Research, creative thinking, research objectives, feelings and experiences
I. Introduction to the theme
The subject of "Cultivating Middle School Students' Creative Thinking Ability" declared by me was approved by the Provincial Leading Group for Educational Science Planning and the Provincial Department of Education, and was determined as the provincial educational science planning project in 2004. This topic advocates a teaching mode that is problem-centered, based on the principles of students' independent activities, cooperation and exchange, questioning and inquiry, and centered on subjective thinking activities. After two years of experimental research, the first round of experiments has achieved initial results. On September 24, 2006, the project passed the evaluation and acceptance by the provincial project evaluation expert group, and the project was completed as scheduled. The achievement of this project won the first prize of the 6th Excellent Educational and Scientific Research Achievement in Anhui Province.
The project framework is as follows:
One goal: to cultivate innovative talents.
Two beliefs: first, firmly believe that everyone is creative; Second, we firmly believe that education can activate people's creative thinking ability.
Three principles: independent construction in activities; Cooperation and development in communication; Explore and discover in questioning.
Four steps: ask, think, do and comment.
Five combinations: the combination of inductive thinking and deductive thinking; The combination of analytical thinking and comprehensive thinking; The combination of divergent thinking and convergent thinking; The combination of historical thinking and logical thinking; The combination of logical thinking and illogical thinking.
Six emancipations: liberating the eyes; Emancipate the mind; Free your hands; Free your mouth; Liberate space; Liberation time.
Second, feel the experience.
(A) the topic should be targeted and easy to operate.
The problem is the subject, and the teacher is the researcher. The research of first-line middle school teachers is different from that of scientists and professional researchers. Middle school teachers pay attention to the problems in educational practice, taking school as the foundation and action research as the main form. Puzzles or problems encountered in educational work are the research topics of front-line teachers. The provincial project "cultivating middle school students' creative thinking ability" which I presided over is aimed at the thinking defects of rural middle school students. Because of timidity, fear, formality and isolation, teachers have long been accustomed to one-way indoctrination, passive acceptance, long-term mechanical copying, rote memorization and degraded thinking, rural middle school classrooms are often monotonous and boring, and students are afraid, unwilling and unwilling to ask. It not only affects students' interest in learning, but also douses teachers' passion for teaching. In order to completely change this situation, this topic is based on the classroom teaching reform, advocating the teaching mode of taking the problem as the center, taking students' independent activities, cooperation and communication, questioning and inquiry as the principles, and taking the main thinking activity as the core, changing the traditional classroom teaching mode, and then guiding the transformation of students' learning methods. This topic not only comes from the problems in education and teaching practice, but also has a certain theoretical height and bright foresight. Because the competition of future intelligence is mainly the competition of thinking ability, that is, the competition of advanced, scientific, profound and creative thinking. As a kind of ability and quality, thinking is the concentrated expression of human wisdom. In the information society, intelligence is no longer a simple accumulation of knowledge, and thinking is more powerful than knowledge. Because between knowledge and thinking, knowledge itself is worthless, and the value of knowledge exists in the process of "solving problems", and when knowledge is used to solve problems, knowledge will play its thinking training value. We regard knowledge as the material to solve problems and develop thinking, and should not regard knowledge itself as an end. Therefore, teaching students to think and improving the value of people's quality of life is the direction of education reform.
(B) accurate positioning of research objectives is the key.
When the host declared the project, he designed and demonstrated the implementation steps and guarantee conditions of the project. In order to ensure that the experimental research of the project takes fewer detours, it is very necessary to ask experts to demonstrate again and modify and improve the original design when the project is established. On March 8, 2005, we invited the Associate Professor of the State Supervision Branch who taught and directed the experiment of "Cultivating Middle School Students' Creative Thinking Ability" to come to our school to guide the research. According to the five guiding opinions put forward by Professor Chen Yukun at the training meeting for members of the research group, we made necessary modifications to the project framework, implementation plan and supplementary rules, thus ensuring the standardization, orderliness and scientific rigor of the research. These changes are mainly around the research objectives, including the following three elements:
1. The principle of doing what you can.
The subject value orientation is very important. How to position our subject? Where is its originality? Theoretical innovation is beyond our power. What we can do is to apply the research results of experts to our teaching practice according to the specific actual situation and further improve the innovative theory of experts. According to the guidance of Professor Chen Yukun, we define the originality of the subject experiment as innovation in practical operation. On the basis of theoretical research and starting from the characteristics of each discipline, each discipline summarizes the methods to improve the creative thinking ability of middle school students. According to the characteristics of each subject, one or two methods can be found to help students ask, think and solve problems, thus cultivating their thinking ability.
2. Based on the principle of solving practical problems
Classroom teaching is the main channel to implement the new curriculum and the main position to cultivate students' creative thinking ability. Our topic stems from the problems in education and teaching practice, and the experiment of the topic should of course be based on solving practical problems in education and teaching and point to classroom teaching. The traditional classroom teaching mode suppresses students' creativity, restricts the free and diversified development of students' own thinking ability, leads to a single thinking process, and is not conducive to students' all-round development, all-round development and personality development. On the other hand, if the new curriculum is not transformed into a classroom, the new curriculum is still ideological. We position the research of the subject in the classroom teaching reform, explore the transformation of teaching methods and teaching models, and ask all research groups to make a fuss about the "three principles, four steps and five combinations" of the subject framework. "Independent construction in activities, cooperative development in communication and discovery in questioning" is the essence of the "three principles" advocated by this topic, that is, the reform of classroom teaching mode and teaching method is the focus of this experimental research, that is, the reform of teachers' classroom teaching mode, and then the reform of students' learning methods is guided: from "monologue teaching" to "dialogue teaching" and "inquiry teaching"
3. The principle of project achievement presentation
The thinking defects of urban and rural middle school students are both common and different. The object of our project experiment is rural middle school students. Therefore, our experience and achievements in the experiment can only be of universal significance and popularization value to similar schools. Therefore, according to Professor Chen Yukun's opinion, in the demonstration and popularization of the project results, we should pay attention to the experience and achievements gained through our experiments, which will play an exemplary role in improving the classroom teaching of rural middle schools and improving the creative thinking ability of rural middle school students, and has promotional value. Therefore, the focus of our project experiment is to explore the correction strategy of rural middle school students' thinking defects through classroom teaching reform, develop a teaching model conducive to the development of rural middle school students' creative thinking ability, and extract the results worthy of promotion in similar schools. Under the existing conditions, it is reliable and effective to improve the internal structure of classroom teaching and talent training mode in rural middle schools. "Three Principles", "Four Steps" and "Five Combinations" are highly operational teaching methods, teaching models and teaching strategies. Its purpose is to make the boring classroom in rural middle schools active, let students move and actively and substantively participate in the classroom teaching process.
The change of teaching mode and teaching method has caused the change of students' learning style. Self-construction in activities enables rural middle school students to overcome shyness and timidity, and want to speak, dare to speak and be able to speak in class; In the comprehensive practical activities, I used my brain, hands and mouth to appreciate the bitterness of failure, the hardships of creation and the joy of success. Cooperate and develop in communication, overcome isolation, loneliness, indifference and selfishness, and learn to listen, respect, communicate and cooperate; Exploration and discovery in questioning have changed the phenomenon of passive acceptance, rote memorization and rigid thinking, and learned to think, question and explore. To a certain extent, it has corrected the thinking defects of rural middle school students and gained some successful experiences, which has certain demonstration and popularization value for similar schools.
(3) Pay attention to the process, participation and professional development of teachers.
The results of the research are very important, but this is not the fundamental purpose of the experiment. The fundamental purpose is to cultivate teams and promote teachers' professional development. By participating in the project experiment, teachers can learn theory, change their ideas, learn to learn, learn to reflect and grow constantly.
More than 70 teachers who participated in this survey basically covered the backbone teachers of all disciplines in our school. In view of the misunderstanding of rural middle school students' thinking, this paper explores and summarizes the ways to improve middle school students' problem consciousness and inquiry ability from the characteristics of their own disciplines, so as to optimize the thinking quality of rural middle school students and cultivate their innovative spirit. The process of teachers participating in the project experiment is also a process of self-learning and self-improvement. They have carefully studied the series of Teacher Education in the New Century, Suhomlinski's Advice to Teachers, and Tao Xingzhi's Collection of Pedagogy, Psychology, Creativity, Multiple Intelligences Theory and Constructivism Learning Theory, especially the training, guidance, lectures and evaluation of experts from the School of Public Administration of East China Normal University, which further broadened teachers' horizons, changed teachers' concepts and improved teachers' theoretical literacy and teaching and research level. In the past two years, members of the research group have published more than 20 papers and won more than 50 prizes in the teaching and research paper contest organized by provincial and municipal education institutes. The host also published a monograph of 250,000 words. A million-word compilation of project results and five expert guidance papers; 7 project summaries; 13 experimental report; 54 experimental experiences; 49 teaching designs and teaching records; 54 action research reports and comprehensive practical activities (pieces).
Third, inadequacy and confusion.
1. This subject is an interdisciplinary comprehensive subject, with a large number of people participating in the experiment. Different subjects have different characteristics, and the quality of the members of the research group is uneven, with different levels of ideological understanding and enthusiasm for participation. Therefore, the development is uneven and the results are very different. In addition, in the experiment, the characteristics of the subjects are not outstanding.
2. The benefits of conducting research experiments are hidden and long-term, while the college entrance examination rate is dominant and immediate. The pressure of entering a higher school has a very obvious influence on the participation and enthusiasm of teachers and students. The recognition of parents, society, competent departments and administrative leaders also has a great influence on the teachers who participate in the project experiment. The teaching task is heavy, and they are too busy to do anything, which also makes teachers flinch from learning the subject and do nothing. Therefore, there are still many things to be done to create a rich teaching and research atmosphere and an environment in which everyone supports and actively participates in the project experiment. The educational concept formed by long-term exam-oriented education makes teachers lack autonomy and creative spirit, and it is difficult to find an effective radical solution in a short time.
Therefore, schools, parents, social and educational authorities should attach importance to, understand and support the subject research, create a rich teaching and research atmosphere, promote teachers' professional development through school-based training, school-based research and subject research, and carefully build a team of teachers with new ideas, high quality and professionalism.
★ Author: Yezhai Middle School, Qianshan, Anhui Province.