This paper intends to discuss this issue. The predecessor of our college is Zhejiang Kindergarten Normal School, which has a history of more than 50 years. 200 1 officially merged into Zhejiang Normal University. The school-running function of the college is still to serve the preschool education in this province. Although the current school-running level of the college is oriented to "highlight characteristics, gradually develop undergraduate courses and create conditions to develop postgraduate education", which is in line with the demand for talents and the structure of preschool teachers at this stage, preschool teachers at undergraduate level certainly represent the future development direction of preschool education, meet the requirements of preschool teachers' specialization, and are a worldwide trend with forward-looking significance. In the second year after being merged into a university, the college began to recruit four-year undergraduate students majoring in preschool education. How to locate the specialty is the biggest problem in specialty construction.
There are two possible options.
1 Following the practice since the 1950s, 1952 The Ministry of Education promulgated the Regulations on Higher Normal Schools, with special emphasis on the establishment of preschool education groups in the education departments of normal colleges and universities to train teachers of secondary preschool normal schools. According to the spirit of the plan of the Ministry of Education on the adjustment of colleges and universities, the Ministry of Education will appropriately merge related majors scattered in some colleges and universities to form a teacher training base for preschool normal schools. As a result, the preschool education department of Nanjing Normal University and the preschool education department of Beijing Normal University merged. Its training objectives are: teachers of secondary preschool normal schools. From then on, the training goal of preschool education in China is clear, and the strength is relatively concentrated on the task of training teachers in secondary preschool normal schools in China. Ten years after the Cultural Revolution, the Ministry of Education issued "Opinions on Strengthening and Developing Normal Education" in June of 5438+0978+00, and once again stressed: "Normal colleges with pre-school education majors should actively run their majors, expand enrollment quotas and train teachers for kindergarten teachers everywhere." As a result, Beijing Normal University, Nanjing Normal University, Southwest Normal University, Northwest Normal University and Northeast Normal University, which originally had pre-school education majors, resumed enrollment from 1978 to 1979. In the early 1980s, East China Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University and some normal universities in provinces (cities) and autonomous regions also added preschool education majors. Moreover, the Ministry of Education emphasized in the Opinions on Running Secondary Normal Education (Trial Draft) issued in August 1980: "Before 1985, there should be a higher normal school offering preschool education in the former administrative region." With the promotion and support of the government, the preschool education specialty in normal universities has been brought out of order and continuously expanded.
By the beginning of this century, more than 40 normal colleges and universities in China have set up preschool education majors. In the past decades, the preschool education major in normal universities in China has made unprecedented development in both scale and discipline construction, which has sent a large number of teachers to preschool normal schools all over the country, improved the theoretical level of preschool education in China, and made great contributions to the development of preschool normal education and preschool education.
However, with the development of history, the original goal orientation of this major has begun to be incompatible with the changed society and education, mainly as follows: (1) The training objectives and specifications of undergraduate preschool education major are incompatible with the social demand for preschool education talents. With the development of contemporary social economy and culture and the improvement of civilization, all fields of society put forward requirements for talents. This change in social demand will inevitably affect preschool education, which is the basic project of cultivating talents, because it is closely related to the basic point of talent development. In fact, preschool education has begun to improve the quality of talents. In many areas, preschool education institutions, which are at the forefront of preschool education, have invested or are investing talents at the undergraduate level. Undoubtedly, with the development of the times, it will become a general trend for undergraduate preschool education graduates to go to kindergartens. (2) The training objectives and specifications of undergraduate preschool education are not compatible with the development of the internal structure of preschool education. With the transition from the third-level normal school to the second-level normal school, and with the idea that "normal education is the mission of the university" (1) deeply rooted in people's hearts, the secondary kindergarten teachers will inevitably shrink slowly, and then fade out of the historical stage, which will make it difficult for graduates majoring in preschool education in normal universities to find jobs, and then lead to difficulties in enrolling students. If we still operate around the original goal, it will definitely hinder our own development.
(3) The training objectives and specifications of undergraduate preschool education are not compatible with students' social adaptability. Only pay attention to the training of teachers, preschool education management cadres and preschool education researchers in secondary preschool normal schools, with a single direction, narrow goals and closed methods. Graduates lack the ability to change jobs and adapt to changes in educational structure, and their adaptability is poor. Obviously, it is unsustainable for us to make such a goal choice again.
2. It is our choice to be positioned as a "high-quality preschool teacher". In the four-year undergraduate teaching plan of preschool education major in our college, its training goal is stated as follows: "This major cultivates high-quality preschool educators who are fully developed morally, intellectually and physically and can meet the needs of social development and modern preschool education reform and development." "Preschool educator" is a relatively broad concept. In the field of preschool education, its "workers" can be children's educators engaged in theoretical teaching or theoretical research, management and scientific research, community and children's palace, and of course they can also be practitioners in cultural industries such as film and television, newspapers, internet, publishing and libraries related to preschool education, but the most important thing is to train front-line teachers in kindergarten education institutions. The training goal of "based on kindergarten teachers, giving consideration to similarity and correlation" makes the professional caliber relatively wide, which is conducive to attracting candidates and adapting to the job market. The orientation of "work" also shows that the talents we cultivate are applied talents with bachelor's degree. They are not "academic", but "practical". They are not single, but diverse, and have relatively strong adaptability in the field of preschool education. This orientation embodies the idea that preschool education majors keep pace with the times, actively integrate into social changes and progress, run schools according to the market demand of preschool education talents, and at the same time expand broad space for their own professional construction and discipline development. It should be pointed out that this idea may be more easily accepted by institutions that upgrade kindergarten teachers, because they have this service function, and it is their responsibility to train kindergarten teachers. It's just that this kind of practical and applied talents is more reasonable. Guan. On the reform and development of teachers. In the goal orientation and curriculum setting of undergraduate preschool education specialty, its literacy and research ability have strong adaptability, which is not the same as that of kindergarten teachers in technical secondary schools. "High quality" is the orientation of a training level, which shows that it is different from kindergarten teachers in technical secondary schools and junior college. The connotation of "high quality" should be historical and dynamic. In the new century, under the background of social civilization progress, globalization and informatization, there should be higher requirements for improving the quality of preschool teachers. Due to China's vast territory, unbalanced development and the particularity of preschool education, there will be multi-level practitioners, especially teachers' quality in the field of preschool education in China for a long time. Technical secondary schools (vocational high schools), junior colleges, undergraduate courses and even graduate students coexist, forming a pyramid structure. At present, it is impossible for graduate students to enter the field of preschool education in batches in China, so practitioners with bachelor's degree should be at the top of the pyramid, and they should play a leading role in the whole team, represent the future development direction of preschool education teachers' specialization in China, and fundamentally improve the quality of preschool education in China.
The quality structure of modern high-quality preschool teachers who can play a leading role should be manifested in four aspects: (1) virtue. Care, love, dedication and dedication are the important contents of kindergarten teachers' moral cultivation. According to Pang, a professor at Beijing Normal University, "loving children is the first commitment that kindergarten teachers should make to children and their development." (1) Virtue is different from teachers and students in the past. This kind of love and dedication is based on a more scientific and rational basis. I believe that every child can learn, learn well, become an excellent child and become a member of society in the future. We should also devote ourselves to transforming the content of experience into the content and form that children can easily understand and accept, and strive to support and help children's learning and growth, so as to lay a good foundation for each child's long-term development at an early stage. (2) knowledge. The professional characteristics of kindergarten teachers determine that their knowledge cultivation is not single, but a compound structure. This structure consists of three parts: natural and humanistic social common sense, basic knowledge of education and special professional knowledge of early childhood education. This structure should be open and developed. In other words, with the development of the times, general education should strive to be broad and profound. This kind of "effort" is more important than knowledge itself. Kindergarten teachers should pay attention to their own knowledge updating, constantly improve their own cultural literacy, and condense into new educational wisdom and creativity in practice, which is the essential quality of kindergarten teachers in the new era.
(3) ability. Kindergarten teachers are professional and technical posts and need specific abilities and skills. This includes general abilities and skills, such as thinking ability, interpersonal communication ability, organization and management ability, observation and analysis ability, summary and evaluation ability, as well as various skills with teachers' own originality and expertise, such as kindergarten teachers' ability to understand children, reasonably choose preschool education content, create a supportive environment for children's growth, and organize and control children's activities. In kindergarten, without the basic skills of playing, singing, speaking, jumping, drawing, writing and calculating, and without skilled organization and management ability and activity design ability, it is definitely impossible to do a good job in early childhood education. Therefore, in this sense, kindergarten teachers should be "all-rounders". (4) Physical and mental aspects. A sound body, happy mood and childlike innocence are indispensable for an ideal kindergarten teacher. Kindergarten is a special life ecological park, because it is a group of immature and growing life, and it especially needs health, vitality, vitality and fun.
The above understanding of "high quality" is embodied in the "basic specifications" of our teaching plan:
(1) Master the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory and Theory of Three Represents, establish a scientific world outlook, outlook on life and values, have good professional ethics and dedication, and love preschool education and infant care.
(2) It has extensive basic knowledge of humanities, social sciences and natural sciences, forms a compound knowledge structure, and has strong knowledge transfer ability and sustainable development potential.
(3) Master the basic theory of educational science and the theory and skills of preschool education, and have solid basic professional skills of teachers and practical ability of kindergarten work. Have the ability to engage in scientific research in preschool education.
(4) Proficient in modern educational technology, with a healthy aesthetic point of view and good artistic accomplishment, foreign languages, computers and Mandarin have reached the national standards.
(5) Develop good physical exercise and healthy living habits, and know certain health care knowledge and methods. Meet the college students' sports qualification standards, have sound mind and good health.
Second, the training objectives and basic specifications have been clearly defined, and the corresponding curriculum system is to make this orientation be implemented.
Focusing on the goal and corresponding specifications of "high-quality preschool educators", our curriculum system includes three modules: general courses, normal courses and professional courses.
General courses are necessary to cultivate all-round "people"; Teachers' courses are necessary for training to be "teachers", including general educational psychology theory, basic speaking and writing skills and the application ability of modern educational technology; Specialized courses are necessary to train "Pre-school Education: Pang, New Syllabus and Professional Quality of Kindergarten Teachers [A], Interpretation of Kindergarten Guidance Syllabus [C] Educators in the Third Teacher Education Research in 2005". These three modules are connected in series by a basic clue: training people-training teachers-training preschool educators.
The construction of specialized courses is the focus of the whole system. In order to make the specialized courses better point to the training objectives, we collected and thought about two aspects of information. The first is the front-line voice of preschool education. At the symposium on listening to the training opinions of preschool teachers at the undergraduate level, the opinions of many kindergarten directors and key teachers gave us a lot of inspiration. For example, the idea of "reading children". The most important quality of front-line teachers is "reading children". They should know and understand children, observe them with a research eye, have affinity among them and become their partners and friends. Kindergarten teachers at the undergraduate level should not be farther away from their children because they have read more books. For example, from the point of view of "excellent products", I hope that undergraduates can play a leading role in the "pyramid" kindergarten teachers after graduation and become both research-oriented and practical kindergarten teachers; Another example is the tutorial system. It is suggested that in the process of undergraduate training, we should pay special attention to the practical links and link with excellent kindergarten teachers. Undergraduate students should stand directly at the forefront of preschool education and grow up quickly with the best teachers. Wait a minute. The second is the analysis of the original preschool education curriculum in middle schools and universities. "Three Learning and Six Methods" is a traditional curriculum system for kindergarten teachers. 1995 The Teaching Plan of Three-year Secondary Preschool Normal School promulgated by the State Education Commission stipulates that the professional courses of preschool teachers include infant health care courses, infant psychology, an introduction to preschool education and the design and guidance of kindergarten education activities. Although the name has changed a little, its framework is still "three studies and six methods". Only six methods (kindergarten language, calculation, common sense, music, art, physical education teaching method) are combined into an activity design and guidance, but as Professor Wang Zhenyu of East China Normal University pointed out, "the nature of the course is unknown, and the teaching content is complicated, which is suspected of patchwork". ① It is difficult for teachers to grasp and operate in the actual teaching process, and finally they eat for themselves. Later, the structure of professional courses was similar, and the difference was only the thickness of teaching materials. This kind of courses pay too much attention to the word "young", and the theoretical system is thin and the knowledge is narrow, which makes students lack systematic grasp and profound understanding of the theory, so they can only talk about things and find it difficult to solve problems creatively.
Based on the above understanding, we divide professional courses into professional main courses and professional elective courses according to the principle of "training preschool teachers, giving consideration to similarity and correlation". Elective courses are the expansion, extension and deepening of the main courses, focusing on cultivating students' specialties and interests in related fields like preschool education. The main courses are divided into three categories: one is professional theory courses. Including pedagogy, education history, psychology, human anatomy and physiology and other basic education theories, preschool education psychology, preschool children psychology and other preschool education theories. This kind of course mainly enables students to grasp two questions as a whole: what is education, especially preschool education, and guide them to explore its characteristics and laws; How is the baby? What are the laws of their physical and mental development? Grasping these two problems provides a basis for solving how to implement education according to the laws of preschool education and children's physical and mental development. Second, specialized application courses are the intermediary between theory and practice. Including educational research methods, educational statistics and SPSS application, children's game theory, kindergarten curriculum, family community education and so on. This course provides an intermediary or direct theory and operation method for kindergarten practice. The third is the professional practice course. Including educational investigation, professional experiment, educational probation and practice, graduation thesis and graduation design. The purpose of such courses is to enable students to improve their professional ability through the application and innovation of practical experiential thinking theory, so that their intelligence and emotion can be gradually integrated into the front line of preschool education.
Third, discuss the goal orientation and curriculum setting of undergraduate preschool education specialty. There are several key points and difficulties worthy of separate discussion.
1 Cognition of the nature of occupation "kindergarten teacher" often reminds people of "naivety"-lack of academic content, which is of course a thing of the past. However, undergraduate preschool education focuses on training front-line teachers in kindergarten education institutions, which will inevitably emphasize the basic and comprehensive nature of professional orientation and professional skills, practical application and knowledge, which will make people doubt their professional level. The author met some experts at the pre-school education seminar more than once. They often take the standards of pedagogy as the basis, and think that this major can not only meet the requirements of offering educational courses for pedagogy majors, but also can not talk about the level of disciplines. The key to this problem is the understanding of the nature of this profession. Although the pre-school education major belongs to the category of education major in terms of professional classification, it can never be simply equated with the education major, nor can it be lowered because it is originally for training kindergarten teachers, nor can it be lowered because it is for training kindergarten teachers, nor can it be considered that the discipline of training kindergarten teachers is basic and comprehensive because of its strong discipline. To grasp the professional connotation of preschool education and curriculum design, we should jump out of the original mindset and think about this issue from its professional characteristics. We should give full consideration to the professional characteristics of preschool education and "Research Report on Theory and Practice of Pre-service Training of Kindergarten Teachers in the 2 1 century" by Wang Zhenyu and Bu Shemin [R]. Teacher education research project of the Ministry of Education. The goal orientation and curriculum setting of undergraduate preschool education. The quality requirements of preschool teachers should be changed. We should change the practice of designing and judging preschool education specialty by copying education specialty or discipline specialty, build this specialty into an independent specialty in China's teacher education system, and make a scientific analysis of its professional connotation.
2. The status quo of practical teaching When designing the course construction, we put professional practical courses in an important position and put forward the "all-practice view" of "running through in time, expanding in space and infiltrating in courses". Kindergarten teachers have always attached importance to practical operation, and the practical teaching in undergraduate stage is at a high level, that is, practice not only serves the improvement of professional ability, the internalization of theoretical knowledge and the promotion of professional thinking, but more importantly, forms the research and innovation quality for preschool education through professional practice. Reflected in our teaching plan, preschool education investigation 1 week, short-term concentrated practice for 6 weeks, educational practice 13 weeks, graduation thesis (design) for 8 weeks, * * 28 weeks. The requirement of course infiltration is that the practical class hours of specialized courses should not be less than 1/4 of the total class hours. Coupled with the practical training of normal courses and art courses, at least 30% of students' total four-year study hours are engaged in practice.
When so much time is spent in practice, the possible problems are: affecting the class hours of classroom teaching, and then affecting the improvement of theoretical level. There is also a conceptual problem here. It is believed that classroom teaching is to improve the theoretical level, and practice is only the application of theory. This view ignores the inquiry learning function of practice and the most important goal of theoretical learning: innovation. Understanding and discovering problems in practice is the most important source of innovation. If the weakness of preschool teachers at technical secondary school level lies in the promotion and transmission of experience, which affects their sustainable development, then the advantage of preschool teachers at undergraduate level should lie in their operation and research ability. The so-called solid theoretical foundation of undergraduates lies not in memorizing a lot, but in the insight and creative solution to practical problems, and in the abstraction and promotion of experience.
3. Orientation of Art Curriculum The positive influence of art education on children's intellectual development and the shaping of preschool children's sound personality has been confirmed by experience and scientific experiments. High-quality preschool educators must have corresponding artistic literacy and artistic education skills. Strengthening the teaching of art courses is a common teaching tradition of kindergarten teachers in China. When it comes to kindergarten teachers, it always reminds people of singing, dancing and drawing. Kindergarten teachers are also famous for their art in the local area. Teachers who have been engaged in kindergarten work for a long time will form a kind of inertia thinking of kindergarten teachers characterized by art. The question now is: To what extent is art teaching suitable for undergraduate preschool education majors? There are two differences that must be clearly reflected: one is the difference from art majors. The professional characteristics of preschool education determine that it is impossible and unnecessary for students to spend a lot of time and energy on art study and training; The second is the difference with kindergarten teachers in technical secondary schools. The former is aimed at junior high school graduates, while the latter is aimed at senior high school graduates. Their plasticity in artistic skills is different. The advantage of high school students lies in their strong understanding and transfer ability. To reflect these two differences, the key is that the teaching objectives of art courses for preschool education majors should reflect the characteristics and overall goal orientation of preschool education majors and the actual needs of preschool education. Through the teaching of art courses, students can master basic artistic skills, focusing on the skills urgently needed by preschool education such as playing and singing, accompaniment, children's song and dance creation, children's painting, decorative painting, handcrafting, kindergarten environment layout, and emphasizing practicality and instrumentality. At the same time, through art courses, students' art appreciation ability and aesthetic feeling for children's art are cultivated. Adjusting the teaching objectives of art courses is not simply cutting art courses or class hours. The key is to change ideas, study the goals and laws of art teaching in preschool education, and study new teaching contents and new teaching models. Only in this way can art teaching enter preschool education, and preschool education can have its own art teaching.