■ Run to 2035 and realize the modernization of school education ④
Today’s world is in a great change that has never happened in a hundred years. In 2018, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader made an important judgment on the world development trend at the Central Foreign Affairs Working Conference, which is an important strategic coordinate for China to think and lay out the development of various undertakings in the new era.
Education is an important foundation for the development of various human undertakings, and the "great change in a hundred years" that the world education is experiencing is the internal foundation and one of the important symbols of the change in the present era. With the advent of the information age, the knowledge-based "universal education" in the history of modern education development is being challenged by "ubiquitous learning" and the paradigm of educational practice is changing. China’s educational modernization should accurately grasp the essential trend of great changes in world education in the past century, which is a rare opportunity to build an educational power. In the process of fully implementing China Education Modernization 2035, we should fully grasp the theoretical logic of China’s education modernization and constantly promote practical innovation.
Philosophical logic:
Adhere to the guidance of Marxism
Marxism is the philosophical logic that China’s educational modernization must follow, and it is also the theoretical confidence of China’s educational future development. Future education transcends the most essential characteristics of modern education, which is reflected in the educational goal of transcending knowledge standard, that is, from paying attention to knowledge learning to paying attention to people’s all-round development. This is the core view of Marxist anthropology and pedagogy. Marx put forward the unity of human’s natural attribute and social attribute from the perspective of historical materialism, and pointed out that "human nature is the sum of all social relations". Therefore, "realizing people’s all-round and free development" is the advanced goal of historical materialism.
In recent years, western educational theories put forward the future educational goal of "core literacy" or "key ability" from the perspective of developmental psychology. Marx put forward a similar view as early as the mid-19th century. Marx said in Das Kapital: "For all children who have reached a certain age, future education is the combination of productive labor, intellectual education and physical education. It is not only a way to improve social productivity, but also the only way to cultivate people with all-round development." Marx’s exposition on the contents and methods of education is advanced beyond modern education. In addition, some curriculum theorists are based on "practical philosophy" — — Phenomenological view puts forward the theoretical system of "understanding course". In fact, as early as 1845, Marx initiated the "practical philosophy" in the "Outline on Feuerbach", which is also the soul of Marx’s dialectical materialism. Dialectical materialism is an important philosophical foundation of future teaching theory, which shines with the value of educational philosophy in the new era. Therefore, adhering to the guidance of Marxism is the theoretical basis for strengthening educational self-confidence.
Value logic:
Pay attention to the diversity and unity of educational goals
At the national education conference, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader put forward "to unite people’s hearts, improve personality, develop manpower, cultivate talents and benefit the people", which is a scientific expression of the pluralistic and unified value logic of China’s educational modernization in the new era and embodies the unique value orientation of China’s educational modernization.
Modern pedagogy holds that the core value of education is to develop people, and the classification of educational value depends on the classification of people’s value. The value system of education mainly includes the value of individual development, that is, the meta-value of education or the value of life development; The development value of human productive labor ability, that is, the instrumental value of education; The development value of people’s social life ability is the social value of education. The meta-value (life development value), instrumental value and social value of education constitute a closed system of educational value. Among them, the life development value of education embodies the fundamental value of education, the instrumental value of education embodies the economic value of education, and the social value of education includes the political value of education. In different historical periods, different educational ideas determine different educational value choices.
The proposal of "uniting people’s hearts, perfecting personality, developing human resources, cultivating talents and benefiting the people" scientifically integrates the pluralistic values of education and realizes the educational goal of common development of pluralistic values. Among them, rallying people’s hearts mainly focuses on the choice of political value in the social value of education, perfecting personality pays more attention to the life value attribute of education, developing manpower and cultivating talents embodies the instrumental value of education, and benefiting the people is an important choice for the social value of education in China in the new era. The multi-choice and coordination of educational modernization goals reflect the Party’s educational policy in the new era, which adheres to the value choice of the guiding position of Marxism, the direction of running a socialist school, and the choice of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s educational road. It also reflects the initial intention of running a satisfactory education for the people and the historical mission of serving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, which has laid an important value foundation for better rallying forces to run a good education.
System logic:
Promote the modernization of the implementation system
Generally speaking, educational modernization includes three dimensions: educational idea modernization, educational system modernization, educational practice and effect modernization. Therefore, the practice system of educational modernization should grasp the system logic and pay attention to the system promotion. "China Education Modernization 2035" proposes to "vigorously promote the modernization of educational ideas, systems, systems, contents, methods and governance", which is the embodiment of system logic.
In terms of concept modernization, China Education Modernization 2035 puts forward eight basic concepts, which mainly include: paying more attention to morality first, all-round development, facing everyone, lifelong learning, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, integration of knowledge and practice, integration and development, and joint construction and sharing. These eight basic concepts conform to the future development trend of world education and ensure the scientific, advanced, contemporary and future nature of educational modernization.
In terms of system modernization, "China Education Modernization 2035" proposes to build a modern education system that serves lifelong learning for all people, improve the standard system of education quality, improve the standard system with resource elements such as teacher allocation, per-student funding, teaching facilities and equipment as the core, improve the curriculum textbook system, strengthen the feedback monitoring system of talent training quality, improve the responsibility system of dropping out of school and ensuring school, and improve the financial assistance system for students with financial difficulties. Establish a cross-departmental and cross-industry working mechanism and professional support system, establish a sound policy system for classified development of colleges and universities, improve the legal support system for running schools, and establish and improve more than a dozen institutional systems covering the whole process and all-round education funds supervision system. These institutional systems ensure the innovation, times, systematicness, pertinence and effectiveness of future-oriented education reform.
In terms of specific system construction, after the National Education Conference, the Central Office and the State Council successively issued major top-level system designs such as Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Education and Teaching and Improving the Quality of Compulsory Education in an All-round Way and Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Reform of Educational Methods in Ordinary Senior High Schools in the New Era, which provided policy guarantee and direction guidance for the implementation of educational modernization.
Practical logic:
Deepen educational reform and innovation
Facing the development trend of education in the future and based on the needs of educational practice in China, we must persist in deepening educational reform and innovation to promote educational modernization.
Promoting educational reform and innovation is the requirement of the times and reality of China’s educational development in the new era. Also at the National Education Conference, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader emphasized that the new era and new situation, reform, opening up and socialist modernization, and the promotion of all-round human development and social progress have put forward new and higher requirements for education and learning. We should seize the opportunity, advance the layout, make overall arrangements and strategic designs for accelerating the modernization of education and building an educational power with a higher historical position, a broader international vision and a deeper strategic vision, insist on giving priority to the development of education as an important first move to promote the development of various undertakings of the party and the country, and constantly make education adapt to the development requirements of the party and the country, the expectations of the people, and China’s comprehensive national strength and international status.
To promote educational reform and innovation, we must strive to build an educational system that comprehensively cultivates morality, intelligence, physique, beauty and labor, adhere to moral education and cultivate people, and form a higher-level talent training system. We should integrate moral education, cultural knowledge education and social practice education, and run through all fields of basic education, vocational education and higher education. The discipline system, teaching system, teaching material system and management system should be designed around this goal, teachers should teach around this goal, and students should learn around this goal. All practices that are not conducive to achieving this goal must be resolutely changed.
To promote educational reform and innovation, we must adhere to six "efforts" in the modernization of educational content and methods, that is, we must work hard to strengthen our ideals and beliefs, cultivate patriotic feelings, strengthen moral cultivation, increase our knowledge and experience, cultivate our spirit of struggle and enhance our comprehensive quality. We should focus on studying and guiding students to cultivate their comprehensive ability, especially through the whole process of educational activities to stimulate curiosity and imagination and cultivate innovative thinking; It is necessary to establish the educational concept of health first and help students enjoy fun, strengthen their physique, improve their personality and temper their will in physical exercise; It is necessary to strengthen and improve aesthetic education in schools in an all-round way, insist on educating people with aesthetic education and educating people, and improve students’ aesthetic and humanistic quality; It is necessary to carry forward the spirit of labor among students, educate and guide students to admire and respect labor, understand the truth that labor is the most glorious, sublime, greatest and most beautiful, and be able to work hard, honestly and creatively when they grow up.
(The author is Yang Zhicheng, Vice President of Capital Normal University)