Chinese Language New Curriculum 100 Questions

Author: Chen Zheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: How to Determine a Good Lesson
Student feedback is the starting point for evaluating a lesson. So, how can we assess a lesson based on student performance? In a good lesson, student performance should meet the following criteria:
① Maintain throughout the lesson. Whether it's top students or struggling ones, intrinsic motivation is the key to learning success. We've discussed interest extensively, but we also want to emphasize: First, this enthusiasm belongs to the students. If the teacher is enthusiastic, but the students are indifferent, it won’t work. Second, "throughout the lesson" is not easy to achieve. The teacher must guide students forward in every teaching segment, ensuring the content, methods, and tools align with their needs. Last, it should be "learning" enthusiasm, not the enthusiasm for running around, playing games, or receiving awards.
② Appropriate density. The density of education describes the intensity of teaching activities. One of the important tasks of education is to gradually cultivate students to engage in tense, creative work and give this tension a positive nature. Intense learning activities should evoke good emotional responses—satisfaction from learning success and a "healthy sense of fatigue." Some lessons, to show results, set very low teaching goals and minimal content. Students focus on a few words or a short paragraph, reading, singing, and drawing, making the 40-minute lesson lively and relaxed but with low density. Such lessons cannot be considered good because students do not experience the pleasure of intense learning and exploration, and their gains are minimal. Teachers should improve their teaching methods, create conditions, and strive to increase the teaching density:
Optimistic educational beliefs. Firmly believe that every student has the potential to learn Chinese well and that every student's potential can be mobilized and developed. Therefore, persistently and tirelessly inspire, motivate, and trigger students' learning enthusiasm.
Second, a complete educational goal. The [Curriculum Standards] elaborate on the complete, rather than one-sided, goals of Chinese education from three dimensions. Education that focuses solely on books, intellect, or scores can only cultivate one-dimensional individuals and must be terminated. For a single lesson, a complete educational goal can activate students' various organs actively, allowing them to bear appropriate loads. Teachers should strive to increase the saturation of education in 40 minutes. Monotonous and repetitive exercises cannot inspire learning pleasure and may even hinder intellectual development.
Third, precise teaching content. Detailed explanations alone do not make students love or learn effectively. The teacher's skill lies in timely guidance and highlighting the key points.
Fourth, concise teaching procedures. As previously explained, the value of Occam's Razor has been detailed. Anything that hinders people from correctly understanding things or solving problems should be shaved away. We advocate optimizing teaching, and the essence of optimization is filtering. "Eliminate those solutions that consume more time with low efficiency to select the best solution." (Quoted from Qian Menglong)
Fifth, comprehensive educational methods. This has been discussed in detail earlier and will not be elaborated further.
Sixth, a good educational environment. A "good educational environment" not only refers to superficial teaching facilities but also to the institutional environment (such as rules and agreements) that constrains teachers and students, as well as the invisible spiritual environment—class atmosphere, teaching style, and learning style, which reflect underlying values. It is recommended to use the table attached at the end of the text to record the status of teaching density. Randomly select four students and track their performance throughout the lesson. You will find that a seemingly lively lesson, when applied to each student, often has very little actual time spent actively learning.
③ Full participation. We must focus on all children to ensure that every student can develop healthily. However, implementing this concept is very challenging. Many classes have 50, 60, or even 70-80 students, making it almost impossible for teachers to attend to every child in every teaching segment. Although it is difficult, we still advocate the principle of "full participation" because, in reality, some teachers may neglect certain students, while others may focus solely on a few "star" students in their class, ignoring the majority. Classroom teaching should ensure that all students benefit. Even if not all, at least most; even if not in this segment, strive for full participation across all segments; even if the teacher cannot attend to everyone, organize students to achieve full participation. A lesson where only a few students are active cannot be considered good.
④ Creative sparks. Creativity should be reflected on both the teacher's and students' sides. An ordinary teacher only explains, an excellent teacher helps students understand, and a true teacher ignites the hearts of those being educated. The lessons we evaluate for excellence should "ignite the hearts of those being educated," allowing students to fully unleash their potential. Once the creative valve is opened, emotions, literary ideas, and solutions will flow freely.
⑤ Other aspects. If the lesson being evaluated is taught by the teacher's own students, it should also be evident that the students enjoy and know how to learn Chinese, have independent problem-solving skills when facing difficulties, can communicate and discuss in a tense yet orderly manner, have good learning habits, and maintain close and harmonious relationships between teachers and peers. After the lesson, students should not or rarely need to spend extra time reviewing the content.
The criteria of maintaining, appropriate density, full participation, and creative sparks are mutually reinforcing: If students lack learning enthusiasm, it may be due to either too low or too high teaching density. If not all students participate, a significant number will inevitably lose their enthusiasm. Inappropriate density will lead to students losing interest and varying degrees of distraction. Without and appropriate density, creative passion cannot be.
It must be noted that the "good lessons" mentioned above can only be evaluated under the premise of authenticity. False lessons, where teachers are putting on a show, result in superficial student enthusiasm, almost no density, and no basis for full participation, with significant negative effects.