How to Be a Qualified Postgraduate Tutor 0202 Shao Bingjun, Deputy Director, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Shanghai University Ancient Literature and Culture Research Center, although I have been teaching in colleges and universities for 25 years, I have only been a postgraduate tutor for ten years, and I am a veritable "new recruit" in postgraduate education. Compared with veterans, "recruits" are born naive, childlike and not sophisticated. But "recruits" may have the advantages of "recruits": because they are "newcomers", they often know how to cherish the opportunities given by the times; Because of "newness", I often inspire myself to think about "how to be a qualified graduate tutor". I think the lifelong pursuit of a qualified graduate tutor should be to continuously improve the quality of graduate training. There are many ways to improve the quality of graduate training, but the following three aspects are probably unavoidable for every tutor. First of all, we should strive to build a harmonious relationship between teachers and students. Now some graduate students often complain that they can't see their tutors for a semester or even a school year, and they are chilling for the indifference between teachers and students. However, this indifferent teacher-student relationship is by no means unique in Shanghai, where colonial culture is deeply rooted, market economy is very developed and business atmosphere is very strong. Since Confucius founded private schools, all the pre-Qin philosophers have tried to build a harmonious relationship between teachers and students from the moral and ethical aspects. Such as "a teacher for a day, a father for life" and "a teacher friend" are all moral and ethical expressions of this harmonious concept of teacher-student relationship. In fact, Confucius teachers and students have differences on many issues, and even fierce debates often occur; Confucius will criticize his students very severely, and the students will question the teacher's words and deeds without mercy. But on the whole, Confucius was regarded as his father and brother, and Confucius as his teacher and friend. Unfortunately, some changes have taken place in the teacher-student relationship advocated and practiced by pre-Qin philosophers: in the Han Dynasty, some young students often climbed to the position of the leader of the literati to improve their social status. There is no teacher-student relationship between them, but they have the name of teachers and students, which is equivalent to the "big money" of modern society; In order to expand their social influence and political power, the imperial examiners after Sui and Tang Dynasties regarded those new candidates and scholars who were about to enter the official career as their "proteges" almost without exception. During the political storm in the 1960s, some political speculators encouraged students to criticize their teachers, which left us irreparable scars. In the tide of market economy since 1980s, some teachers have become "bosses" and students have become "wage earners" of teachers, which actually distorts the pure teacher-student relationship. Therefore, in the modern education system and education system, it is necessary to carry forward the fine tradition of the Chinese nation on the relationship between teachers and students and build a harmonious relationship between teachers and students. If the feudal dross such as "privatization" of teacher-student relationship in ancient society is eliminated, the pure teacher-student relationship thought formed since Confucius naturally has some merits. To tell the truth, I regard graduate students as my own children. This approach of mine may not be right, but it is better than the indifference between teachers and students. Because a graduate student has been with a tutor for three years, the tutor must be responsible for them and strictly require them to complete their studies. Therefore, the tutor who is in the leading position in the process of postgraduate education should advocate caring for students politically, enlightening students ideologically, guiding students academically and caring for students in life. This is naturally the first condition to become a qualified graduate tutor. Secondly, we should carefully guide graduate students to choose the topic of their dissertations. I often chat with my colleagues. The topic selection of the thesis is mainly the responsibility of the tutor, and the writing of the thesis by the graduate students is the responsibility of the graduate students. This is because the topic of the thesis reflects the academic level and vision of the tutor, and the writing of the thesis reflects the academic accomplishment and expression ability of the graduate students themselves. Of course, when choosing a topic, different requirements should be put forward according to the different training levels of master students and doctoral students. For master students, I mainly use the method of "propositional composition", that is, from the moment students enter school, I designate students to do the research topics I selected in advance. After I taught at Shanghai University in 2002, I instructed graduate students to do the research on the topic "Study on the Regional Style of Poetry 99". I divided the topic into thirteen sub-topics, and each graduate student undertook the research task of one sub-topic. Since 2005, I began to instruct my graduate students to do the topic "Research on the Prose of Pre-Qin Scholars in the Period of Laozi and Confucius". I divide the subject into six sub-topics, and each graduate student undertakes the research task of one sub-topic. The above two research topics are academic frontier research topics, which also fill the gaps in academic research. Three of the five graduates in Grade 03 and Grade 04 were rated as "Double Excellent" by experts outside the school, and some staged research results were published in academic journals and conferences, which attracted the attention of academic experts. In fact, the research work that my graduate students are engaged in is pre-research. This not only enabled them to finish their thesis, but also laid a good academic foundation for our next overall research. For doctoral students, of course, we can't use the method of "proposition composition", but inspire them to choose their own topics. I told them five basic principles when they first entered school: first, the subject should be at the forefront of academics, and repetitive research on "fried leftovers" should not be conducted. Second, the topic selection should give priority to basic learning. The research direction of my enrollment is the literature of pre-Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, among which the literature of pre-Qin is the basis of this research direction. Therefore, I encourage them to choose research topics in the field of pre-Qin literature to lay a solid foundation for future academic research. Third, give priority to "excellent research", that is, choose important books, topics and writers for research. Of course, it doesn't mean that they don't need to do the "non-obvious" topic in the corner, but encourage them to do the research of "pulling out the radish and bringing out the mud" by doing the "obvious" topic. Fourth, the topic should be as relevant as possible to your master's thesis. After writing the dissertation under the guidance of the tutor, the graduate students basically have the theoretical literacy and literature accumulation needed in this research field. If we study the topic selection of doctoral thesis on this basis, it will naturally be more profound. Fifth, the topic should be persistent and pioneering. Doctoral thesis often represents the highest level of a doctoral student's lifelong academic research, which will lay a good academic foundation for future lifelong research. Therefore, the topic of a doctoral dissertation often determines what he will eat all his life, and the research topic he chooses should naturally be sustainable. Thirdly, we should patiently guide graduate students to correct their employment concept. With the increasing employment pressure, graduate students often appear very confused and depressed, and even feel very helpless and helpless. As a graduate tutor, I have no responsibility or ability to recommend an ideal job for students. But there is no doubt that the tutor has the responsibility to guide the graduate students to correct their employment concept. We train graduate students not only to train experts and scholars, but also to train senior talents to meet the needs of all walks of life. So I often tell my students clearly that after graduation, a graduate student can go to the underworld, become popular or take the yellow road, which means that he can do whatever he wants, whether it's studying, politics or business. I sometimes joke with students that Chairman Mao taught us during the Cultural Revolution in the last century: "The proletariat does not occupy the revolutionary position, but the bourgeoisie must occupy it." You master's and doctor's with real talent and practical learning can't let those with fake diplomas go into politics or business unless they go into politics or business! Although this is just a joke, as a graduate tutor, the social responsibility of cultivating politicians and entrepreneurs is no less than that of cultivating experts and scholars. I often tell students to understand three sentences about employment, that is, what you are willing to do, what you can do and what you can do in the future. The so-called "what would you like to do" refers to your interest in employment, that is, what career you like to engage in in in the future. The so-called "what can you do" refers to your personal qualities, that is, whether your personal qualities are suitable for your favorite career in the future. The so-called "what can you do" refers to the objective demand, that is, what jobs the society can provide for you to choose, rather than stubbornly pursuing your favorite career. Of course, there are still some graduate students who have high expectations for employment and are very picky about occupation, region and salary. They often leave on impulse in the talent market and then return disappointed. Therefore, it is necessary for tutors to educate their students. When choosing a job, they should know how to choose between occupation, region and salary, and let them know that only those who are good at choosing are promising people. In addition, relatively speaking, tutors have more social resources than students. Under the premise of adhering to academic priority, we should actively create conditions for graduate students to engage in social practice activities before graduation, so as to lay a good foundation for students to choose jobs after graduation.