New Curriculum Concept and the Implementation of Primary School Mathematics Classroom Teaching

Author: Guan Wenxin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: "The new curriculum philosophy is the soul of the new curriculum. Establishing a new educational philosophy, changing traditional teaching and learning behaviors, and recreating a brand new self is a process of rebirth through fire and transformation for a teacher. This is where the greatness and difficulty of the new curriculum reform lie. A few experts proposing a new educational philosophy is an innovation, and tens of millions of primary and secondary school teachers transforming this new educational philosophy into their teaching practices is also an innovation, and a greater one." This is a passage from the postscript of the book "New Curriculum Philosophy and Action Strategies for Classroom Teaching" edited by Professor Guan Wenxin of Hainan Normal University. This experience is likely deeply shared by many frontline educational experts. Putting philosophy into practice is indeed difficult. It can even be said that the birth of an educational philosophy is easy, but fully implementing it in practice and transferring it from experts to ordinary teachers is not. From experts to ordinary teachers, it's like a "war" between the few and the many, and it's made even more intense by countless habits, inertia, and the like. To achieve this difficult but necessary transformation, it is currently popular to offer various general training programs and curriculum standard study sessions for teachers. Their task is to help teachers accept the new curriculum philosophy, but acceptance is only recognition, not yet a quality of the teachers. To transform a philosophy into a quality requires more than just recognizing it; it also requires a deeper understanding of the philosophy, and such understanding is most effective only in practice. Our theoretical guidance is not just about explaining what and why, but also about clarifying how to do it, focusing on the transformation of philosophy into action. Teachers should further recognize the theory through this transformation, feel the charm of the theory, and savor the sweetness of theory-guided teaching. Professor Guan Wenxin's book "New Curriculum Philosophy and Action Strategies for Classroom Teaching" highlights the use of concrete examples to speak. Its theoretical basis is the "Outline for the Basic Education Curriculum Reform (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Outline"). Each book is divided into eight parts: "For the Development of Every Student" proposes the core philosophy of the new curriculum reform, interpreting the reinterpretation of the curriculum function proposed in the "Outline"; "Towards Life" proposes two basic philosophies, interpreting the reinterpretation of curriculum content and structure proposed in the "Outline"; "For a Brighter Tomorrow" and "Participation is the Core of Curriculum Implementation" propose basic philosophies, interpreting the reinterpretation of curriculum implementation proposed in the "Outline"; "Making Classrooms Full of Innovative Vitality," "Teaching is for Learning," and "Achieving the Integration of Curriculum and Teaching" propose basic philosophies, interpreting the reinterpretation of the teaching process; "Development is the Hard Truth" proposes a basic philosophy, interpreting the reinterpretation of curriculum evaluation proposed in the "Outline." Among these eight parts, "For the Development of Every Student" is a necessary macro-level introduction, while the other parts do not simply and rigidly "forcefully promote" theories but instead select numerous teaching design examples from specific teachers' classroom teaching practices and use them as media to provide a meticulous, interpretive analysis of the new curriculum philosophy. These fragmented examples, reflections, and comments form a more vivid and tangible new curriculum philosophy. For example, when interpreting "the main theme of the new curriculum reform is to cultivate students' innovative spirit and practical ability" in "New Curriculum Philosophy and the Implementation of Junior High School Chinese Classroom Teaching," the sixth teaching example is a segment from "The Old Man and the Sea," where the teacher asks students to imagine the ending of the novel. The students' imagined endings align very well with the original ending. The book comments on this: "This teaching example fully reflects the teacher providing students with space for imagination, allowing them to boldly continue the story's ending. Through students' bold imagination, their understanding of the text becomes deeper, and their thinking becomes more flexible and profound." Such examples and comments are highly effective. For teachers who truly bear the responsibility of education and teaching at the frontline, they need more vivid guidance that can enter their classrooms. These small teaching examples are the most tangible things for them. Through these individual, subtle "examples," they gradually accumulate a deep understanding of the new curriculum standards and easily implement them in practice. These examples have also been carefully selected. They all come from frontline distinguished teachers and excellent teachers, and each example reflects a certain aspect of the new curriculum philosophy from different perspectives, making them deeply meaningful. At the same time, these examples vividly demonstrate the life interaction between teachers and students, brimming with the vitality of life, and show the trajectory of children's growth and development, revealing to us how these excellent teachers transform the new curriculum philosophy into concrete, tangible teaching actions. Reading these examples, we can truly feel the charm of the new curriculum philosophy and the educational wisdom of these excellent teachers. The most profound insight these examples give us is that to truly understand the new curriculum reform and philosophy, one must delve into the vivid classroom teaching and practice to the new philosophy. The "New Curriculum Philosophy and Action Strategies for Classroom Teaching" is not just a "festival" of teaching examples, to the point where it overly focuses on details and loses the macro perspective of the new curriculum philosophy. In addition to teaching examples, philosophy and strategies are also fundamental elements of the book. The book's philosophy explanations are clear, simple, and easy to understand. It does not explain philosophy with theory or concepts, but with facts and the most familiar things to teachers. Like "Who Moved My Cheese?" it tells an adult fairy tale and discusses life's philosophy, using a simple form to explain profound truths, which is also one of the book's. The book's action strategies are specific, detailed, and highly actionable. Each interpretation of the new curriculum's basic philosophy is composed of three parts: the basic connotation of the philosophy, the philosophy as seen through teaching examples, and the action strategies provided by the teaching examples. These action strategies vividly and detailedly summarize the teaching examples and philosophy, proposing the action principles and guidelines for the implementation of the new curriculum.