Some schools narrow science education to "science courses" and "mathematics and physics", some schools fall into the misunderstanding of "high technology" and "fighting for equipment", and some schools "draw experiments on the blackboard and write experiments on the test paper" …
How to shift science education from “problem solving” to “problem solving” in primary and secondary schools
[It’s time to improve the quality of science education]
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Science education is an important foundation for improving the scientific literacy of the entire population, building a strong country in education, and achieving high-level scientific and technological self-reliance. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has discussed the significance, connotation and methods of scientific education on many important occasions, emphasizing the need to add scientific education to the "double reduction" of education to stimulate young people's curiosity, imagination and exploration. Want to cultivate young people who have the potential of scientists and are willing to devote themselves to scientific research. This provides a fundamental basis for strengthening science education in primary and secondary schools in the new era.
Keeping in mind the General Secretary's instructions, all local departments and primary and secondary schools have made every effort to explore and promote the steady development of science education, and the results of the work are gradually showing. However, due to factors such as wide coverage, strong systematicness, high challenges, and weak overall foundation, the current development of science education in our country still lags far behind the requirements of the Party Central Committee and the expectations of the people.
In order to deeply explore the hot and difficult issues in the high-quality development of science education, and to unite the efforts of schools, parents, students and all sectors of society to jointly solve the "addition problem" of science education, Guangming Daily's "Education Weekly" specially launched "It's time to improve the quality of science education" "The series of reports focuses on the concept transformation, textbook preparation, curriculum, teacher training, etc. of science education, and strives to provide assistance for the construction of a high-quality science education system for primary and secondary schools in the new era.
By continuously blowing air through a straw, you can make a table tennis ball float in the air without using any other tools. Not long ago, Zhao Zhiyuan, an associate researcher at the Wenzhou Research Institute of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, brought a new invention to the students of Guangchang Road Primary School in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. A fun science lesson. Zhao Zhiyuan demonstrated at the main venue. More than 5,000 students from the school's four campuses watched the live broadcast and simultaneously played table tennis.
What scientific principle does this embody? Hearing the question, Zheng Junqian, a student at Guangguang Road Primary School and winner of the title of "Little Scientist" in Wenzhou City, was the first to give the answer: "When blowing through a straw, the air flow at the bottom of the table tennis ball is fast, the pressure is reduced, and the surrounding pressure is strong, and the ball is blown If you surround it, it will float."
Bernoulli's principle was cracked by a "primary school bully" who loves science. In such interesting explorations, the seeds of pursuing and advocating science have been planted in the hearts of more children.
Riding on the "east wind" of "doing a good job in adding science education in the 'double reduction' of education", this spring, more seeds of love for science are sown in the land of China: studying and practicing at the Botanical Garden's science popularization base, and observing the wind and clouds next to various instruments of the Meteorological Bureau …The once “one-size-fits-all” science education in primary and secondary schools now has more and more new “opening methods.”
At the same time, the overall foundation of science education in our country is not solid enough, and there are many shortcomings in terms of curriculum, teachers, and resource coordination. Many experts have called for the urgent need to shift from "problem solving" to "problem solving" in answering "addition questions" in science education: get rid of the misunderstanding that "just teach children to memorize and solve problems" in science education, and promote "problem solving" "Inquiry-based practical learning for the ultimate goal takes root in primary and secondary school classrooms.
Science education presses the "acceleration button"
On a spring day, in Jinjiang National Wetland Park in Mayang, Hunan, a group of children were happily jumping and busy among the greenery.
"Look, the egret is flying!" "There are two water ducks there!" Use telescopes to track and observe rare birds in the wetland park, photograph the distribution of plant populations in the wetland park... A variety of scientific exploration activities allow children to Extremely excited.
Starting from this spring, this ecological treasure located on the main trunk line of my country's three major migratory bird migration routes has become a place of scientific enlightenment for the children of Jinjiang No. 1 Primary School in Mayang.
Expand science curriculum resources and guide science teachers to deepen innovation in experimental teaching. More and more museums and science and technology museums have become "allies" in school science and technology education...Accelerate, accelerate! Since the Ministry of Education and other 18 departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Science Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era" in May 2023, this has become the practical action and true feeling of many science education practitioners.
More changes are written in the solid practices of schools in various places.
Strengthening the driving force of characteristic courses, Ningbo, Zhejiang has expanded the scientific education scene to local characteristic resources such as port logistics and intelligent manufacturing, and incorporated practical activities that contain scientific principles and exercise scientific thinking such as "Twenty-Four Solar Terms" agricultural labor and local intangible cultural heritage production into scientific In the scope of the curriculum, curriculum resources are established to train observation, breeding, planting and other abilities to promote the all-round development of students.
Focusing on teacher construction, Hunan has established a province-wide expert resource base for popular science teacher training, and has trained a total of nearly 10,000 public-funded normal students in science; it has guided universities in the province to open science education and science and engineering normal majors, and expanded the enrollment of science education-related majors. .
To speed up the integration of high-quality resources, the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum launched "Science Popularization into Five New Cities" to integrate city-wide resources and accurately deliver them to schools and communities in various districts. It also cooperated with the Forbidden City, Dunhuang Academy and other venues to launch a series of "Integration of Science and Technology and Culture" courses , create diverse educational experiences...
"Actively promote science education in primary and secondary schools in the new era, continuously improve students' scientific literacy, and strive to cultivate young people with scientific potential and willingness to devote themselves to scientific research." This consensus is being transformed into universal action.
Science education requires scientific understanding
The reporter's investigation found that despite numerous explorations, the practice of science education in some regions and schools has been deformed during accelerated development. The concept of science education needs to be transformed and the method of science education needs to be upgraded urgently.
Some schools simply narrow science education into "science courses" or "mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology" courses, believing that learning a single subject knowledge well means doing a good job in science education. Cao Peijie, deputy director of the Institute of Future Education of the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, strongly disagrees with this: "There is an irreconcilable contradiction between the pre-set subject courses and the ever-changing development of science and technology, which fundamentally determines that science education cannot It is simply equivalent to 'taking good science classes'. Good science education should shift from 'a course' to 'a complete life', from 'a textbook' to 'the whole world', and combine 'static course content' with 'dynamic science'. Innovation' is integrated to guide students to participate in hot scientific practices and discover, research and solve scientific problems in the real world."
Some schools reduce scientific inquiry to knowledge transfer and use test-oriented thinking to teach science. It is not uncommon to see "experiments drawn on the blackboard" and "experiments written on test papers".
"When I walked into the science class laboratory, it was very orderly, with no trace of use at all. How can any inventor's desk be neat and uniform?" During the survey, an expert found that teachers in some schools used "telling" experiments and "seeing" "Experiments are the main method of experimental teaching. Even if students are allowed to "do" experiments, teachers only require students to remember the experimental steps, experimental equipment, experimental phenomena, and experimental results, ignoring the effects of the experiment itself on students' thinking training, affection cultivation, and ability improvement. values etc.
"The school's evaluation of experimental teaching is too extensive. It only looks at process records and does not look at student growth. If the equipment is not placed in place, teachers' performance points will be deducted." A teacher told reporters that, therefore, in the spirit of "one more thing is not as good as one thing" With the idea of "one less thing to do", many teachers simply lead students to "tell experiments" and "draw experiments", and finally "write" an experiment to record the matter. "Moreover, most of these experiments are confirmatory, and there are very few of them that students can design and explore independently."
There are also some schools, coerced by the educational performance concept of "getting results quickly, getting results early", and turning science education into "elite education" and "high-tech achievement display."
Some teachers reported to reporters that there have been no substantial changes in the science curriculum at their school, and there has been no significant increase in scientific experiments. "The focus of the work is on building a science and technology club. Only club students can use the school's science laboratory, so that it will be nice and bright during inspection and acceptance. But shouldn't science education be open to all students? Don't only some students need to strengthen science? Cultivation of thinking?" The teacher expressed confusion.
Some teachers shared this experience with reporters: In October last year, their district held a science education achievement display, and many schools' booths were filled with "high-end" equipment such as drones and robots. "Some schools did not pay attention to science education before. They have just launched the 'Gust of Wind' for a few months. How can there be any results to show? The source of the 'results' can be imagined. Isn't this a 'Manufacturer Equipment Exhibition'? Isn't it? With top-notch equipment and no artificial intelligence, can science education be difficult?" In the end, the teacher asked the students to bring their own childlike but creative little inventions and small productions to the exhibition: "Science education is the best Shouldn’t the display focus on the children themselves?”
All these reflect the existing problems in current science education - emphasis on indoctrination but not experience, emphasis on conclusions but not process, emphasis on verification but not exploration, and emphasis on students' problem-solving abilities but neglecting their ability to solve real problems.
Multiple studies have shown that primary and secondary school students in my country perform well in scientific and technological knowledge, but they are weak in scientific higher-order thinking and lack interest in learning. They can remember scientific knowledge, but they do not know where scientific knowledge comes from, what science is used for, and how to use it. Scientific thinking and problem solving in scientific ways. In addition, studies have shown that Chinese students’ interest in learning science, mathematics, and technology and engineering decreases with grade, and their career expectations in the science field also lag behind.
All experts interviewed by the reporter believed that in order to reverse the above situation and answer the "addition questions" of science education well, we should first understand science education more scientifically.
"Science education does not only refer to the simple teaching of scientific knowledge, nor is it limited to the scientificization of educational means and teaching methods, nor does it specifically refer to the cultivation of science and technology professionals. Science education focuses on the scientific literacy necessary for modern people in the era of science and technology. A kind of nurturing education." Wu Xiangping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that "in teaching, science education should focus on stimulating and cultivating students' interest in scientific inquiry."
Let science education shift to "learning for innovation"
Let science education become what it should be - this is the unanimous voice of students, teachers and experts in the interview.
"Due to a weak foundation and a late start, science education in primary and secondary schools is at the stage of 'crossing the river by feeling for the stones'. At present, it is necessary to discover some better typical practices in the practice of school science education, further optimize, condense, promote and give full play to Its radiating and leading role." Zheng Yonghe, chairman of the Science Teaching Committee of the Basic Education Teaching Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education and dean of the Science Education Research Institute of Beijing Normal University, believes that science education must make greater achievements, otherwise it will seriously affect high quality Cultivation of innovative talents.
In order to further explore effective ways of science education and innovative models of talent training, the list of the first batch of science education experimental zones and experimental schools in primary and secondary schools across the country was recently announced, with 125 experimental zones and 994 experimental schools selected. In accordance with the requirements, the experimental zones and experimental schools will conduct pilot trials in key areas and key links such as curriculum resource development, teacher team building, teaching method reform, educational evaluation reform, site scene construction, and social force integration, striving to form a group of replicable and reproducible Promote typical experiences and institutional innovation results to improve the quality and level of science education in primary and secondary schools.
There is still a long way to go.
According to the experts interviewed, whether it is the exploration of pioneers or the practice of science education in a more general sense, we must resolutely abandon the previous knowledge-based education model, say goodbye to "problem-solving education" and turn to "learning for innovation" ".
"Playing basketball, practicing chorus, doing housework, and participating in science and technology competitions can all develop children's brains and increase the possibility of cultivating innovative talents." said Ni Minjing, director of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
To achieve "learning for innovation", top-level design is crucial.
"Science education in primary and secondary schools in my country needs holistic planning and systematic implementation." Zheng Yonghe said that special planning and deployment for the development of science education need to be made as soon as possible. Otherwise, the misalignment of subject layout and lack of funding system will be detrimental to the development of science education. He suggested that relevant outlines should be developed to clarify the top-level design for the development of national science education, strengthen the design and layout of the science education system connecting large, middle, primary and elementary schools, scientifically set science education goals for different school stages, and strengthen the reform and development of science education in the new era. Organizational guarantee and condition guarantee.
"Science education must be inseparable from experiments." Ni Minjing suggested that in order to achieve a science education that "shifts toward innovation", traditional forms such as watching experiments, reading texts, and listening to stories must be changed to create conditions for students to explore phenomena as much as possible. : “In addition to general physical, chemical and biological laboratories, schools should build more scientific innovation laboratories for children to explore freely.”
Another important way to move towards "learning for innovation" is to cultivate children's spirit of questioning and challenge in teaching.
"The basic education stage is the decisive stage for 'incubating' students' scientific spirit and innovative qualities. The purpose of science education in primary and secondary schools is not to let students understand how many theories or research inventions, but to always maintain curiosity and desire to explore." Tianjin Experimental Primary School Science teacher Wang Wanjiang said. In teaching, he often guides students to trial and error, think, and then adjust and improve: "The vitality of science is that it never admits that it is absolutely correct, but adjusts direction and makes progress through constant trial and error."
Zheng Yonghe believes that strengthening science education at present is a very urgent task and requires determination and perseverance: "Persevere and use the spirit of long-termism to promote science education to a higher level."
(Our reporter Deng Hui)