2 1 how to learn in the century

Ke jun

Graduation ceremony means "beginning", which is the beginning of study and career. The beginning of learning is the beginning of lifelong learning. "It's never too old to learn." After graduation, you should learn how to be a man and learn more. These are all studies, so they are called graduation ceremonies.

How to learn this problem, students have gained some experience from kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools and universities. Have you learned everything? Not necessarily. Everyone's family, social experience and learning experience are different. Thirty years ago, a professor from the University of Sydney in Australia was Australia's chief electron microscope expert. He came to China for a holiday with his family. There were five of them: father, mother, two older sisters aged 65,438+04 and 65,438+02 respectively, and an eight-year-old brother. His father lives with us and goes to work every day. Since we don't have an office there, we have to vacate a small room next to the electron microscope room, where there is a desk, where my father works every day. Many of our classmates came to him with questions, but he didn't refuse any questions. He felt that to come to China for a holiday, he needed to know China, and he hoped to get in touch with Australian students and establish Sino-Australian friendship. If he doesn't sit there and go to work, he's sorry to Australian taxpayers. This is a manifestation of his professionalism. The children's two sisters and mothers are learning Chinese, and they want to know about China. My brother borrowed a pair of ping-pong bats to learn how to play, but he lost one. What shall we do? They don't just buy a piece with their parents' money, as we thought. Instead, their elder sister presided over a family meeting, and their parents acted as consultants to discuss how to solve the problem. The result of the discussion is naturally to buy a piece of compensation, but who will pay for it? You lost it yourself. Of course, you have to pay for it yourself. So the child tried his best to earn money to buy a racket. He first thought of what he would do-that's how their parents taught their children. Foreign parents have been cultivating their children's livelihood since childhood. If one day our parents die suddenly, our children will not survive. But our relatives and family in China have a strong sense that children will always be taken care of, and foreign children will try their best to make a living. So the child came up with a way to set up a stall at the entrance of the hotel to help the driver clean the car, 20 cents each time, and finally earned 20 yuan. I lost my racket, leaving 12 yuan. What should I do? Then a family meeting was held to discuss: My sister thought the money should be from the public because it was given by your car washer. The child himself said that, in fact, he didn't wash the car clean enough at 100. Others feel sorry for him and give him one yuan every time, so this is not legitimate labor income and should be confiscated. Before long, they had to go back and found a racket under the bed. Who does this racket belong to now? The third family meeting was held. Everyone thought that this racket should be confiscated as a gift donated by the children, so the old racket was sent back to our guest house. This is a good family education, a public morality education and a humanistic quality education. Later, they went to Oxford University, where they were in a composition contest for middle school students in Britain. The children's sister wrote an article based on their experience in China and won the British Special Composition Award.

I found that our education is different from that of foreign countries, and our education is often done invisibly. I don't know how many students here have attended kindergarten and how many have played the game of grabbing benches. 10 people robbed 9 seats. I often ask, is this capitalist education or socialist education? We often say that students who don't sit on stools have bad legs, or teachers are in poor health, so you give up your seat. This is the spirit of Lei Feng. If you sit there motionless, it must be selfish capitalist spirit. But what kind of spirit has this game of grabbing the bench cultivated for children? So every move we make will affect our children's education. The kind in Australia is to educate children well, earn money by themselves, strictly observe discipline, and cultivate children's organizational and discussion skills. Nowadays, college students basically lack organizational ability, and they will also lack this in society in the future. Mr. Liang Shuming once said that the oriental nation is a state of etiquette, but adults have some shortcomings. This deficiency has several aspects: first, the public concept is relatively lacking, such as littering, which shows that social morality is relatively poor; The second is that the law-abiding spirit is not enough; The third is the lack of organizational capacity. These situations also exist in universities, so people with knowledge are not necessarily of high quality, and it is difficult to play a social role only with knowledge and no ability. If the quality is not high, even if you have knowledge and ability, you may occasionally get some results, but the danger is even greater, because the level of theft is higher than others.

Facing the 2 1 century, our learning task is even heavier. Because 2 1 century is a century of fierce competition. Although there is intermittent peace in the world, on the whole, local wars have never stopped and competition is still fierce. Kodak has cooperated with almost all color film companies in China, except Le Kai Company in Baoding. Kodak is going to invest $654.38 billion to build a factory in China, determined to eliminate all domestic color films, and then it can put on airs. This is not only economic competition, but also political and military competition. So you can't just import it, you must develop it yourself.

Both Beijing Institute of Chemical Technology and Tsinghua University have conducted surveys on graduates, and found that at least 50% of them have changed jobs or changed careers within five years. So it's definitely not good to study too narrowly at school. Domestically, as the economic system has changed from a planned economy to a market economy, every factory and scientific research unit should adapt to the needs of the market, and so should talents. What society needs is talents with wide knowledge, solid foundation and strong abilities in all aspects. Therefore, after the transition of economic system, the requirements of society for graduate students and college students are constantly changing. At present, I don't pay much attention to professional counterparts. Everyone will change jobs all his life. The average American is five times, which means that a person should have a high degree of adaptation to society. I once asked the Minister of Metallurgy what kind of talents does society need? He said that professional courses should be modernized, and we should have a deep understanding of the modernization development of the major, but we don't need to elaborate too much. The most important thing is to lay a good foundation. Strong foundation, wide knowledge, strong ability and high quality. It's no use taking more specialized courses. I don't know what you will do in the future. I said, no, you became a minister today. If I had known that you were going to be a minister, I should have started studying as a minister. But we can't. There is no teacher. I have never been a minister myself, and no one in the teacher has ever been a minister. Besides, even if I set up a ministerial major, you can't be a minister today. Is to let the minister teach the minister's profession. In my opinion, if he studied as a minister, he would definitely not be a minister without innovative spirit. Therefore, we cannot just talk about professional counterparts. The Ministry of Education now proposes that the students to be trained should have strong adaptability. In this way, it is necessary to carry out teaching reform. Teaching reform can only reduce courses, not increase courses, and delete all useless and repetitive things. The survey of graduates shows that students think that the most important thing is to learn basic theories, and professional knowledge is of little use. Besides, they often change jobs. This requires graduates to play the role of a screw in society, but this screw is best a universal screw to meet the needs of society.

The 2 1 century competition is creative and needs a solid foundation to remain unchanged and adapt to changes. I said to the newly graduated students: If a factory wants to produce qualified products, its raw materials must be qualified first, which is beyond doubt. If you want to be a qualified graduate student, this material must be qualified when it comes in. So are you qualified? Of course, you passed the rigorous exam, and of course you are qualified. On the other hand, it is necessary to carry out undergraduate teaching reform now, which shows that undergraduate education is unqualified, and you have just completed your college studies under unqualified undergraduate education, so your materials are still insufficient. Therefore, our task is very arduous. We want you to transform this unqualified material into qualified products in 2 1 century. This refers not only to knowledge and business, but also to quality and ability. Therefore, we must first have a solid foundation. Secondly, you should have a wide range of knowledge, otherwise, you can't innovate. The third is cooperation and team spirit, organizational ability, the ability to lead and be led. Fourth, excellent eloquence and written expression skills, such as English, can not only be recited and memorized every day, but more importantly, written and used. The biggest problem in our education now is that we don't practice and experiment. Once, we invited an American professor named Lu to visit our physics laboratory. He felt very good after reading it, and then asked us to do some experiments. A teacher replied that there were 18 experiments. That's enough. However, we had too little time and only made eight. Professor Lu said, "We have 24 experiments and only do two." When I came back, I asked the teachers how they felt. They said: "In fact, the level of foreign countries is similar to ours. They only did two experiments, and we did eight. " I think our level is 24 times worse than others. Our present situation is that the teacher talks about the experiment first, and the teacher arranges you to do the experiment and verify it, which makes the students have no self-study at all. So I told an academician and doctoral supervisor of the Academy of Engineering that graduate students should be like shepherds. Shepherds need to find a place with rich aquatic plants. Before grazing, they should have a leading sheep, but at the same time, they should be careful not to let the sheep be eaten by wolves or fall off the cliff and die. Now professors mow the grass to feed the sheep instead of herding them. Sheep don't find grass to eat. So this shows that we should learn to teach ourselves and cultivate our self-learning ability.

In this case, how should we study? It's very important, first of all, to see what problems you have and how to correct them. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the students we train? I won't say much about the advantages, but mainly talk about the disadvantages and shortcomings here.

The first is that the major is too narrow and narrow. Now the direction of education reform is to broaden the professional caliber. Because of your narrow knowledge, you can't solve problems, especially in engineering. Scientific research is to analyze a problem from different angles and then find out the law, which is to know nature. Engineers are another type. Engineers work under vague conditions. The so-called fuzzy conditions, such as building the Yangtze River Bridge, need to know the water level and wind power. When the water level changes, the wind may be a strong wind or a tornado. These are all uncertain. You have to consider the comprehensive influence of these uncertainties and fuzzy factors, and then you can make inaccurate estimates, make fuzzy decisions and make designs, and this design can't go wrong, so as to ensure safety. Look, is it hard enough? Now, due to these uncertainties, the safety factor of the project is getting smaller and smaller. In this sense, engineers work much harder than scientists. Therefore, the knowledge of engineers must be broad, not too narrow.

The second is that learning is not consolidated. Nowadays, many teachers use their own textbooks in class, and the content he talks about is less than that in the textbooks. Students draw red lines in important places in the textbook in order to remember before the exam. In our school, classes are suspended for three days before each exam. I think it is probably to let students recite textbooks in these three days. If students understand the basic principles, what should they do in those three days? Why can't you take the exam for three days in a row like a middle school exam for a university? Therefore, what has not been thought deeply will be forgotten after learning. I once asked the graduating class, "What courses have you taken? What do you think of these courses? " They just laughed. I said, "I'll summarize it for you and see if it's right." You are familiar with these courses. "They nodded with a smile. There are many reasons for this, and now everyone is used to it. You must understand everything in class. Only China must be understood in class, so he must forget it after class. A doctoral student went abroad, got off the plane today and took an exam tomorrow. He got an A in all the exams, which surprised the Americans. He has never seen such a good student. But in the end, he was given a topic, and he didn't know how to do it, because he had never done it. There is a famous physicist at Cambridge University in England. He trained seven Nobel Prize winners and dozens of members of the Royal Society. Studying for a doctorate under him, it would be nice to meet him five times. On the first side, he first looks at whether you are a good raw material. Well, he told you that if there is anything wrong with nuclear physics, you can find a book to read by yourself. Then, you put forward a plan and discuss it with him. He approved it. You go back to the experiment. When you do the experiment and the data and questions come out, you talk to him. He approved it, and then sent someone to pick on you. Finally, you can discuss with him again, and if he agrees, you can reply. This is how he brought up his doctoral students. Our teacher is very strict, but he can't train good students. In this way, many things will not be understood thoroughly and will not go deep. Some people used to say that learning is wise, but now they don't learn. Therefore, China's education is to teach everything in class, and as a result, it is bound to know nothing after class.

The third point is poor ability, lack of practical training, poor hands-on ability, poor observation ability and poor self-study ability. The inventor of Mac found a man named sully, who graduated from the management department of Harvard University. He used to sell drinks and did a good job. After he came to Mac company, he quickly got the company up and running. Later, he wrote a biography called "From Sugar Water to Apple", in which one paragraph said that he benefited the most from a friend telling him that in Cambridge and Oxford universities, the teacher's task is to help and promote a person's development and develop his intelligence and curiosity, instead of giving endless lectures like American universities. When I read this biography, I thought, if American teachers are always giving endless lectures. Then we can't describe it here. Another problem is poor communication skills, poor cooperation spirit and team spirit. Our major projects now are single-family and single-family, so we should carry forward the spirit of cooperation in universities. Every department and even school in Cambridge University has a public place for everyone to exchange and discuss. China has always worked alone, such as playing mahjong and kicking shuttlecock, while foreigners play basketball, bridge and football, all of which are collective and have team spirit. Therefore, many outstanding graduates with achievements have basically worked as student cadres in universities, because that has cultivated his spirit of cooperation, team spirit and organizational ability. It is necessary to encourage students to engage in scientific research as soon as they enter university, even in primary schools. I once met a Chinese American couple. Their children are only in the fourth grade of primary school. She took a lot of books and asked her why. She said that she had decided on a scientific research topic, and her parents couldn't help. What issues does she study? She studied the curing of salted duck eggs. The more salted duck eggs, the heavier they will be. But the duck eggs are still floating on the water, so she studies the relationship between the time of pickling eggs and the weight of salt. So she weighed salt and eggs every day, measured the floating height of duck eggs, and finally made a beautiful data map. She took the data map to the class to give a report, and then everyone discussed it. The question is, why did the salt enter the duck egg, and the weight of the egg increased, but it floated? Later, it was found that air had entered. But where does the air enter? There is no hole in the duck egg, which inspired her to think. To engage in projects in foreign universities, we should not only let students do it, but also find students from different majors to do it together. They cultivate students' collective spirit from an early age.

The fourth point is that science and engineering students are weak in humanities and social sciences, have little understanding of national conditions and history, and lack economic and legal knowledge. Engineering students have to associate with people in society after graduation, and it is impossible for them to understand economics and law.

Fifth, poor psychological quality, unable to withstand tests, blows and setbacks, and poor self-confidence.

Sixth, the innovation ability is poor. Our education has always been to impart knowledge, and we can only recite what the teacher said, and there are some in books, so we can't cross the line. Teachers also test what they have said in the exam, and everything they have said is in the book. A well-written book can cultivate your thinking and creativity; Poor writing, can only teach limited knowledge. So students must study by themselves. Following the rules can only be imitation, and there will be no transcendence. School education will stimulate creativity, but also stifle creativity. Therefore, professional knowledge is too narrow and not creative; Reading more books does not necessarily make you creative. So, are China people not creative? No. Didn't we have many great inventions in ancient times? At least ten major inventions have won the world. The first is the cultivation of rice, the second is the invention of silk, the third is porcelain, the fourth is the invention of pig iron, the fifth is the invention of traditional Chinese medicine, and the sixth is the technology of riding horses. The four inventions make up the top ten inventions. However, creativity depends on careful observation and serious work, otherwise it will lose creativity, so careful observation is very important. Now it is always said that the investment is not enough and the equipment is poor. It seems that scientific research just needs equipment and money. We can give many doctoral dissertations, and they are very skilled and don't cost a penny. How to design a good experiment depends on thinking. More, we must make decisive decisions, bear it, and let go. In addition, the most important thing for engineering students is the lack of engineering consciousness. They don't have the strings of production, economy and market in their minds, and what they make is useless.

In the next 2 1 century, not everyone can develop in it, only those students who are willing to pay the price and work hard.

(Excerpted from Volume III of China University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press)