Professor Chen Yuehong believes that in order to meet the needs of contemporary global social competition, universities should strive to cultivate students' advanced professional skills and scientific and academic innovation ability. The author believes that general education and professional education (profound professional knowledge and scientific academic innovation ability) are not antagonistic, they complement each other, complement each other and go hand in hand.
There is no doubt that higher education is a kind of vocational education in form, which is the objective law that the development of higher education must follow and the foundation of the existence of modern universities. However, professional education has also brought a series of disadvantages: professional education leads to knowledge itself becoming a commodity, and higher education is increasingly becoming an education for vocational training and skill training; Students receive higher education not out of the true nature of education, but in order to find a good job; Narrow professional education isolates professionals from interdisciplinary dialogue, and may even make their attention deviate from the basic objectives of the discipline; Specialization also creates a sense of domain, and the progress made by each major is only in its own field, which can easily lead to an education called "knowledge celibacy" and "lifeless" by philosopher Whitehead, losing the integrity and richness that a major should have.
Therefore, in order to overcome the "cost" of extreme professional education, make modern universities truly assume historical responsibilities and make higher education a complete education, we should strengthen general education, so that general education and professional education can develop harmoniously and become an integral part of modern education. General education can help students form a holistic view of knowledge. In essence, knowledge itself is a complete concept, and all knowledge is intrinsically related. No knowledge serves only one purpose or has only one function. Karen pointed out: "Because any thought, thing, occupation or skill that is conducive to the formation of thinking can be the foundation of ideological emancipation, any art and craft, any article, qualification and concept system can be the tools of general education". Whitehead also believes that "no course only cultivates students' general knowledge, while another course only teaches professional knowledge". Therefore, it can be said that there is actually no general education that exists independently from professional education.
As Professor Wang of Fudan University said, general education and professional education are not completely opposite. General education excludes professional education which is highly one-sided and extreme at present. Therefore, the scientific and reasonable implementation of the humanistic spirit of professional education is no different from that of general education.
General education emphasizes the cultivation of social citizens with critical spirit, social responsibility, compassion and love. The purpose of general education is to cultivate students with sound personality, rational wisdom and understanding the dignity and value of life. General education can transcend utility and carry forward humanistic spirit and scientific spirit, which is the goal pursued by professional education. Professional education emphasizes the cultivation of talents with academic spirit and rational thinking. In this sense, professional education embodies the concept of general education.
Second, general education should be a lifelong education for modern people.
In view of the limited educational time and course credits in universities, Professor Chen Yuehong believes that universities should focus on cultivating advanced professional skills and scientific academic innovation ability, and return the general quality education task based on knowledge breadth to middle schools, primary schools, society and even families. The author believes that this is only the author's consideration based on educational content. As an educational idea, general education should be a lifelong education for modern people.
Primary and secondary schools emphasize quality education and pay attention to cultivating students' innovative consciousness and ability; Universities emphasize general education and cultivate students' sound personality and thoughts. They are highly consistent in essence, but they have different functions. If primary and secondary education leads students on the road, then university education leads students on the road, both of which are "adult" education. However, in the face of China's educational reality, we must frankly admit that due to the educational system and other factors, the absence of general education in primary and secondary education leads to the primary and secondary education in China only staying at the level of exam-oriented education. The lack of students' knowledge breadth and spiritual sentiment caused by the current college entrance examination-oriented teaching system urgently needs universities to make up for it through general education, rather than backfiring-returning the task of general quality education based on knowledge breadth to primary and secondary schools.
In addition, the general education in universities should strengthen the connection with middle school education, and the university education and middle school education should not be separated. Harvard University's famous red book "General Education in a Free Society" had a great influence on American general education after World War II, and spent a lot of space on middle school education. Practice shows that universities can't design good general education courses without strengthening the connection with middle schools. University education and middle school education complement each other. University education needs general quality education based on the breadth of knowledge, and middle school education also needs innovative education based on the depth of knowledge, instead of dividing them into two diametrically opposite disciplines like Professor Chen Yuehong.
Moreover, with the arrival of the knowledge economy era and the demand of people's sustainable development, general education, as an education adapted to a free and open society, should not only be implemented in primary and secondary schools and universities, but also become a lifelong education for modern people. Individuals who receive general education and training will not only get general education based on knowledge breadth, but also have advanced professional skills and scientific academic innovation ability, and will have the ability to explore more knowledge in real life and adapt to interdisciplinary migration.
Obviously, the implementation of general education meets the needs of developing lifelong education in a learning society and provides new vitality for the educational development of the whole society.
Thirdly, the goal of general education is to cultivate students' critical thinking ability.
In order to solve the problem of "a general lack of deep understanding of students' ability to accept and understand because of too simple special education", people put forward different schemes. In view of the former, many scholars believe that general education is only a supplement to professional education, and its value lies in solving the lack of knowledge in a broad sense and increasing the edification of some qualities; In view of the latter, Professor Chen Yuehong put forward the view that "the general direction of general education in universities in China should choose a deep mode dominated by subject mastery, thinking training, academic dialogue and academic training". The depth model of general education advocated by Professor Chen Yuehong seems to grasp the focus of general education in universities, but in essence it separates the breadth and depth of general education and makes the mistake of binary opposition.
"The core of general education is to inherit the tradition of' freedom' and' humanity'. Simple knowledge learning or skill training can't help students understand what is the long-standing foundation of our civilization ... Unless students can be constantly and critically exposed to these traditions of freedom and humanity at every stage of their growth, the ideal of general education is empty talk. " Whether we choose a broad knowledge diffusion and combination model, or choose a deep general education model dominated by discipline grasping, thinking training, academic dialogue and academic training, or even a professional education that completely teaches all professional knowledge in the field, we should take cultivating students' critical thinking ability as one of the primary goals, and use thinking methods to replace knowledge infusion, otherwise this kind of knowledge learning will be meaningless. One of the purposes of general education in colleges and universities is to experience the wisdom of students. Through general education, we can show students the differences and connections between different knowledge systems and their knowledge achievements, understand the wisdom realm and thinking mode of different disciplines, and cultivate students' critical thinking ability. As Newman, a British educator, said, "General education should include the overall generalization of knowledge, the principles on which knowledge depends, the types of knowledge, the bright side and dark side of knowledge, and the advantages and disadvantages of knowledge, so that this kind of education can produce an intrinsic value, a psychological habit of freedom, equality, calmness, humility and wisdom." In addition, as far as knowledge is concerned, general education should ensure the breadth and balance of knowledge. Without breadth, where is the depth of knowledge? If it is only breadth, not depth, what is the significance of breadth of knowledge?
How to make general education fulfill the important mission of cultivating students' critical thinking ability? The author thinks that while discussing the construction of general education curriculum system, we should strengthen the research on new teaching forms of general education. At present, general education in most colleges and universities pays more attention to teaching content than teaching methods. The number and types of courses are increasing, but the teaching methods are old and unchanging. The importance of teaching content outweighs teaching methods, and the teaching form of general education mostly stays at the level of "receiving education". The teaching form of general education should adhere to the "people-oriented" educational concept of general education, break through the original teaching form, advocate "subjective teaching" and adopt "critical teaching". Teachers should take practical measures to encourage students to actively participate in the classroom and cultivate students' critical thinking through various forms of discussion classes. Teaching management departments should also increase the weight of teaching form evaluation of general education courses. Practice has also proved that it doesn't really matter whether to pay attention to the breadth or depth of general education in teaching as long as it is conducive to cultivating students' critical thinking ability.
Fourth, general education should be holistic education.
In the positioning of the practical path of general education, the fundamental reason why Professor Chen Yuehong falls into the trap of either or lies in his misunderstanding of general education. Defining the purpose of general education is the premise and guarantee of implementing general education. There are various misunderstandings in the reform of general education, the root of which lies in people's unclear understanding of the purpose of general education. Only under the guidance of clear general education objectives can we guide and supervise the implementation of general education. The so-called general education is not only a university idea or "university view", but also a talent training model. It originated from the free education advocated by the famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. The purpose of this free education is to make "people become people" and "cultivate all-round and valuable people".
The concept of general education in the modern sense comes from the process that liberal education is challenged. Historically, the goal of higher education changed from "all-rounder" to "specialized talents", which was a historic progress at that time. However, under the requirement of specialization, over-specialized university education has lost the pursuit of ultimate goal and significance, which often leads to the cultivation of "half-person" and the real purpose of "whole person", and the real purpose of education is to cultivate "person". As Fromm criticized: "The purpose of our education now is mainly to cultivate citizens who are useful to the social machine, not to develop students' humanity".
From 65438 to 0945, Harvard Committee put forward the famous report "General Education in a Free Society", which is the symbol of general education in the modern sense. This report is a continuation and transformation of the spirit of liberal education in ancient Greece. The report puts forward that general education should focus on the harmonious development of students' body, morality and intelligence, and its goal is to cultivate a complete person, that is, an "educated" person with comprehensive knowledge, broad vision and complete personality. The purpose of general education is not only to enable students to acquire extensive knowledge and master the main methods of studying problems in different knowledge fields, but also to enable students to acquire the ability of all-round development. Cultivating people with all-round development better expresses the theme of modern general education.