui suggested.
Zhen Wei believes that in the process of digital aesthetic education, it is necessary to strengthen systematic research on students' cognitive development, and provide a development ladder for cultivating students' higher-order thinking and shaping beautiful minds through digital interactive learning tools. For example, by setting up interactive links such as questions and answers, level-breaking, and tasks online, students are guided to build their understanding of smart aesthetic education through active learning processes such as memory, understanding, application, analysis, evaluation, and creation. To this end, aesthetic education teachers need to use digital tools scientifically and rationally to help students gain aesthetic education experience and make them interested in beauty. At the same time, teachers should focus on interaction or interactions during the learning process, integrate aesthetic education knowledge into students' lives, and help students acquire aesthetic wisdom that can be used throughout their lives. (Science and Technology Daily reporter Sun Mingyuan)