The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing about a profound systemic change, a new round of scientific and technological innovation is accelerating, the generation, deepening and dissemination of innovation is significantly accelerating, and the forms of various fields are also being reshaped. At present, cultivating innovative talents suitable for future development is a major topic facing education, around this theme, the reporter interviewed Professor Li Yadong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Anhui Normal University.
Li Yadong, an inorganic chemist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, academician of the Academy of Sciences for Developing Countries, professor of the Department of Chemistry of Tsinghua University, and deputy director of the Academic Committee of Tsinghua University. Since June 2022, he has been employed as the president of Anhui Normal University.
Top-notch innovative talents are not "pulled" out, but "grown" by themselves
Educator: Principal Li, education is an important field that has been widely affected by the current technological changes, and the field of education itself must not only make forward-looking adjustments with the changes, but also help students prepare for future jobs that cannot be accurately defined. In the uncertainty of change, does the standard of measuring innovative talents need to be adjusted, and how to cultivate innovative talents who can stand at the forefront of innovation and adapt to the future social development?
Li Yadong: Indeed, as you said, the world is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and the global economic and social development is undergoing a new round of major development, adjustment and transformation. The criteria for measuring innovative talents are diverse, and they should also keep pace with the times, and have different connotations in different eras, but some basic requirements and judgment standards should be consistent. For example, whether they can insist on independent thinking, have the courage to pursue the truth, dare to question and dare to say "NO", and whether they can creatively put forward new ideas and produce new results, etc., these are the basic qualities and abilities necessary for innovative talents. I believe that the measurement of scientific and technological innovation talents can be tested by a general "gold standard", that is, "three developments and one solution", "what you have discovered, what you have invented, what you have developed, and what scientific and/or technical and/or engineering problems have been solved". I have repeatedly said in many previous speeches that any major scientific and technological discovery and invention will only be widely recognized if it truly benefits human society, and the same is true when we evaluate innovative talents.
For a long time, Anhui Normal University attaches great importance to the cultivation of students' innovation ability, and has cultivated a large number of top-notch innovative talents. Among the graduates, there are 5 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 47 national "Outstanding Young Scholars" and 24 "Changjiang Scholars" distinguished professors, ranking more than 20 in the number of high-end academic top-notch talents in the country. We always firmly believe that innovative talents come from innovative education, and it is indeed difficult to cultivate innovative talents in the old-fashioned examination-oriented education. How to cultivate innovative talents requires the entire education chain to answer the same question.
First of all, it is necessary to adhere to the scientific outlook on talent, success, and education. Education is a science, and there are objective laws governing the development of education and running schools and the growth of talents, and we must not be in a hurry to achieve results and quick success, but must stay away from impetuousness and reject utilitarianism. The cultivation of innovative talents is even more so, which cannot be "engineered" and "processed", and mass produced like products produced in the factory workshop, but to highlight personality and teach students according to their aptitude.
Secondly, it is necessary to pay attention to the integrated training of all school sections. The cultivation of innovative talents is a systematic project, which is inseparable from the coordination and linkage between various school sections, and must be answered by the same question in primary and secondary schools, and effectively connect in all aspects such as training objectives, curriculum system, teaching methods, and evaluation mechanisms, so as to truly build an integrated innovative talent training system. In the field of basic education, efforts should be made to stimulate students' interest in advocating science and exploring the unknown, cultivate their quality of exploratory and innovative thinking, encourage independent thinking in the process of teaching basic knowledge, and plant the "seeds" of innovation. In the field of higher education, it is necessary to strengthen the cultivation of students' ability to think independently and learn independently, strengthen the sense of innovation, train innovative thinking, improve the ability to innovate, and effectively stimulate the potential of students' innovation and creativity.
Finally, it is necessary to build an excellent ecology for the growth of innovative talents. The "seeds" of innovation are indispensable for soil, sunlight, water and climate to grow into towering trees and become pillars. It is necessary to respect science, history, talent, and creation, strengthen the combination of foundation and application, theory and practice, and science and engineering, establish and improve systems and mechanisms that encourage innovation and tolerate failure, so that more people can devote themselves to innovation and practice.
Cultivating talents always comes first at the university
Educator: At present, many innovative scientific and technological achievements are born in the interdisciplinary integration and the interweaving of various new science and technology, and our university education is based on the professional subdivision of students' learning content, will this affect or even hinder the cultivation of innovative talents?
Li Yadong: Disciplines, majors and knowledge are closely related, which is the result of systematic classification of knowledge accumulated in human society to a certain extent. Universities are important places for knowledge production, accumulation, knowledge dissemination, and innovation. With the continuous enrichment of knowledge, universities have to divide majors, otherwise it is impossible for one person to complete all the knowledge learning. So far, almost all universities still take disciplines and majors as the basic unit of talent training, and there are indeed problems of emphasizing "specialization" and "refinement", and ignoring "broad" and "broad" and "broad", especially with the rapid development of economy and society, new industries, new technologies, and new forms of business continue to emerge, and the contradiction between university talent training and professional setting "lagging behind" social needs is becoming increasingly prominent. However, I believe that the subdivision of disciplines and majors is not necessarily related to the cultivation of innovative talents, and the key to whether it affects or even hinders the cultivation of innovative talents lies in whether the university can carry out interdisciplinary integration and professional optimization and adjustment in a timely manner according to the needs of society, so that talent training can keep up with the pace of social development in a timely manner.
Cultivating talents always comes first at the university. It is indeed worth pondering and discussing whether it is necessary to reconsider the elements and structure of talent training and reconstruct the path of talent training. I believe that every university should adapt to the international trend, serve the needs of the country, respond to social concerns, and comprehensively improve the fit between talent training and social needs.
On the one hand, it is necessary to continuously optimize the structural layout of disciplines and majors. Actively adapt to the needs of national and regional economic and social development, knowledge innovation, scientific and technological progress, and industrial upgrading, vigorously promote interdisciplinary integration, earnestly grasp the optimization, adjustment, upgrading, replacement and new construction of majors, and comprehensively improve the support capacity to serve economic and social development. In the past three years, Anhui Normal University has focused on demand-oriented, added a number of undergraduate majors such as artificial intelligence, added 15 doctoral and master's enrollment majors such as resources and environment, voluntarily cancelled 7 undergraduate majors such as cultural industry management, and stopped recruiting 5 master's programs such as vocational and technical education.
On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen industry-university-research cooperation and school-enterprise collaborative education. Adhere to demand-driven and goal-oriented, vigorously strengthen the strategic cooperation between local governments, innovative enterprises and institutions of higher learning, establish and improve the sharing and mutual use of talents, platforms and resources, and strengthen organized scientific research and innovation and organized talent training in accordance with the principle of "market-led, government-driven, college-sponsored and enterprise-oriented". In recent years, Anhui Normal University has taken the initiative to strengthen strategic cooperation with high-tech enterprises such as iFLYTEK, Chery, and Conch, jointly built joint laboratories and engineering research centers, and set up "Customized Classes for Innovative Talents" and "Outstanding Engineer Classes", jointly cultivating a large number of high-quality innovative talents expected by enterprises and needed by society.
Modern society does not need people who memorize "dead knowledge" by rote
Educator: In the process of cultivating innovative talents, what challenges do universities still face, what problems still need to be solved, and what concepts and methods need to be adhered to, and which ones need to be abandoned
Li Yadong: I believe that in the context of the current situation, the problems and challenges faced by the cultivation of innovative talents in universities are mainly reflected in the following sets of contradictions: First, the contradiction between popular education and personalized training. The mainland has fully entered the era of popularization of higher education, on the one hand, the huge number of students, on the other hand, the limited educational resources of colleges and universities, the imbalance between the two makes it difficult to meet the personalized training needs of students, which will inevitably affect the quality of innovative talent training.
The second is the contradiction between the structure of disciplines and majors and the needs of economic and social development. As I said earlier, although all colleges and universities are adjusting and optimizing the structure of disciplines and majors, compared with the needs of rapid economic and social development, there is still a large lag, the docking with emerging industries is not close enough, the promotion of interdisciplinary integration is not deep enough, the "four-chain integration" of talent chain, education chain, innovation chain and industrial chain is not strong enough, and the construction of new engineering, new medicine, new agriculture, new liberal arts and new teachers needs to be further strengthened.
The third is the contradiction between the traditional teaching mode and the all-round development of the individual. The traditional teaching mode is mainly knowledge impartation, but what is most lacking and needed in modern society is not the rote memorization of "dead knowledge", but the comprehensive quality and adaptability of compound innovative talents, we must be good at turning "dead knowledge" into "living knowledge". This requires that education needs to be adjusted, highlighting the cultivation of students' ability to innovate, practice, and solve practical problems, strengthening the integration of science and education, and the integration of industry and education, so as to promote the healthy and all-round development of students.
In the face of major changes or major challenges in society, education should not only innovate and apply new ideas, technologies and methods, but also maintain strategic focus, carry forward fine traditions, and adhere to and inherit the essence of the traditional value system.
First of all, what we need to adhere to and inherit is the original intention, educational thoughts, and educational feelings. From "education without class" to "preaching, teaching, and solving doubts", and then to "respecting teachers and valuing education" and "cultivating people with virtue", the mainland has thousands of years of fine educational traditions, and the essence of these fine educational traditions is embodied in the spirit of educators put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping, and we must better practice them.
Second, what we need to innovate and improve is the content of education, the way of education, and the technology of education. From the perspective of educational content, the knowledge supply of universities can no longer meet the needs of society, and some "lag behind society" or even "disconnect from society", which requires teachers to strengthen learning, keep pace with the times, update teaching content in a timely manner, and teach new ideas, new knowledge, and new skills. From the perspective of education methods, the traditional "didactic" and "indoctrination" teaching is obviously not suitable for the cultivation of innovative talents, but should adopt more "heuristic" and "inquiry" teaching to fully stimulate the internal drive and creativity of students' independent learning. From the perspective of education technology, artificial intelligence has brought new impacts and challenges to the education and teaching model, but also provided new opportunities and opened up new tracks, we should give full play to the role of education digitalization as a "breakthrough", comprehensively promote the deep integration of the new generation of technology and education and teaching, and promote the high-quality development of higher education.
There is no such thing as examination-oriented education and quality education
Educator: "Teacher" always reminds the original intention of the university to "cultivate people's teachers", and how to train a large number of future teachers in the practice of teacher education to practice the spirit of educators, so that they can be competent in educating people?
Li Yadong: Education directly determines the future of a country and a nation, and basic education is the foundation of the entire education system, which plays an important role in the overall situation, foundation and leadership. At present, the problem of insufficient and unbalanced high-quality teachers in basic education in mainland China is still relatively prominent, especially in the context of the "double reduction" policy, the people's demand for high-quality basic education resources is very urgent. Anhui Normal University, as a veteran normal college with a history of nearly 100 years, is known as the "leader" of Anhui normal education and the "mother machine" of basic education.
In view of the new situation, new challenges and new problems in the development of teacher education, Anhui Normal University took the lead in proposing and implementing the three major action plans of "discipline revitalization", "basic education revitalization" and "college student escort" in the country, and made a solemn commitment to the whole society that "our normal graduates will reach the average level of provincial model middle school teachers as soon as they leave the school".
The first is to implement the "discipline revitalization" action plan to comprehensively improve the professional quality of normal students. Adhere to the discipline construction as the leader, strengthen the peak discipline, the development of characteristic disciplines, especially the discipline and professional construction of the 9 subjects of the college entrance examination in a more important position, make great efforts to introduce and cultivate a group of high-level teaching teachers, and strive to create 30 high-quality core courses with domestic first-class level, so that all students can learn the professional courses deeply, learn finely, and have sufficient professional ability and level.
The second is to implement the action plan of "revitalization of basic education" to comprehensively improve the teaching ability of normal students. Take the lead in implementing the "summer semester" system, and strive to create a "three gold" project of gold medal lesson plans, gold medal coaches, and gold medal normal students. This year, we hired a team of 126 distinguished professors from all over the country and gold medal coaches of the International Olympiad, successfully hosted the first one-month "summer semester" teaching practical training for normal students, and dedicated a wonderful demonstration "golden class" to 2,576 students, so that normal students can "learn and practice" and improve their education and teaching ability.
The third is to implement the "College Student Escort" action plan to comprehensively ensure the healthy growth and development of normal students. We put forward the goal of "no one is missing", took the lead in setting up a two-level student working committee of the school and the college, insisted on grasping the two ends and leading the middle, established student files by category, and gathered the strength of the whole school and the society to solve the outstanding problems and practical difficulties of students in all aspects such as ideology, learning, emotion, physical and mental health, etc., so as to comprehensively ensure the healthy growth and success of students, and strive to create more good teachers in a big country. Education is the only way for people to grow and become talents, and there is no so-called distinction between examination-oriented education and quality education, but it is only focused on at different stages of growth. In the process of intensifying the teaching of basic knowledge, it is necessary to improve the basic personal quality of the educated, encourage them to read 10,000 books, and realize the accumulation of basic knowledge; in combination with social practice, travel thousands of miles, and improve the insight, insight, and academic taste of talents, so as to establish the goal of life struggle.
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Source | This article was published in the December 2023 issue of The Educator, Issue 4, with the original title "It is difficult to cultivate innovative talents in the old-fashioned examination-oriented education - an interview with Li Yadong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Anhui Normal University"
Author: Wang Xiangrong
Co-ordination | Zhou Caili
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