An Educator's Imagination - (Fourth Series)

Author: Cao Yanqing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Discussion on Several Practical Issues of Quality Education Quality education has become one of the most popular topics and practical subjects in the field of education at the turn of the century. The prosperity of the nation and the strength of the nation ultimately depend on the quality of its people. The economic, technological, and talent competition in the 21st century is, in essence, a competition of comprehensive national strength centered on the quality of the people. The improvement of the overall quality of the people mainly relies on education. Currently, quality education is being widely implemented in urban and rural areas across the country. However, due to various reasons, the implementation of quality education has not been without challenges. As schools, it is necessary to reflect on and explore some phenomena and issues to deeply and sustainably promote quality education. For example, the belief that quality education is simply the addition of classroom teaching and extracurricular activities, with 90% of the time spent on small classrooms, "cramming" and "sea of exercises," leaving only 10% of the time for "activities"; the idea that quality education means offering more subjects and courses, leading to the sudden inclusion of electronic pianos and pianos in classrooms, as well as the rapid rise of art classes, computer classes, and instrumental music classes; the fear of mentioning "" () or "scores" when discussing quality education, for fear of being labeled as "exam-oriented education"; and so on. Therefore, without presuming to be knowledgeable, the author would like to share some personal views on the problems frequently encountered in the implementation of quality education in schools.
1. Catering to All Students and Teaching According to Aptitude
Quality education emphasizes catering to all students, but it is not an egalitarian education, nor does it (), nor does it only emphasize commonality while neglecting students' differences and individual development. The "catering to all" in quality education is precisely catering to every individual with differences, promoting their comprehensive development based on the actual conditions of different students. Here, in terms of the individual student, it refers to the unity of general and special development; while in terms of the group, it refers to the unity of common and differentiated development. Only true quality education can align the group's development goals with the specific development goals of each educated individual. For example, at Huanggang High School where the author works, most students have solid ideological and cultural foundations and good intellectual and ability conditions. From the perspective of catering to all students or teaching according to aptitude, it is appropriate for our historic provincial key high school, which has a long history, to focus its educational and teaching goals on preparing students for higher education. Is there no need to address the relationship between catering to all students and teaching according to aptitude in a school like ours, where the college entrance exam pass rate is always above 90% every year? No. The same issue exists here. Our "catering to all" means striving to cultivate more than 90% of students into qualified students who can meet the needs of higher education; our "teaching according to aptitude" means reasonably guiding students based on their individual talents and interests through extracurricular interest groups and second-class activities, satisfying the different professional and success aspirations of each student and creating broad prospects for their future development. Due to various historical and current reasons, there are differences between schools, which is natural. We should indeed make efforts to strengthen the construction of weaker schools.