Author | Yuan Yixue
In a few days, it will be the preliminary examination time for the 2021 National Master's Admissions Examination.
At this time, the permission of the senior students of Science and Engineering of Fudan University, who has been successfully promoted, has both the joy of successful landing and the happiness of "the rest of his life".
On the eve of her participation in the Baoyan Push-And-Exempt Examination, she received a notice that the school's insurance research and exemption policy this year will be reformed according to the latest documents of the Ministry of Education.
Such a change occurred at the moment of the door, and permission was deeply dazed. "Previously, I was almost preoccupied with improving my grade points and preparing for graduate school exams. But with such a change, those students who have won awards in dance and sports competitions and internships in international organizations have the opportunity to 'overtake in curves', and there is a possibility of extra points. ”
Abrupt changes in policy trigger anxiety
According to the latest documents of the Ministry of Education, fudan university announced that the policy of guaranteeing research and exemption is that the applicant's average grade point score is converted into a comprehensive academic score on a 100-point system, and then calculated into the total score of the selection according to 70% weight;
The applicant's enlistment in the military for military service, participation in volunteer service, internship in international organizations, excellent scientific research achievements, outstanding contributions to the competition and other indicators, after strict review and confirmation by the expert review team of the school's selection of students, are included in the total score of the selection according to the maximum score of 30 points...
As soon as the policy was announced, it immediately caused discussion on campus. A student who claimed to be a junior at Fudan University expressed his views on the matter.
He believes that under such a policy, even if he tries hard and becomes a "problem maker", he will not be able to catch up with those who are "lazy and lazy" but have internship experience in international organizations or win awards in competitions.
As the deputy head of the department in charge of teaching, Ma Zhen, a professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of Fudan University, had communicated with the students who were interested in the research institute by email, WeChat, telephone and other means before the school launched the document, reminded the students to prepare early, and answered various questions raised by the students.
"We have not received any objections after the release list was published. The school as a whole has also been publicized. ”
In the face of online doubts about Fudan University's dismissal policy, Ma Zhen believes that first of all, it is impossible to determine the authenticity of the student's identity; secondly, the so-called bonus points are not a single plus 30 points, but a student's total of all bonus points does not exceed 30 points.
At Fudan University, The Institute is divided into two steps: "launch" (students obtain recommended qualifications) and "receive" (the departments applying for admission to determine admission). Students who qualify for "Launch" can attend an "receive" interview with a foreign school or contact the school to participate in a "receive" interview.
"In previous years, Fudan University's 'launch' steps comprehensively examined students' grade points and interview scores, and selected students on the basis of merit." Ma Zhen said that this year, Fudan University adjusted according to the spirit of the Ministry of Education document, the "launch" step comprehensively examined students' grade points (out of 70 points) and 30 points, and the "acceptance" step only looked at the interview results.
Even if a small number of students have potential bonus points, they still need to pass the school's defense to get the extra points, and they must also be publicized.
After the list of dismissals came out, Permission found that only a few students received extra points, which made her feel a little relieved and sweat for her students and sisters.
"This year we are still based on academic performance, so next year will someone go to an international organization to practice in order to get extra points, or to participate in a very water competition." This is not necessarily a good thing for students who really want to work in international organizations, and others may think that they are utilitarian. Permission to admit it.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, believes that the reform is a response to the "only score" in the "five onlys", "the increased content makes the evaluation basis more diverse, and the judging standards set by international competitions are relatively rigid and the process is credible, which in turn increases the rigidity of student evaluation." In this regard, this is a benign reform."
The underlying logic behind the "GPA"
Once upon a time, "grades are king" was the "unspoken rule" on campus. In order to ensure more fairness, colleges and universities measure students' learning in terms of grade point average, that is, credits and grade points are calculated, and a certain number of credits and average credit points are used as the criteria for graduation and degree acquisition.
In colleges and universities, whether it is taking a double degree, studying in graduate school, studying abroad or looking for a job, grade points are the basic guarantee.
In order to pursue grade points, some students waste a lot of time by choosing courses with high grade points and high pass rates, but may not be of much use to themselves. Liu Yunshan, deputy dean of the School of Education at Peking University, once spent four years interviewing more than 200 students.
When analyzing the results, she believes: "The sum of the grade points of the courses studied in the academic year or the overall evaluation = the sum of the credit points of the courses studied÷ the sum of the course credits learned." Because all courses participate in the calculation, in terms of the course's contribution to the grade point, all other characteristics of the course are flattened except for differences in credit size. ”
Liu Cong, who is currently studying in the United States, mentioned in an interview with China Science News that when studying in domestic colleges and universities, it is common for students to choose which course the teacher gives a high score.
"We often ask the seniors whether this course is strict, good or bad, and the scores given are not high, so that some very important courses are not selected, and some not so important courses have many candidates." Liu Cong said they called such classes "water lessons."
This is also part of the logic behind the GPA. In addition to the careful choice between gains and losses, high grade points also mean inward rolling.
Involution is a recently new Internet buzzword. Now many college students use it to refer to irrational internal competition or "voluntary" competition, that is, in order not to be left behind by the diligence and excellence of others, they have to force themselves to be more diligent and better.
For example, the teacher of a course asks everyone to submit a 3,000-word paper, and then some students find that the more words they have, the higher the score, so everyone uses everything they can to get involved in the word count competition.
Licensed undergraduates did not fall into the entanglement of "water class", "my goal has always been very clear, will not choose water class that is useless to themselves". But she has not escaped the involution behind the GPA, and fears that a new roll may be triggered after pushing away policy reforms.
The distorted evaluation system
In Ma Zhen's eyes, the grade point becomes the "internal driving force" for students to drill the camp, which is a misunderstanding of the grade point. "Some teachers say to students, 'Grades are important,' not because grades determine the success of a person's life, but because they want students to study well and not waste a good time."
In Ma Zhen's view, in order to prevent students from "mixing universities", colleges and universities have their own bottom line requirements for students to graduate - the grade point must be higher than a certain value, which is a compulsive evaluation. "In addition to the bottom line requirements, universities don't force students to use grade points to participate in the competition — you can choose to use grade points to compete for scholarships, guarantee research places, or you can choose not to play with them.""
Cao Taisheng, a professor at the Institute of Education of Nanjing University, also said in an interview with China Science News that the grades reflect only the students' course learning. These courses refer to explicit subjects of study listed in the training programme, with knowledge learning as the main form.
"Judging from the students' comprehensive development of morality, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor, academic learning and social learning, the grades can only partially reflect the learning and development of students."
He added that in addition to the grades, other requirements such as participation in competitions, internships in international organizations, and the publication of papers reflect the spirit of the school's response to the national policy on education evaluation and try to evaluate students in a more diversified way, with a view to breaking the "five onlys" and guiding students to develop more comprehensively.
To a certain extent, these new evaluation dimensions reflect the school's attention to the quality of the new talents of the times, such as having an innovative spirit, strong competitiveness, international vision and the ability to independently carry out scientific research work.
"From the perspective of selecting graduate students, it is appropriate to pay attention to the examination and evaluation of the above abilities."
As for some people's "complaints" about "extra points" such as international competitions, Ma Zhen believes that this is that they wear "colored glasses" to see and do not know the truth.
Because the reality is that there are not many students who can get extra points in the school, and there are not many additional points; some people cannot "push out" even if they add points; even if some people add points and advance their ranks, it does not affect the fact that they can "push out" without additional points, and it does not affect whether others can "push out"; and although some people get extra points because they are the head of the art troupe and do scientific research papers, they spend a lot of time on these things in the early stage, which may also affect the grade points.
And some students (such as students who are ready to stay in school as counselors) after receiving extra points through the defense according to the total score, if they can enter the "launch" list of departments, then the school will increase the number of "launches" accordingly, which does not account for the department's regular "launch" indicators and does not affect other students.
A yardstick to measure future talent
Whether it is grade points or bonus points, it is an attempt to constantly adjust the student evaluation system.
In October this year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Overall Plan for Deepening the Reform of Education Evaluation in the New Era", proposing to reverse the unscientific orientation of education evaluation, resolutely overcome the stubborn and chronic disease of only scores, only advancement, only diplomas, only papers, and only hats, and the fourth article of it emphasizes "reforming student evaluation and promoting the all-round development of morality, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor."
In this regard, Cao Taisheng believes that whether it is grade points or other evaluation methods, in the final analysis, it is a yardstick to measure what kind of talents are needed in the future, "its connotation prescriptiveness is the focus of our student evaluation." Therefore, not forgetting the essence of talent training, it is the proper meaning to flexibly adopt a multi-dimensional approach."
For example, Chu Zhaohui said that Ye Qisun, the founder of modern physics in China, discovered the talent of The Nobel Prize winner Li Zhengdao in daily lectures, and recommended him to study in the United States, and then had Li Zhengdao's future achievements.
"Any kind of evaluation will cause pressure on the evaluated party, if you want to dilute the pressure of this competitiveness and selection, you need to evaluate it in a daily manner, but the current evaluation criteria are too centralized and unified."
In the United States, grade points are also one of the indicators of students' graduate school and job search. Liu Cong, who is in it, believes that the US performance system has the following points to refer to compared with China.
First, the evaluation criteria for grade points are uniform. "In China, different schools have different grade points, some are 5 points, some are 4 points, and some are 4.5 points. Then when looking for a job, if the same is 3.4 points, the ability of students with a full score of 5 and a full score of 4 is very different. Liu Cong gave an example.
Moreover, what makes students feel stressed is that many courses are only assessed once, and if the test is broken, it is difficult to recover. However, in foreign countries, the assessment is carried out at any time, and even if the final exam is not performed well, the teacher will comprehensively score according to the usual performance.
In addition, the difficulty of exams for the same course varies. Students have higher scores when they encounter simple test papers, and they may have lower scores when they encounter more difficult test papers. Domestic colleges and universities often convert grade points directly according to the score, while foreign teachers will add or subtract grade points according to the difficulty of the test and the overall score of students to ensure that the grade point is not too high or too low. "This makes students less likely to think about how difficult it is when choosing a course." Liu Cong said.
Ma Zhen has participated in the school review work many times and found some good practices. For example, the implementation of classification review can be divided into groups according to liberal arts, science and engineering, and medical departments, as well as according to academic research groups, social activity groups, arts and sports groups, etc.
He believes that the fence of the system should be tightened to prevent "exploiting loopholes." For example, colleges and universities encourage undergraduates to do scientific research and publish papers, but at the same time, they must also prevent the occurrence of profits in evaluations by publishing pseudonymous papers.
For example, when some students participate in the selection of outstanding graduates, they do not clearly state that they are only "involved" in a certain project, which is suspected of misleading. This means that the "whether to add points" and "how many points" should be strictly measured, and the content reported by students should also be strictly examined.
"In addition, in the postgraduate scholarship evaluation process, it is necessary to avoid the simple practice of 'counting papers', emphasize the quality of the papers, and increase the defense of graduate students applying for national scholarships." At the same time, it is also necessary to strengthen the system construction of the evaluation system, neither to 'see people on the dishes', nor to easily change back and forth. It is necessary to do a good job in the preparation and interpretation of the system, so that students can also participate in it and gain the recognition of students. ”
Ma Zhen believes that both inside and outside the school should strengthen the publicity and reporting of all kinds of outstanding students, not only about the "thesis masters", but also about students volunteering and participating in cultural and sports activities.
"Brushing grades for the sake of grades, thinking of various methods for the sake of research, in essence, still do not think clearly about what they want. From another point of view, it is very likely that the things you are struggling with are not a thing, and the graduate school life you have not pursued is not necessarily suitable for you; blindly envying others to get extra points is meaningless, it is very likely that it is earned by others with blood and sweat, and it is also possible that others have embarked on a path that is not suitable for themselves by relying on extra points. Before the interview, Ma Zhen said.
China Science Daily (2020-12-22 5th Edition University Weekly Originally titled "New Battlefield Beyond Grade Points")
Edit | Zhao Lu
Typography | Zhi hai
