Education reform should start with people. We should take educating people as the foundation and cultivate students into talents. The purpose of education is to cultivate people, that is, to make people better. Jaspers also has an incisive conclusion in What is Education: "Education is the education of human soul, not the accumulation of rational knowledge and cognition." Unfortunately, at present, many schools in China ignore this point, so that they turn the school into a huge production workshop, turn students into mass-produced products and sell them to the society, seriously ignore the existence of students as spiritual people, and only pay attention to the enrollment rate, which deviates from the essential function of education. From this, I thought of the teaching reform plan of Harvard University in the United States-the core curriculum reform plan in 2006. This reform has four major goals: first, to cultivate global citizens; The second is to cultivate students' ability to adapt to change; Third, let students understand the moral orientation of life; The fourth is to make students realize that they are not only the product of cultural tradition, but also the participants in creating this tradition.
How to reduce students' heavy academic burden is still one of the hot issues in the field of general education and even the whole society. There are many reasons for students' heavy academic burden, one of which is the curriculum, teaching materials, teaching syllabus and other reasons. However, in order to really reduce students' heavy academic burden and improve the quality of education, we can only take the road of reform: reform the old education and teaching system, reform the old curriculum system, reform the entrance examination system, reform the evaluation school system, reform the teaching methods, and reform the old traditional educational concepts that people still have and can no longer meet the needs of the new situation.
First of all, the reform of curriculum system is the core of deepening education reform.
China's economic model and social structure are undergoing profound changes, but education is still basically running in the old unified and centralized model. The current curriculum system of primary and secondary schools in China is a single compulsory curriculum system that began in the 1930s. Its basic feature is the classroom teaching system of "teacher-centered, classroom-centered and textbook-centered".
Plans and outlines are mandatory throughout the country. This single curriculum system exposes its limitations more and more, which is in sharp contradiction with cultivating a new generation with all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor and creative personality. The disadvantages of the original curriculum system are highlighted in the following aspects:
1. From the training goal, the original curriculum system tends to inherit the tradition, summarize the history and rarely consider the future.
2. From the perspective of curriculum structure: in the proportion of social science and natural science, science is more important than literature, and the proportion of class hours in mathematics, science and chemistry is too large. In the ratio of hard courses to flexible courses, compulsory courses are emphasized, and there are no courses.
The basic position of extracurricular activities and elective courses, while there are too many compulsory courses and courses.
3. From the subject content, most subjects serve the entrance examination, emphasizing theory over practice, and students' practical ability is poor. The arrangement of subject knowledge unilaterally pursues depth and difficulty, ignoring breadth and interest, which is difficult to stimulate students' interest in learning and greatly increases their burden.
4. In terms of methods, the original curriculum system often leads to the adoption of indoctrination teaching methods, which is difficult to inspire and compare and to integrate into modern educational technology.
In a word, the curriculum system of "compulsory courses unify the whole country" is single, rigid and unattractive, which causes students to be overburdened, which is not conducive to students' lively and active study and the healthy development of students' personality.
Therefore, we believe that the reform of curriculum system is the core content of deepening education reform, which is imperative.
Two, the curriculum system reform must study and solve several key problems.
We should fully estimate the huge historical inertia of traditional ideas, which has a strong restrictive effect on society, economy and culture. The current entrance examination system, recruitment and personnel system have also played a role in strengthening some traditional views on talents and quality. The difficult course of curriculum reform enlightens us that deepening curriculum reform must focus on the following aspects.
1. On the nature and tasks of higher vocational education, especially general education.
General education should consider the needs of social development and human development. In the basic education stage, we should pay more attention to people's development, pay attention to the improvement of people's quality, and overemphasize the idea that education serves the society, which is not conducive to people's all-round and harmonious development. For a long time, the so-called dual-task theory of "cultivating qualified freshmen for higher schools and excellent labor reserve forces for society" that we have adhered to in ordinary middle schools is very difficult for a middle school. The reality is that the center of gravity often shifts. The reform of curriculum system is the deep-seated reform of educational content and the core of educational reform, involving the system and mode of education.
The fundamental way to solve this problem lies in the diversification of management system and school-running mode. We believe that the nature and tasks of ordinary senior high schools should reflect unity and diversity, and a multi-directional target system should be constructed.
2. How to scientifically determine the total number of courses, reasonably define the respective positions and functions of compulsory courses, elective courses and extracurricular activities, and the relationship between them, how to optimize the combination and establish a reasonable structure.
The first problem to be solved is that the total number of courses has not been solved, the total class hours are too large, students have been dominated by the school for too long, and there is no room and time for free development, which is also one of the important reasons for the heavy burden on students. Compulsory courses cannot be adjusted, and the arrangement of elective courses and extracurricular activities is naturally greatly limited. "Teaching students in accordance with their aptitude" is only reflected in the "diversion" of students when they enter higher schools, and it is not solved in the curriculum system. As for the combination of qualitative and quantitative, from
In the combination of theory and practice, there is no in-depth discussion on the status and function, the proportion of target and task structure and the characteristics of students' level of compulsory courses, elective courses and extracurricular activities, and the reform of curriculum system can only be empty talk.
3. Establish an evaluation system adapted to the new curriculum system.
The old curriculum system is the product of the old concept of talent and quality, and the complete and stable examination evaluation system formed over hundreds of years serves it. The key to this evaluation system is to "take people by points and take people by weight". Using this examination evaluation system to test the experimental results of the new curriculum system often leads to sharp contradictions. Some talented students can't get high marks in the exam.
This is because the old quality concept and examination method have serious defects. Those students who are declared as "poor students" by the old assessment method are likely to have considerable potential. Obviously, their talents have been buried and killed. This tells us that the old examination system has become a strong resistance to the implementation of the new curriculum system. If the existing examination evaluation system is not reformed, the reform of the curriculum system will be difficult. Therefore, it is time to change the concept of quality and reform the examination evaluation system.
Third, further improve the curriculum system and create a new school-running model.
1. organically combine collectivized education with individualized education.
2. Effective use of modern educational technology.
3.。 The new school must have a mechanism to continuously optimize the teaching staff.
4.。 The educational measurement and evaluation system must be reformed.