Germany's "dual system" vocational education has effectively promoted the rapid development of Germany's economy after the war.

Since the 1970s, the training goal of "key ability", the teaching method of "action-oriented" and the curriculum model of "learning field" have become three important concepts that have influenced the development of vocational education in Germany.

Training objectives: key competencies

In order to change the situation that German vocational education only pays attention to professional knowledge and skills in a single vocational field, German social educator Mettens put forward the concept of "key competence" in 1974. In his view, key abilities are knowledge, abilities and skills that are not directly related to some professional practical skills, the ability to make judgments and choices in various occasions and responsibilities, and the ability to be competent for all kinds of unpredictable changes in life. He also pointed out that as the goal of education and training, the key abilities should include: 65,438+0. Basic ability is not limited to professional activities, but also involves thinking and behavior ability in general social activities and interpersonal communication, such as logical, overall, critical and creative planning and learning ability. 2. Career development elements refer to all kinds of basic knowledge and skills that are indispensable in the application fields such as labor protection, machine maintenance, technical measurement, reading and writing. 3. Information acquisition and processing ability, that is, the ability to acquire, understand and process information purposefully according to actual problems or tasks. 4. Time-related factors refer to the ability factors related to a certain era, such as foreign language ability in the globalization era and computer application ability in the computer era. Mettens' concept of "key competence" has aroused heated discussion in German education, and gradually evolved into a more advanced career mobility in the 1980s, which was written into the training regulations of 208 occupations in Germany as a training goal.

Teaching method: action-oriented

Since the 1980s, the concept of "action-oriented" has been found everywhere in relevant literature in the field of vocational education and teaching in Germany. In Germany, action-oriented vocational education combines cognitive process with vocational activities, emphasizing "learning for action" and "learning from action", so that students can master vocational skills and acquire professional knowledge in their own hands-on practice through "independently obtaining information, independently making plans, independently implementing plans and independently evaluating plans", thus building their own experience and knowledge system. Several common "action-oriented" teaching forms are: communicative teaching method, constructivist learning, problem-oriented learning and project teaching method. Practice has proved that "action-oriented" teaching helps to mobilize students' autonomy and enthusiasm in learning, change passive acceptance into active exploration, and enable students to form the necessary professional ability more effectively.

Curriculum mode: learning field

From 65438 to 0996, Germany began to carry out major reforms on the curriculum model of vocational schools. The concept of "learning field" was put forward for the first time in the "Curriculum Compilation Guide" issued by the joint meeting of state ministers of culture and education. Its basic definition is: subject learning unit described by learning objectives according to the setting of professional tasks and the guidance of professional action process. A "learning field" consists of three parts: learning objectives, learning content and learning time. Generally speaking, the curriculum of each vocational education major consists of 10 to 20 "learning fields". The core achievement of the "learning field" curriculum scheme is to abandon the shackles of the subject system in content and reorganize the curriculum content closely around the requirements of professional activities. Its main features are: 1. Take construction theory as the basis of educational theory; 2. Ability-based course content orientation; 3. Action-oriented as the principle of teaching implementation; 4. Take vocational schools as the main body of development and implementation. (Zhang Pengyuan, National Institute of Educational Sciences)

China Education News, 9th edition, September 4th, 2007.