New Curriculum and New Teaching Materials: Teacher Preparation Strategies for Junior High School Chemistry

Author: Zhang Keli Xu Weimin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: With the continuous deepening of the reform of basic education curricula, people are increasingly recognizing the crucial role and sacred mission of teachers in the curriculum reform. Teachers' understanding and participation in the new curriculum are the prerequisites and foundation for its implementation, and they will ultimately determine the direction of the new curriculum's implementation and the depth of the advancement of quality education. In a certain sense, teachers are the most important curriculum resources. The quality of teachers and their level of professional development determine the identification, development, and utilization of curriculum resources, and they also determine the level at which the benefits of new curriculum standards and new textbooks should be realized. Currently, the status of the teaching staff in China's basic education field cannot effectively keep pace with the large-scale implementation of curriculum reform. Short-term general training and limited training on new curriculum standards and new textbooks only serve to guide and point the way for teachers. In the context of classroom-based teaching, teachers must use new concepts, new curriculum standards, and new textbooks to enter the classroom, face all students, and deliver every lesson in a practical manner. They will encounter various confusions and difficulties, such as the scarcity of new teaching materials, how to prepare lessons, how to organize teaching, how to conduct teaching evaluations, how to carry out teaching research activities, and how to abandon traditional teaching methods. As curriculum reform has developed to this stage, teachers must fully exert their subjective initiative, deeply understand and experience the essence of the new curriculum standards in teaching practice, fully grasp the new textbooks, and continuously reflect on teaching to improve teaching practices. Only in this way can the requirements of curriculum reform be implemented. To help frontline teachers adapt to the new curriculum reform as soon as possible and make full use of the new curriculum standards and textbooks, we have organized the compilation of the "Strategies for Teacher Preparation under the New Curriculum Standards and Textbooks" series. Based on the actual needs of teaching and teachers, the series provides assistance and services to teachers in teaching by interpreting teaching objectives, creating teaching scenarios, providing teaching materials, showcasing teaching cases, and improving teaching evaluations.
I. Principles and Requirements for Compilation
This book is compiled under the guidance of advanced educational ideas and the concepts advocated by the new curriculum. It aims to promote the implementation of curriculum standards in various subjects, deepen the implementation of quality education, and promote the development of educational research, especially school-based teaching research activities. It also aims to promote the professional development of teachers, improve their practical teaching abilities and levels, and enhance the quality of education. The compilation of this book emphasizes four unities:
1. Systematicity and Scientificity
This series is compiled by subject, and each subject is structured according to the content of first-level and second-level themes specified in the curriculum standards, combined with the main knowledge system of each textbook version. Each unit begins with an overview, highlighting the systematic network of knowledge, the original perspective, and the comparison with the new curriculum standards. The series uniformly sets up columns, with each column providing scientifically accurate knowledge content, systematically clear teaching objectives, scientifically reasonable activity designs, practical and innovative scenario creation, and detailed and reliable quality selection.
2. Practicality and Feasibility
The compilation of the book is based on the awareness of serving frontline teachers, effectively addressing difficulties teachers face when preparing lessons, such as finding materials, collecting resources, designing activities, and creating scenarios, thereby reducing their workload. This series differs from general teaching reference books. It comprehensively covers the needs of teachers when preparing lessons and serves as an indispensable assistant and guide for teachers. The compilation fully considers the current status of teaching staff, students, teaching design, and various educational resources in China, making the series highly practical. Teaching requirements, activity designs, and scenario creation are all designed with feasibility in mind.
3. Timeliness and Innovation
When compiling each subject, attention is paid to the new trends in educational reform at home and abroad, striving to stay at the forefront of basic education curriculum reform. The content and materials selected are closely linked to the actual developments in politics, economy, science and technology, culture, and education in China and the world, reflecting the requirements of the times. Innovation is emphasized, from content to form, from knowledge presentation to question design. The three-dimensional educational objectives of "knowledge and skills, processes and methods, and attitudes and values" permeate the entire book.
4. Inquiry and Leadership
When compiling each subject, attention is paid to the professional leadership role of teachers, helping them expand their knowledge horizons, enhance practical abilities, and guide and encourage them to conduct educational research. It advocates a spirit of scientific inquiry, promotes research-based learning, and strengthens the evaluation and reflection of teaching. The selection of content in each column and the allocation of various questions reflect foresight and leadership, appropriately increasing inquiry-based, open-ended, applied, and comprehensive topics. This series is the crystallization of collective teaching research in curriculum reform.
II. Compilation Format and Column Descriptions
This series is compiled by subject, including nine subjects: Chinese, mathematics, English, physics, chemistry, biology, moral education, history, and geography. The book uniformly sets up six columns:
1. Interpretation of Teaching Objectives
According to the unit content specified in the new curriculum standards, teaching objectives are interpreted from the three-dimensional perspectives of "knowledge and skills, processes and methods, and attitudes and values." From the professional height of the subject, the knowledge network structure and its internal connections are explained in an accessible manner. Necessary explanations are provided in conjunction with specific issues or examples, providing a detailed analysis of key teaching points and difficulties. Solutions to key points, breakthroughs in difficulties, and ways of thinking are pointed out, strengthening the requirements for ability and quality development.
2. Suggestions for Activity Design
This column provides all necessary activity designs for the unit teaching (also including teaching ideas, teaching flowcharts, and knowledge links, etc.). To implement teaching objectives and enable students to actively participate in teaching activities at multiple levels, forms, and angles, thereby achieving efficient and high-quality classroom teaching, this book strives to help teachers design all teaching activities in each unit through effective preparation activities. Since each unit teaching consists of several teaching and learning activities, only if each activity is designed scientifically and reasonably and is easy to operate can the optimization of the entire unit teaching be guaranteed. When designing teaching and learning activities, two aspects are considered based on the unit knowledge content:
- Classroom activity design (e.g., creating teaching scenarios, equipping teaching tools, multimedia-assisted teaching, student collaboration, teacher-student interaction, teaching and practice activities, experimental operations, etc.);
- Extracurricular teaching activities closely related to teaching, such as research-based learning activities, experimental inquiry activities (e.g., after-school experiments, home experiments, laboratory operations, experimental design, small inventions, small productions, etc.), surveys and interviews, information collection, literature retrieval, social practice and community service activities, etc.
The activity design strives to maximize the use of various educational resources and mobilize the learning enthusiasm of students at all levels. Through the development of teaching and learning activities, students become active participants and constructors of knowledge.
3. Reference Materials for Teaching
This column provides relevant textual materials for unit teaching, such as background materials, introductions to figures, major events, data resources, scenario materials, supporting examples, the latest developments, and historical evolution. It also recommends relevant books, network resources, and audio-visual materials.
4. Introduction to Teaching Cases
This column provides several teaching cases around the key content of the unit, reflecting the characteristics of various teaching types (e.g., new teaching lessons, problem-solving lessons, review lessons, experimental lessons, activity lessons, inquiry lessons, etc.). It emphasizes the design of various student activities, reflecting the reform awareness of lesson preparation and closely following three threads:
- The thread of knowledge networks;
- The cognitive thread that aligns with student psychological activities;
- The developmental thread of ability and quality training.
5. Classic Exercises for Selection
This column provides supporting exercises for teachers' lesson preparation. When selecting questions, attention is paid to the difficulty gradient, striving for typicality and novelty, and grasping each question from the three elements of purpose, scenario, and question setting. The number of questions is moderate, and the types of subjective and objective questions are determined based on the unit content of the subject.
6. Teaching Evaluation Suggestions
Evaluation has diagnostic, guiding, and motivating functions. This column provides ideas and methods for teachers to conduct various forms of teaching evaluation.
(1) Basic Achievement Evaluation
Each unit teaching is accompanied by basic achievement test questions, which are designed according to the requirements of basic knowledge and skills on a percentage basis. If the average test score of all students is below 60, it is considered that the basic teaching has not achieved the standard. If the average test score is between 60 and 74, it is considered that the basic teaching has achieved the standard. If the average test score is between 75 and 89, it is considered that the basic teaching performance is good. If the average test score is between 90 and 100, it is considered that the basic teaching performance is excellent.
(2) Ability and Quality Evaluation
Ability and quality evaluation mainly focuses on students' basic qualities, specialized qualities, and comprehensive practical and innovative activities. Based on the unit content of the subject, corresponding requirements for ability and quality items are proposed for students, such as experimental operations, creation, production, drawing, investigation reports, material analysis, thematic discussions, presentations, speeches, audio-visual skills, and talent demonstrations, etc. Each test evaluation result is rated as excellent, good, qualified, or basically qualified.
(3) Teaching Reflection
Teaching reflection is essential for teachers in the evaluation of teaching and plays a significant role in improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning. For example: reflections on easily confused content for students, improvements in lesson design, improvements in classroom teaching, new problems discovered in the teaching process, reflections on test results and other feedback information, and insights into the unit teaching, etc. Teaching reflection provides teachers with broad space for professional development.
In the end, we sincerely hope that all educators and frontline teachers in junior high schools across the country will join us in setting sail on the waves of basic education curriculum reform and together reach the shore of hope.