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At present, the understanding of higher vocational education is very inconsistent. To develop higher vocational education well, it is very important to have a unified understanding. An important understanding is what is higher vocational education?
The so-called higher vocational education can be summarized in three sentences: higher education; It is vocational and technical education; It is an advanced stage of vocational and technical education.
This generalization is well-founded:
The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Reform of Education System promulgated by 1 and 1985 clearly points out: "... actively develop higher vocational and technical colleges, ... and gradually establish a vocational and technical education system from elementary to advanced, with supporting industries, reasonable structure and connection with general education". After the promulgation of the Decision, 126 vocational universities have been established nationwide.
2. 199 1 year, the Decision of the State Council on Vigorously Developing Vocational and Technical Education was promulgated. The Decision clearly defines the nature, position, function, direction, tasks and measures of vocational and technical education. And once again reiterated the establishment of primary, secondary and advanced vocational education system, and once again put forward the task of actively developing higher vocational and technical education.
3.65438 to 0994, a national conference on education was held, after which the State Council promulgated the Outline of Education Reform and Development. The meeting clearly pointed out two key points for the future development of education in China, namely, basic education (the most important thing) and vocational and technical education. The Outline points out more clearly: "Vocational education is an important part of modern education and an important pillar of industrialization, socialization and modernization of production." The implementation opinion of "Outline" puts forward: "Divide primary school, junior high school and senior high school in a planned way, vigorously develop vocational education, and gradually form an educational sequence in which primary, secondary and higher vocational education and general education develop together, connect with each other and have a reasonable proportion." "Actively develop diversified post-high school vocational education and training. By reforming existing colleges, vocational universities and adult colleges, we will organize flexible and diverse higher vocational classes and actively develop higher vocational education. "
4. During the period of1996, a national conference on vocational education was held. In the same year, the National People's Congress passed and promulgated the Vocational Education Law. The vocational education conference put forward that through three levels of diversion, through "three reforms and one supplement" (the reform of colleges, vocational universities and adult colleges; Secondary specialized schools run higher vocational classes well as a supplement to vigorously develop higher vocational education. At the same time, the promulgation of "Vocational Education Law" makes vocational education move towards the road of managing education according to law. Article 13 of the Vocational Education Law stipulates: "Vocational school education is divided into primary, secondary and higher vocational school education. ..... Higher vocational school education shall be implemented by higher vocational schools or ordinary institutions of higher learning according to needs and conditions. "
From 5.65438 to 0998, the National People's Congress passed and promulgated the Higher Education Law. The Higher Education Law clearly points out: "Institutions of higher learning mentioned in this Law refer to universities, independent colleges and junior colleges, including higher vocational schools and adult colleges." Here, higher vocational schools are clearly defined as a part of higher education.
6. 1997 UNESCO promulgated the international education standard classification. The Standard Classification divides education into seven levels: preschool education is 0, primary education is 1, junior high school education is 2, senior high school education is 3, there is a tutorial period between senior high school and university education is 4, university education is 5, and graduate education is 6. "Standard Classification" divides university education (grade five) into academic education (5A) and technical education (5B). The "Standard Classification" describes academic education (5A) as follows: "The courses are largely theoretical, and the purpose is to fully prepare for advanced research courses and occupations required by engineering." The description of technology-oriented education (5B) in Standard Classification is: "The course content is practical and divided into specific occupations. The main purpose is to enable students to acquire practical skills and knowledge needed to engage in a certain occupation or industry or a certain type of occupation or industry. Students who have completed this level of study generally have the abilities and qualifications needed to enter the labor market. "
From the "standard classification", we can see that 5B is the higher vocational education pursued by our country, and its development is the general trend of world education, not a national phenomenon. With the promulgation of standard classification, higher vocational education has been recognized by authority.
7.1In June 1999, the National Education Work Conference was held, and the State Council and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China promulgated the Decision on Accelerating Education Reform and Promoting Quality Education in an All-round Way. The Decision states: "Higher vocational education is an important part of higher education. We must vigorously develop higher vocational education and train a large number of technical applied talents with certain theoretical knowledge and strong practical ability. "
At this point, we can be sure that higher vocational education is the summary of higher education, vocational education and the advanced stage of vocational education.
According to the classification of world education standards issued by UNESCO 1997, vocational and technical education is divided into three levels: primary (2B), secondary (3B) and higher (5B). Vocational and technical education in primary and secondary schools is defined as skill-based education, and higher vocational and technical education is defined as technical education.
Why is higher vocational education a technical education? Because human beings can't engage in certain production activities and social activities without four kinds of talents: one is academic talents: these talents are engaged in discovering laws, creating theories, conducting theoretical research, consulting and suggesting. Such as experts, scholars and theoretical researchers; One is engineering talents: these talents are engaged in planning, planning and design. Such as the development and design of industrial products, production and marketing decisions, urban planning, landscape design, etc. The third kind of talents is technical talents. Also known as craft, administration and intermediate talents. Through their labor, the design, planning and decision-making of engineering talents will be transformed into material products or have a concrete effect on social operation. Such as factory technicians, process engineers, agronomists, etc. The fourth kind of talents is skilled talents. Such talents are also in the production line or work site, mainly engaged in direct operation, and such talents are skilled workers.
These four types of talents are indispensable for social activities, economic operation and development. The importance of the first and second talents is self-evident, and people pay more attention to it. However, the role of the latter two types of talents is lacking due understanding and attention. This is inseparable from China's long-term emphasis on theory over practice, on science over technology, and on mental work over physical work. Although China's higher education has been reformed since 1958, and some achievements have been made, fundamentally speaking, this situation has not changed.
A specific production activity and social activity requires a small number of talents of the first and second categories, but a large number of talents of the third and fourth categories. In the era of industrial economy, the structural model of talents is pyramid.
In western European countries, technical talents exist as an independent type of talents. Its title sequence is technician, technician and senior technician.
In China, technical talents have not been distinguished from engineering talents. Technical posts are held by two kinds of talents, one is graduates from secondary specialized schools, and the other is graduates from ordinary colleges and universities. The work of these two types of talents in technical posts is flawed. The former lacks theoretical knowledge and technical ability, while the latter lacks technical ability.
Obviously, the intelligent structures of the four types of talents are different. Professor W.K.Lebold of Purdue University pointed out: "Engineers are developers or designers of products, production processes and engineering systems." "Technicians are typical engineering practitioners. What they care about is how to apply engineering principles to practice and how to organize production personnel to engage in production preparation and on-site operation. " Therefore, there should be four different types of education to cultivate these four types of talents respectively. The track of British education development illustrates this point. Before the industrial revolution, it was mainly academic education, such as Cambridge and Oxford University, which mainly offered courses such as literature, history and philosophy. After the industrial revolution, products become more and more complex, and products need special designers and engineers to study the production process. So 1926, the new university movement began, and a number of new universities emerged, such as London University and Nottingham University. These universities are all engineering universities, which are closely related to the industries in their regions. After World War II, science and technology developed rapidly, the momentum of science and technology entering production was fierce, the technology was complex and the technology was upgraded. Engineering talents can't cope with the technical work of planning, design and management at the same time, and they need specialized personnel to deal with technical problems, so technical schools, such as London Institute of Technology, have emerged. Therefore, since the 1960s, many technical education schools have appeared all over the world, such as community colleges in the United States and technical colleges in universities. German colleges and dual vocational colleges; Japanese colleges and technical universities; Malaysia Institute of Comprehensive Technology; Technical colleges and universities in Taiwan Province Province are all institutions of higher learning for training technical talents.
Therefore, the training goal of higher vocational and technical education is to train technical talents. Therefore, higher vocational education can be called technical education.