Moving away from the "subject-based" approach: teaching and research

For a long time, teaching and research were considered to be the work of subject teaching and research in primary and secondary schools, and the main business was to conduct subject teaching research and guidance as well as subject teaching business management. in December 1949, the first national education work conference held by the Ministry of Education established the general policy that education work must serve national construction, and proposed to establish teaching management organizations within the education administration system to specifically deploy and preside over teaching The idea of this teaching management organization was to This teaching management organization was conceived as what would evolve into the primary and secondary school teaching and research offices, whose functions were to conduct teaching research and to manage teaching work.

However, the history of the development of teaching and research over the past 70 years since the founding of New China shows that subject teaching and research was only the focus of teaching and research work at a particular historical period, not the entirety of teaching and research work. In general, since the establishment of teaching and research institutions, the work of teaching and research has been centered on national education policies, and its function is to study and implement national education policies.

Based on the actual situation of the development of teaching and research in the new era, teaching and research work should change its concept in due course and come out from the "subject-oriented".

The new era gives new tasks to teaching and research work

At the end of the 20th century, teachers' education and teaching experience generally improved, coupled with the efforts of the majority of subject teaching and research staff, the teaching quality and level of China's teaching force has improved rapidly, into the basic competent teaching work of the positive track. Teaching and research work is also facing transformation, shifting from cultivating teachers' basic teaching ability to other aspects. As the quality of teachers has been greatly improved, the original objectives and methods of teaching and research are becoming old-fashioned, teaching and research work has encountered a bottleneck in development, and has been questioned by some, and where to go from teaching and research has become a problem. It was at this time that China's rapid-fire educational reform aimed at quality education kicked off, and the relevant departments promptly adjusted the direction and content of teaching and research, which led to a new world of teaching and research work.

In 1999, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council made the "decision on deepening education reform and comprehensively promoting quality education", and a series of policies such as quality education reform, curriculum reform, examination system reform, and burden reduction for primary and secondary school students were introduced. 2001, the "Outline of Basic Education Curriculum Reform (for Trial Implementation)" was released. Previously, teaching research institutions had been focusing on teaching research, especially classroom teaching research, but with curriculum reform, the focus of teaching research shifted from teaching research to curriculum research. This shift in focus requires that teaching research should not understand the act of teaching in isolation as the mere transmission of knowledge and skills, but should focus on the superordinate concept of curriculum and study classroom teaching in a macro and systematic way from the perspective of the curriculum.

In 2012, the 18th Party Congress put forward the fundamental task of education to establish moral education. To implement this fundamental task, the Ministry of Education issued the Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening Curriculum Reform and Implementing the Fundamental Task of Establishing Moral Education in 2014 to make arrangements for deepening curriculum reform. 2018, the National Education Conference was held. At the meeting, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that efforts should be made to build an education system for the comprehensive cultivation of moral, intellectual, physical, social, and aesthetic development, and to form a higher-level talent cultivation system. 2019 saw the issuance of the Opinions on Deepening Education Teaching Reform to Comprehensively Improve the Quality of Compulsory Education, which made systematic arrangements for the establishment of moral education and the five education patterns. In this way, a new pattern in which the fundamental task is to establish moral education and the five educations of moral, intellectual, physical, social, and aesthetic education as the education system is becoming clear, and China's basic education has entered a brand new period of development.

The new situation also gives new tasks to teaching and research. In 2019, the Ministry of Education specifically issued the "Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Strengthening and Improving the Teaching and Research Work of Basic Education in the New Era", which requires teaching and research work to highlight the research of comprehensive education, gather to build an education system of comprehensive cultivation with five educations, and improve the mechanism of implementing moral education; in the key aspects, to strengthen the curriculum, teaching, homework and examination evaluation, etc. Research. This opinion instructs the work of teaching and research to closely focus on the educational policy of the Party and the State, to take the five education and nurturing system as a system, to solidly and effectively grasp the key aspects of this system, to refrain from being complicated, to carry out solid and effective work, and to comprehensively promote the improvement of the quality of basic education teaching.

In response to the new situation of education, there will be some new changes in teaching and research work: one, focusing on the study of values education and highlighting the primary position of moral education. Second, the study of each course as a whole, and the practical implementation of the five education together. Third, an in-depth research is to identify the key links that hinder the improvement of teaching quality and effectively improve teaching quality.

Teaching and research work needs to be accurately positioned and carried out in-depth

Teaching and research work is always carried out under the guidance of national policies, and the role of teaching and research in policy implementation is also clear. Therefore, teaching and research staff should be accurately positioned and carried out in depth.

Recognize the purpose of teaching and research work. Teaching and research is a kind of work in the field of curriculum, teaching materials, teaching methods to implement the national education policy, important documents on education, important meetings that should be given attention from time to time, in-depth understanding of the spirit, the national policy requirements for education and teaching, as the main subject of teaching and research. Therefore, teaching and research cannot be the ultimate purpose of studying the laws of education and teaching but should implement educational policies in the practice of curriculum, teaching materials, and pedagogy as the goal of their work.

To make service the purpose of teaching and research. Service means meeting the needs, including the needs of schools, teachers, students, administrative agencies, etc. Teaching and research should provide services such as policy guidance and policy research from multiple perspectives and through multiple channels according to the needs of various parties. Therefore, teaching and research workers should do a good job of research, refine problems, and conduct in-depth studies to enrich their service qualifications.

Emphasize the transformation of policies into standards of educational and teaching behavior. Collaborating with grassroots schools, universities, and professional research institutions, we should conduct joint research to scientifically translate national education policies into implementation standards for curriculum, teaching materials, and teaching, and provide teachers with behavioral guidelines for education and teaching, which is the top priority of teaching and research work. Only when standards are established, evaluation is possible and teaching and research work is measured.

Consolidate the basic skills of classroom teaching guidance. Teaching and research staff assess and guide the teaching and learning of classes, and make a great contribution to the teachers' competent teaching. Although the objectives and tasks of teaching and research are deepening, any educational policy on the ground must be translated into teaching behavior. Therefore, the basic skills of teaching guidance still play a fundamental role in teaching and research. Only if the basic skills of teaching guidance are solid, the policy understanding and implementation will be more targeted.

Overcome subject-oriented thinking. Each course in primary and secondary schools is a professional discipline. Therefore, the subject teaching and researcher must pay attention to the knowledge system and teaching methods of the subject. However, by only paying attention to the knowledge system and teaching methods, one may be able to become a good scholar, but not a good teacher and researcher. Only when the teaching and research work is clear about the position of the subject in the whole national curriculum system and its connection with other subjects, and the deep causes of problems in the implementation of the curriculum, is it possible to correctly guide the curriculum and teaching towards the direction expected by the state.