Winter vacation is coming, and school after-school care classes have once again become the choice of many families. Parents look forward to -
After-school services from "normalization" to "high quality"
Guangming Daily reporter Jin Xiaoyan
"After-school services have basically achieved full coverage. The 'one school, one case' of schools in various places has formulated after-school service plans, generally carried out after-school services, and basically achieved '5 + 2' full coverage. 91.7 per cent of teachers participated in the provision of after-school services, and the proportion of students who volunteered for after-school services had increased to the current 91.9 per cent. At the end of 2021, a series of after-school service data released by the Ministry of Education showed people the efforts made by various localities to promote the "double reduction" work.
Winter vacation is coming, and school after-school care classes have once again become the choice of many families. After-school services, how to make children like, let parents rest assured, let teachers feel comfortable, this is a difficult problem in front of the school. What positive measures does the school have in place to promote this work? How to improve the quality of after-school service projects? The reporter recently conducted an investigation and interview.
Dongcheng Gate Primary School in Baofeng County, Henan Province, carried out 14 colorful after-school club activities, forming a highlight of aesthetic education featuring waist drums, football and choral clubs. On December 24, 2021, students walked on the drum to show their waist drum talents. Photo by Wang Shuangzheng/Guangming Image
1. How to provide more possibilities for students' all-round development
Starting in the fall semester of 2021, every afternoon, the class schedule of most Chinese children has a new change.
"After-school service in primary schools is 2 class hours per day from Monday to Friday afternoon (except statutory holidays). The first lesson mainly arranges self-directed homework tutoring and Q&A (students' independent courses), and the second lesson mainly arranges subject development, puzzle games, and innovative quality development courses. Sun Dingguo, principal of the Qingyang Affiliated Primary School of The North Normal University, said.
Lessons such as playing Rubik's Cube, learning to sing English songs, sand painting, fun programming, hosting, classic recitation, table tennis, athletics, and martial arts have become children's own choices.
Lu Yugang, director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, said at the 2021 Golden Autumn Series of Press Conferences that the school's after-school services should reflect the characteristics of running a school and fully tap the potential of teachers, not only to answer questions and tutor students with difficulties, guide the completion of homework; but also to carry out a variety of literary and artistic, sports, labor, reading, interest groups and club activities, expand students' learning space, and strive to meet students' different learning needs.
In the Second Experimental School of Education Group of Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology, after-school services are promoted by "interest clubs + academic counseling" in parallel. "The after-school delay service based on the content of 'interest clubs' is mainly chosen by students according to their own interests and hobbies to meet the individual needs of students, and the student participation rate is 100%. The after-school service based on 'academic tutoring' is mainly aimed at students' subject learning, and the daily after-school homework is completed, with a participation rate of 67%. Tang Xiaoyong, the second experimental school of Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology Education Group, said.
On January 5, 2022, first- and second-grade students of Huifeng School in Guizhou Province, Guizhou Province, sweated hard in the after-school football hosting class. Photo by Fan Hui/Guangming Pictures
How do parents feel?
The reporter found in the investigation that parents are very supportive of after-school delay services, especially for dual-career families. It not only solves the problem of dual-career parents picking up their children, but also solves the worries of parents who do not have the time and energy to tutor students to write homework.
"For parents, one of their core needs is that their children complete high-quality homework at school." High quality' completion of the day's homework is a high demand and also poses a challenge for the school. Tang Xiaoyong told reporters.
After-school services are not only to meet the care needs of parents, but also to provide students with more abundant and abundant learning opportunities, providing more possibilities for their all-round development. Xin Tao, executive deputy director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for China's Basic Education Quality Monitoring at Beijing Normal University, said that on the one hand, students with learning difficulties can get more effective tutoring and can keep up and have confidence; on the other hand, students have the opportunity to participate in a variety of science, culture, sports, art, labor, reading, interest groups and community activities, which can expand and make breakthroughs. Students can choose the appropriate after-school services according to their own needs and interests, and form their own exclusive curriculum.
2.How to meet the interests of students at different sections and levels
A week after the implementation of the after-school service, Yu Yaping, principal of Xinjie Primary School in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, found that the low-level children had finished their homework, their pictures had been drawn, and they were tired of reading books, and there was nothing to do except be in a daze.
In the beginning, the school implemented a school-wide teacher support policy, and the task of evening care management was divided equally among all teachers, for example, the first class of the first class of the evening care manager may be the teacher teaching the sixth grade. Because the management teacher is not familiar with the students, the students are not familiar with the teacher, and the teacher is only responsible for one evening care a week, it is impossible to carry out a continuous course or activity, almost all the teachers are sitting in the classroom watching the children, to ensure safety. And this, for the first grade children who have just entered primary school, will feel very boring. "We all know that the low-grade children's schoolwork burden is light, the nature is playful, and how to design activities suitable for low-grade children has become a big problem that the school urgently needs to solve." Yu Yaping said.
What to do? Behind the "double reduction" policy is the "double increase": increase sports, increase art.
After the school leaders actively fought for and coordinated by many parties, the low-level after-school care X course of New Street Primary School has finally arrived! The first and second grades have set up 1 +T+X courses: 1 is basic management, completing homework within the specified time and carrying out independent learning; T is physical exercise, giving children enough time to exercise physical fitness; X is a rich and diverse form of expansion course. The X course teachers hired by the school have been carefully examined, graduated from regular teacher training colleges and universities, and have rich teaching experience.
"It is normal to encounter bumps and bumps in the early stages of policy implementation. Only by doing a good job of home-school communication and moving forward in continuous improvement can the 'double reduction' play its greatest role. Yu Yaping was deeply touched.
Sun Dingguo also found the same situation, he found that during the extended service period, some students are not in a very good state, and the effect will be discounted accordingly, especially for low-level children. He suggested that flexible extended service hours be designed according to the characteristics of the grade and the actual needs of the children.
Baima School in Changsha High-tech Zone, Hunan Is a rural school, and parents have a greater need for homework tutoring in after-school services. In order to improve the effect and quality of homework tutoring, the school has made meticulous arrangements for the time, content and method of homework tutoring, accurately scheduling teachers to each class hour, students completing homework in school as much as possible under the guidance of teachers, and teachers focus on tutoring students who have difficulty in mastering knowledge on the day to complete homework.
In the mobile phone of He Huihua, the vice principal of White Horse School, there are many short videos she took, which are the scenes of children exercising. The school uses after-school service time to open sports clubs such as basketball, small volleyball, orienteering, etc., which basically meet the needs of students' sports training.
He Huihua said: "Orienteering is a special sports project of the school, if the child performs well in club learning, the school will build a platform for 'training excellence and promotion', encourage children with special skills to join the school team training, and give full play to the expertise of students." ”
3. How to solve the shortage of teachers and solve professional services for students
There are 79 teachers in the school, and 76 people participate in the management of evening care, accounting for 96%. This is the proportion of teachers at New Street Elementary School who participate in after-school services; the national rate is 91.7%.
Many principals reported that teachers' participation in students' after-school care is widespread, the working hours are extended, and the teaching time and energy are dispersed, which increases the difficulty of school management.
As implementers of after-school services, schools are key to this policy. "For now, the improvement of the quality and efficiency of after-school services is the first thing to solve the problem of teacher allocation." However, considering the affordability and professional strength of the teachers in this school, in many cases, they can only be simple administrators. Moreover, some lower grade teachers are also difficult to answer the homework of senior students, and the management effect is not good. Yu Yaping believes that if you want to improve the quality of management, it is inevitable to purchase services, through external professional teachers, qualified social professionals or volunteers to participate in after-school services, to provide students with more personalized and professional custody services, but this requires a large amount of money. Therefore, this dilemma urgently requires the government to issue a guiding opinion.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Education has said that to care for and care for teachers, teachers can be arranged to implement "flexible commuting" and give corresponding subsidies to teachers who participate in after-school services. Some schools explore the connection with social resources, and the North Normal University Qingyang Elementary School tries art paper-cutting, floral art and other courses, and the school hires local famous folk paper-cutting masters and floral teachers to teach.
According to the needs of parents, Guangzhou Experimental School of Beijing Normal University adopts ways such as bidding for the society, integrating the existing resources of the school, and combining the resources of parents to connect with social resources. Vice President Shi Jian introduced that the school invited members of the parent committee to investigate and investigate the local qualified trusteeship institutions, conduct public bidding for the shortlisted trusteeship institutions, select institutions with standardized management standards and good teachers for custody cooperation, and carry out process course release, course selection, payment, and daily feedback for students participating in the hosting through the special 430App management platform. Through the process management, the improvement of the quality of custody is guaranteed, so that students enjoy learning and parents can rest assured.
Guangming Daily (2022.01.18. 14th edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily