According to relevant research data, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the development of basic education in China has generally gone through four stages: the first stage focuses on "double basics" (basic knowledge and basic skills training), that is, focusing on mastering basic knowledge and forming basic skills. This period is from 1949 to 1979, lasting about 30 years. The second stage is to emphasize intelligence, that is, to emphasize the development of intelligence and the cultivation of ability. This period from 1979 to 1982 lasted only four years. ? The third stage is the stage of attaching importance to non-intelligence factors and combining them with developing intelligence and cultivating ability. ? This stage lasts from 1983 to 1989 for about 7 years. The fourth stage is to strengthen quality education, that is, to fundamentally overcome the disadvantages of traditional education and gradually realize the transformation from "exam-oriented education" to quality education. This stage began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and now it is in a critical stage of comprehensive transformation.
So, what is quality? What is quality education? What is exam-oriented education?
As a theoretical proposition, quality has its rich connotation and broad space, and has multi-dimensional perspectives and ideas. Generally speaking, the so-called "quality" usually has two meanings: the first meaning is the concept of "quality" in physiology, which mainly refers to human natural sensory organs and nervous system, also known as genetic factors or talents; The second meaning is the essence of pedagogy and the concept of "quality" in sociology, which mainly refers to the acquired social aspect. It believes that quality is a series of knowledge, skills, behavior habits, cultural accomplishment and quality characteristics formed on the basis of congenital factors, mainly through acquired education and environmental influence. In other words, people's quality refers to the overall level of people's development, the synthesis of people's various attributes, and the overall structure composed of various qualities. Inherent genetic quality is the material premise of acquired basic quality, and acquired environment and education are the conditions for the development of innate genetic quality. Give an obvious example: born deaf people can't become musicians; However, if a person's musical talent is no matter how good it is, it is impossible to become a musician without the cultivation of the day after tomorrow. Therefore, advocating quality education is to fully develop every student's innate genetic quality and at the same time enable them to acquire all kinds of qualities needed by today's society.
Director Zhu Kaixuan of the State Education Commission pointed out that quality education is essentially an education to improve the quality of the whole nation. Quality-oriented education aims at achieving the goals stipulated in the educational policy, focusing on the requirements of the educated group and the long-term development of society, aiming at facing all students and improving their basic quality in an all-round way, and developing the potential of the educated and promoting the lively development of all aspects of the educated as the education of the past.
The national experience exchange meeting of quality education in primary and secondary schools clearly pointed out that "exam-oriented education" is not a summary of previous and current basic education, but a summary of many disadvantages existing in it simply for the sake of further study.
Denying "exam-oriented education" does not mean denying current education. The so-called "exam-oriented education" refers to an objective tendency in China's educational practice that deviates from the actual needs of educated groups and social development, pursues high scores simply to cope with exams, and unilaterally pursues the enrollment rate.
The main differences between quality education and exam-oriented education can be shown from the following 10 points: ① From the guiding ideology, quality education is to improve the quality of students in an all-round way, that is, to improve the quality of the people in an all-round way, which embodies modern advanced educational ideas; Examination-oriented education is an old and backward education of selection, imperial examination and elimination in order to cope with the entrance examination and pursue the enrollment rate.
(2) From the perspective of educational purposes: exam-oriented education is an education aimed at exam-oriented training in order to meet the choice needs of higher-level schools; Quality education, on the other hand, is an education that enables students to learn how to be a man, how to seek knowledge, how to live, how to keep fit, how to create and how to appreciate beauty according to the needs of social progress and human development.
(3) From the education object, exam-oriented education is a kind of "talent education" based on "improvement" that has been eliminated, while exam-oriented education is a kind of "general education" based on "popularization" and promoting the all-round development of every student.
④ From the educational content:? Examination-oriented education completely revolves around the requirements of examination, teaching and learning what to test, while ignoring "morality", "physique", "beauty" and "labor", which is an incomplete abnormal education. Quality education is an education that enables the educated to develop morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically and laboriously.
⑤ From the perspective of curriculum structure, exam-oriented education is a single subject, which only attaches importance to a few so-called "main subjects" and despises the so-called "minor subjects"; On the other hand, quality education is guided by modern curriculum theory, and the curriculum is divided into compulsory courses, elective courses and activity courses, all of which are included in the curriculum and treated equally with formal courses. Some schools also attach great importance to the development of "hidden courses", such as environmental education and school spirit construction.
⑥ From the point of view of students' schoolwork burden, exam-oriented education does not follow the curriculum plan, but randomly increases class hours, extra-curricular teaching, increases workload, frequent exams, floods of review materials and various competitions, which increases students' schoolwork burden; Quality education requires focusing on the all-round and harmonious development of students and strictly following the laws of education and teaching. Taking homework as an example, the content is moderate and the form is flexible. We not only attach importance to consolidated written homework, but also design personalized and creative activity homework, oral homework and behavior homework, and integrate extracurricular reading into cultivating healthy personality, which is conducive to students' all-round development.
⑦ From the relationship between teachers and students, exam-oriented education forces teachers to "choose students suitable for teaching" and emphasizes teachers' dignity. There is a relationship between teachers and students: manage and be managed, teach and be taught, irrigate and be irrigated. Quality education emphasizes respecting teachers and loving students, democracy and equality between teachers and students, and two-way communication. Teachers are required to respect, understand, trust, encourage and support every student, and the teaching art chosen by teachers should enable every student to get the development they deserve.
From the perspective of educational methods, exam-oriented education is an education in which students study passively, delve into books and get divorced from reality; Quality education is an education that attaches importance to double basics, develops intelligence and cultivates ability, so that students can be lively and develop actively.
From the perspective of teaching methods, exam-oriented education regards classroom and books as the only teaching methods, which is divorced from society and reality to varying degrees; In order to cultivate students' new quality to adapt to society and life, quality education requires socialization of education, building a "two-way participation" mechanism between schools and society, increasing teaching channels, broadening educational horizons, helping them get rid of the narrow self-isolation that is completely consistent with the baton of entering a higher school and implementing open modern education.
⑩ From the evaluation criteria, exam-oriented education takes "score" as the guidance, "rate" as the standard and "examination" as the magic weapon, and evaluates schools, teachers and students with this, and implements rigid, rigid and "one size fits all" education; Quality education, on the other hand, establishes the evaluation authority of social practice, downplays the warning and punishment functions of scores, regards students' differences as potential advantages of resources, and implements education that makes students' personality healthy and perfect.
From the above score of 10, we can basically draw a conclusion: exam-oriented education only pays attention to the utility of exam-taking, and does not care about people's all-round development; It is not to create an education suitable for students, but to shape students suitable for "education". The limitation of "exam-oriented education" in educational objects, one-sidedness in educational content, superficiality in educational process and falsity in educational achievements are very harmful to basic education and have a great influence on the improvement and healthy growth of primary and secondary school students. We must shake it, disintegrate it, transform it and turn it into the track of quality education through practical efforts.
The key to implementing quality education in an all-round way is to correct educational thoughts and establish a new concept of modern education. What new educational ideas should be established?
First of all, we should establish a correct view of educational objectives. Over the years, basic education has served to build the "pyramid" of education, only pursuing high scores and unilaterally pursuing the enrollment rate. As long as the score of the unified examination goes up, the enrollment rate goes up, that is, "a beautiful man covers all the ugliness" and "a hum is all experience" The goal of this kind of exam-oriented education must be changed, but the starting point and destination should be to train builders and successors with ideals, morality, culture and discipline in the socialist cause, and to establish the goal view of quality education with the aim of cultivating the educated's noble ideological and moral sentiments, rich scientific and cultural knowledge, healthy body, good psychological quality, strong practical ability and full development of individual characteristics, so as to enable students to develop in an all-round and harmonious way in morality, intelligence, physique and beauty.
Second, we should establish a correct view of talents. When it comes to "talents", people immediately think of experts, professors, engineers, scholars and so on. These "top talents" are talents, and qualified workers are also talents. It is necessary to change the rate of enrollment into talents, and only the rate of enrollment can become the talent view of talents; Establish the talent view of multi-channel growth and multi-standard education. It is necessary to realize that the social demand for talents is multi-faceted, multi-category, multi-level and multi-structured, requiring both natural science talents and social science talents; We need not only scientists, thinkers and theorists, but also a large number of skilled craftsmen. We need not only high-level social management talents, but also high-quality labor force engaged in socialist modernization. With the development of modern society and the establishment of market economy system, the requirements of society for talents are constantly changing, not only with rich knowledge and expertise, but also with extensive adaptability. Numerous examples at home and abroad have repeatedly proved that people with high academic qualifications may not all become talents, and those with low academic qualifications can gradually become outstanding talents in a certain field as long as their comprehensive quality is good.
Third, we should establish a correct concept of quality. Its main meaning is to completely abandon the outdated concept of success or failure based on test scores and enrollment rate, and establish an educational quality view based on the comprehensive improvement of basic qualities and the full development of individual specialties. We often say that "improving the quality of education in an all-round way" means to make students develop in all aspects, such as morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor, and to demand and measure students from a holistic and comprehensive point of view, from only looking at scores in the past to looking at the improvement of all-round qualities such as ideological and moral character, cultural and scientific knowledge, labor skills, personality specialties and physical and mental health in an all-round way.
Fourth, we should establish a correct teaching concept. We should completely abandon pure attention. "Top students", ignoring ordinary students; The traditional teaching concept of emphasizing knowledge over ability, books over practice, indoctrination over inspiration, rote memorization over thinking, teaching over self-study, acceptance over creation, classroom over extracurricular activities, and taking books, classrooms and teachers as the center; It is necessary to establish modern teaching concepts of teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, teaching and educating people, imparting knowledge and developing intelligence, theory and practice, teachers' leading role and students' dominant position, in-class and out-of-class, and paying attention to cultivating self-learning ability and creative spirit.
It can be said that the above four fundamental concepts have been changed and updated, laying a solid ideological foundation for the transformation of basic education.
Second, quality education and exam-oriented education are opposite in value.
Whether quality education and exam-oriented education are in opposition has always been controversial. Many people, especially educators, find it hard to accept that these two kinds of education are opposite, because it mainly involves two issues. First, how to evaluate the past education? It is believed that if the two kinds of education are opposed, it means a total denial of the previous education, which is at least emotionally unacceptable to educators. It is no wonder that when someone says that "our teachers in primary and secondary schools are diligent, conscientious and remain uncorrupted, they have made great contributions to the education of the motherland, but they are generally denied by the word" exam-oriented education ",it is easy to arouse the resonance of educators. Second, isn't quality education a test? Since quality education also requires exams, how can it be said that it is the opposite of exam-oriented education? These two problems have been partially explained.
How to see whether quality education and exam-oriented education are opposed? First of all, there is a question of thinking method. When people argue about this issue, they often pay attention to specific facts and ignore the way of thinking, that is, how to understand "opposition" and in what sense. Different ways of looking at problems have different understandings of the relationship between quality education and exam-oriented education.
What is "opposition" means "mutual exclusion, contradiction and struggle between two things or two aspects of a thing" immediately. [3] Opposition can be divided into factual opposition and value opposition. Factual opposition refers to the concrete existence or form of things, such as the existence of yin and yang, positive and negative facts. The opposition of value refers to the opposition of things in meaning, such as the opposition between individual standard and social standard, and the opposition between teacher center and student center in the pursuit of meaning or value. Fact opposition and value opposition may be consistent in some things, that is, there are both fact opposition and value opposition between things; These two opposites may also be different between some things, that is, things are not exclusive in fact, but exclusive in internal value. It should be admitted that in the field of social humanities, judging whether two things are opposite should focus on the value level rather than the fact level, because value is more essential than the fact.
It is said that quality education and exam-oriented education are not antagonistic. If the two kinds of education are mutually inclusive, that is, both quality education and exam-oriented education contain some common educational facts, especially in the sense that both kinds of education include exams and exams, and both include the pursuit of exam scores and enrollment rates, which can promote the improvement of students' quality, this view can be established. It is also true that quality education and exam-oriented education are opposites, if the opposition between the two kinds of education means the opposition in the fundamental sense and the opposition in value orientation. Obviously, the view that the two kinds of education are not antagonistic is based on a factual judgment; It is based on a value judgment that these two kinds of education have opposite characteristics. It should be said that the opposition between quality education and exam-oriented education can only refer to the opposition in educational value, that is, the opposition in educational fundamental value orientation such as what kind of education is better and what kind of education is more suitable for human development, but it does not mean that they do not contain some common educational facts and elements.
Exam-oriented education is a specific concept, and it is a summary of the main drawbacks in China's basic education. Quality education is put forward to solve these disadvantages directly, and there can be no value opposition between them. For example, exam-oriented education pursues teaching for exams, while quality education pursues teaching for development; Examination-oriented education is a kind of one-sided development education, and quality education is a kind of all-round development education; Examination-oriented education is aimed at a few students, while quality education is aimed at all students; Examination-oriented education advocates repetition, imitation and passive acceptance, while quality education advocates autonomous learning, self-construction and inquiry learning. Examination-oriented education suppresses individuality and creativity, while quality education encourages individuality and creativity; Examination-oriented education causes the separation and separation of knowledge and discipline, while quality education pays attention to the connection and integration of knowledge and discipline; Examination-oriented education leads to reading death, and quality education attaches importance to the cultivation of practical problem-solving ability; Examination-oriented education mostly improves people's superficial qualities such as memory, imitation and problem-solving skills, while quality education pays more attention to the development and activation of people's deep qualities such as wisdom, ability and creativity.
In the above sense, quality education and exam-oriented education are obviously opposed, mainly in the value orientation of education, rather than the specific facts of education. Take the exam as an example. The opposition between quality education and exam-oriented education lies not in whether there is an exam in form or in fact, but in what, how and why to take the exam, and in whether the value orientation of the exam meets the needs of social development, human development and the inherent needs of human nature. If education with exams is exam-oriented education, is it necessary to cancel exams to engage in quality education? This is ridiculous.
There has always been a confused way of thinking about the relationship between quality education and exam-oriented education. They don't understand that exam-oriented education is a unique concept, and it is a specific concept that summarizes all kinds of disadvantages existing in China's current education simply for entrance examination. They confuse the exam in fact with the exam in value, and confuse the exam in fact with the exam-oriented education in value. It is based on this way of thinking that some people put forward the idea of "quality education and exam-oriented education simultaneously". For example, some scholars have pointed out that in recent years, some domestic educators have highly appraised the quality education in the United States. In fact, the United States realized the negative effects of over-emphasizing quality education in the 1980s, and has added examinations in the education process, which is what we call "exam-oriented education". Therefore, we should realize the organic combination of quality education and exam-oriented education. He believes that although exam-oriented education has many disadvantages, it cannot be completely denied, and it is regarded as the opposite and obstacle of quality education; Examination-oriented education plays an irreplaceable role and cannot be completely abolished or obliterated. Re-learning and re-testing can be described as the expression of learning cycle and law, which conforms to the cognitive law. [4] Obviously, this argument confuses "exam-oriented" and "exam-oriented education" and confuses the boundaries between facts and values. Its logic is just as pointed out before: if there is education, there will be exams, and if there is exams, there will be exams, which is naturally exam-oriented education. This logic is untenable. However, similar views are still quite common at present, and this way of thinking has become an irresistible force for the in-depth implementation of quality education. It is necessary to clarify an understanding here. Although American schools have indeed strengthened their examinations in recent years, it must be pointed out that: first, American schools have properly strengthened their examinations under the premise and background of always ignoring examinations, which is completely different from China's educational background; Second, strengthening examinations in American schools is by no means what we think of as "exam-oriented education", and it will not change the mainstream values of American education; Third, the reasons for the disadvantages of American education are not "over-emphasis on quality education", but complicated reasons. Strengthening some exams does not mean that we should do less quality education, but we should further improve and improve the quality of students through the strengthening and reform of exams. How can there be a natural binary split between examination and improving quality? Although examination-oriented education and quality education are opposite in value, there is no doubt that examination and examination are opposite to quality education and improving people's quality. From this point of view, the above argument is inappropriate because it does not really understand the specific concept of "exam-oriented education", equates denying exam-oriented education with canceling exams, and fails to clarify the nature and connotation of the opposition between "quality education" and "exam-oriented education".
Can quality education and exam-oriented education be carried out simultaneously in education? See what kind of thinking way to look at this problem. If "exam-oriented" is regarded as a commendatory term, that is, the so-called exam-oriented education should be an attempt to quality education, then quality education and exam-oriented education are unified in essence, and it doesn't matter what they do simultaneously; If "exam-oriented" is regarded as a neutral word, it only focuses on the factual judgment that there must be an exam when there is an exam, and does not involve value judgments such as what to test, how to test, why to test, what to do, how to deal with it, and why to do it. Then the relationship between quality education and exam-oriented education is ambiguous and cannot be generalized. If "exam-oriented" is regarded as a derogatory term, that is, exam-oriented education is a specific concept mentioned above, then quality education and exam-oriented education are opposite in the basic value orientation of education, so they cannot develop at the same time. The view that both quality education and exam-oriented education are inappropriate mainly stems from two points. First, it confuses the value boundary between quality education and exam-oriented education, and does not understand that exam-oriented education is a concrete concept. It doesn't understand that denying exam-oriented education means denying the exam and the exam itself, just denying the wrong value orientation. Second, I think that examination, examination and quality are binary and irrelevant, so they seem to be two different things. In fact, an important problem to be solved in quality education is to change the value orientation of examination, so as to achieve the unity of dealing with examination and improving quality as far as possible, but this cannot be called "synchronous development" as mentioned above, because this "synchronous development" does not mean the value change of examination-oriented education, but only focuses on the facts of examination.
Of course, we have to admit that quality education and exam-oriented education are indeed parallel and synchronous in different degrees in the current educational reality, but this is largely a helpless move under the coexistence and double extrusion of the two kinds of education, not the will of educators. In the process of the transformation from exam-oriented education to quality-oriented education, when the value orientation and various practices of exam-oriented education began to waver but were far from being overcome, and quality-oriented education began to be implemented but was far from being truly established, the coexistence of the two kinds of education resulted in the double constraints and double squeeze of the two educational value orientations on real education. On the one hand, under the realistic and irresistible social pressure and school evaluation, schools have to adapt to this value orientation and adhere to some improper practices of exam-oriented education in order to survive in the fierce competition for running schools; At the same time, schools must also face the orientation and requirements of quality education, including the implementation of new courses, because under this background, the value orientation of various entrance examinations is also changing. In recent years, the examination reform is gradually moving closer to the value orientation advocated by quality education and new curriculum. In the past, the old ways to cope with the senior high school entrance examination, such as sweat plus time, sea tactics, rote memorization and serious partiality, were still effective and had to be adhered to, but they were not as effective as before. Some efforts must be made to improve students' internal quality, such as creativity, ability to analyze and solve practical problems, knowledge and comprehensive literacy. In this case, in the process of gradually changing from exam-oriented education to quality education, schools should deal with both the existing exam-oriented education and the emerging quality education, that is, the two kinds of education should be carried out at the same time, but this is essentially different from the proposition that "quality education and exam-oriented education should be carried out at the same time" advocated and encouraged by some scholars. In reality, the coexistence of two kinds of education is largely a helpless move. It is an expedient measure to deal with the educational dilemma caused by the conflict between quality education and exam-oriented education. It is normal and understandable, but it is not suitable for public publicity and encouragement, nor is it based on the value orientation of recognizing and accepting exam-oriented education.
References:
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[3] Editorial Department of Dictionary of Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Modern Chinese Dictionary (Revised Edition) [z]. Beijing: Commercial Press, 1996.438+09.
[4] Yang. Get out of the misunderstanding of quality education [J]. Exploration and contention, 2002, (7): 17.