A high-level forum on China's development with the theme of "China in the new five-year plan period" was held in Beijing a few days ago. In the "Higher Education and Innovative Talents Training" sub-venue, President Su Bide of Yale University, President Zhu Chongshi of Xiamen University, President Garrett of Wharton Business School of the United States, President Qian Yingyi of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, and President Mei Lite of the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University? Jano discussed higher education and the cultivation of innovative talents.
Su Bide believes that humanistic education can provide people with some rules of discipline, and then inspire people to innovate. "Alibaba's undergraduate course in Cai Chongxin is at Yale, studying law. I asked him a question, when studying at Yale, which knowledge was the most important to his success in Alibaba and Alibaba's success as a company. He said that the most important courses at Yale are not engineering and accounting, nor legal knowledge. Although all these are helpful, jazz lessons are the most helpful. His jazz lessons helped him learn how to think creatively, how to improvise and how to understand and understand the environment. " Su Bide said that the advantage of higher education does not necessarily lie in technology, not that learning technology is not important, but that humanities education also pays attention to improvisation, innovation, integration and teamwork, which is also very important for personal success.
Zhu Chongshi, president of Xiamen University, said that innovative talents are the most important and precious resources for national and social development. To become an innovative talent, you must have three most important elements, one is professionalism, the other is spirit, and the third is a desire to seek truth, or a strong sense of curiosity and dissatisfaction. "From the perspective of these three elements, it is difficult for a person to be born. And professionalism, spirit and desire for truth, more importantly, rely on acquired education and training. Therefore, education, especially higher education, plays a vital role in cultivating these three elements of a person. " Zhu Chongshi said.
Zhu Chongshi believes that there are several shortcomings in the cultivation of innovative talents in higher education in China. First, colleges and universities do not really take promoting people's all-round development as the highest goal in their educational philosophy. Colleges and universities usually take the employment rate as the most important goal, but do not really take promoting people's all-round development as the highest goal of running a school. Second, the way of education is backward, and the state of teachers taking notes has not fundamentally changed. Third, the overall level of teachers is not high. Fourth, the school's education funds, teaching funds, especially teaching funds are still insufficient, which restricts the implementation, exploration and practice of some advanced teaching methods. Fifth, the education authorities' evaluation of universities is too single, which restricts the formation of their own characteristics. Sixth, the university's evaluation of students is too single, and there is no cultural atmosphere that encourages adventure and tolerates failure. Finally, the selection mechanism of universities is too backward, and students are led by the nose by exams.
"The fundamental reform should really take promoting the all-round development of people as the pursuit of universities, and universities should really take talent training as the top priority." Zhu Chongshi suggested that universities should be given more autonomy; Universities should increase investment in teaching; The whole society should create a cultural atmosphere that encourages innovation and tolerates failure; Thoroughly reform the college entrance examination system, especially the postgraduate selection system.
According to Professor Garrett, Dean of Wharton Business School, the biggest growth point of higher education in the next 5- 10 years is not academic education, but lifelong education. Because the world is changing rapidly, we have many ways to carry out lifelong learning. Secondly, we can feedback our campus study through online learning, and provide more opportunities for more students through online learning.
"In the process of cultivating creative talents, we often ask ourselves a basic question, that is, how to conduct the highest level of research and how to compete for the best employees and students. One more thing. We let the best researchers and scholars carry out front-line teaching and let them complete teaching tasks, which will help cultivate innovative talents. " Mei Lite, Dean of School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University? Professor Jie Nuo said.
Qian Yingyi, Dean of Tsinghua University Institute of Economics and Management, believes that the fundamental feature of innovative talents is creativity. Creativity can be further divided into three kinds of creativity, namely creative spirit, creative thinking and creative ability. To cultivate talents with three elements of creativity, we must first reform the educational model. When we attach importance to creativity in education, we should not only instill knowledge, no matter how cutting-edge, basic and comprehensive it is, but also pay attention to the cultivation of ability. Although we don't know what is the best mode of creativity education, its necessary condition is very clear, that is, a free, relaxed and tolerant educational environment. Qian Yingyi said that no matter what kind of formal education, it is hard to avoid the effect of reducing creativity, because any process of cultivating students, especially our traditional and familiar teaching methods, evaluation methods and talent selection methods, as long as they are effective in improving the average level, will make extreme people or people's extreme thoughts more normal, which will lead to convergence. This has formed the paradox of cultivating innovative talents. This reminds us that the process of talent training is flawed.
"When we put all our attention on the cultivation of innovative talents, we should jump out of this fixed thinking frame and pay attention to discovering and protecting those unusual people who are as important as cultivation, even more important, or look extreme, or have extreme ideas. More important than training is training. It is to create an environment for outstanding talents to stand out. When they appear, we can find them, appreciate them and protect them. Education and training talents should be modest. We should find those who do not meet the known standards and give space to those who are not used to it. " Qian Yingyi said. (China Education News Network reporter Zhang Chunming)