Quality Education: The Main Theme of Primary and Secondary School Education Reform

Author: Chief Editor: Cui Xianglu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1999-02-01
Features: This book briefly discusses the overall goals and implementation methods of quality education in practice; elaborates on the quality education goals and implementation methods for various subjects in primary and secondary schools; introduces nearly 100 reports/experiences of implementing quality education at provincial, municipal, county, and primary/secondary school levels as well as for teachers; provides over 400 reference materials (research paper titles) for learning and studying quality education. Rich in content and highly practical, it can serve as a reference book and tool book for and teachers/students implementing quality education.
Excerpt:
The concept of motivation: Motivation is an exciting stimulus from the outside. It refers to the stimulation of human motivation and the mobilization of initiative and enthusiasm. According to behavioral science, human behavior is both a response of the organism to stimuli and a process of achieving expected goals through a series of actions, involving four stages: stimulus or situation — human organism — behavioral response — behavioral outcome (reaching the goal).
The concept of motivation education: Motivation education, based on respecting students' subjectivity, creates various optimized external conditions to inspire students' intrinsic drive, enabling them to develop actively. Here, motivational elements include: teachers' encouraging language, emotions, and actions; interpersonal and material environments; motivational teaching and learning methods. As Tolstoy said, "Success in teaching does not lie in compulsion but in stimulating students' interest." As Diesterweg said, "The art of teaching does not lie in the ability to impart knowledge but in motivating, awakening, and inspiring." The essence of motivation education is to stimulate students' vitality and potential, fostering their subjectivity. The key theoretical points of motivation education are: respecting students' subject status; meeting their psychological needs for positive growth; and achieving self-motivation for students.
Goals for student development: Actively learn to be a person; actively learn to study; actively learn to live; actively learn to be healthy and beautiful.
When setting specific goals, attention should be paid to directionality, appropriateness, hierarchy, and phased implementation.
Principles for implementing motivation education: Respectful principle, expectation principle, participation principle (learning and development through participation), developmental principle (enabling students to learn vividly and develop actively), and trust principle.
Motivational teaching and learning methods: Teaching methods include emotional, situational, success, creative, competitive, suspense, and reward-based motivation methods; educational methods include respectful, emotional, model-based, honorary, and practical motivation methods.
Motivational educational evaluation: Motivational evaluation refers to teachers' on-the-spot assessments of students' moral awareness, moral behavior, correctness of answers, proficiency, thinking level, actual results, progress, and creativity using forms such as respect, trust, affirmation, praise, encouragement, and awards, inspiring students, boosting their confidence, and filling them with pride.
II. Joyful Education
Regarding joyful education (happy education, joyful learning education), based on materials from the 5th National Joyful Education Symposium in October 1994 and "On the Basic Characteristics of Joyful Education" (from Educational Research, Issue 9, 1994), the following is outlined.
The experiment and practice of joyful education have spanned over a decade, initiated by 7 primary schools in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Shenyang. Currently, nearly 1,000 schools in 18 provinces and cities have adopted this reform experiment, with 5 national symposiums held. This experience has been supported by the government and education authorities at all levels.
Joyful education and "joyful learning" contrast with "hard learning." They reject the process that turns teaching and learning into a painful, tedious, and passive experience, causing students to develop rebellious or avoidance attitudes; instead, they advocate reducing students' excessive academic and psychological burdens, allowing them to develop vividly, actively, and joyfully.
Goals for joyful education: To enable children to develop joyfully, meaning to seek joy in development and seek development in joy. The educational philosophy of Shanghai No. 1 Primary School is "to ensure every child has a happy childhood, a beautiful heart, creative talents, a healthy body, and a lively personality." They chose joyful education to achieve this goal.
Scientific basis: Theories from psychology on the relationship between cognition, emotion, and will, as well as the relationship between needs and development; research from psychology on the central role of emotion in children's psychological development, particularly the core position of "joy" within "emotion."
Joyful education emphasizes joy during development because "joy contributes to the comprehensive development of students' quality" and "joy aligns more with the age characteristics of primary school students," making joy itself a part of the educational goal. During joy, emphasis is placed on development because true joy and happiness for students are necessary conditions for their comprehensive development.