Quoted from the Teachers' Expo
Li Lie, former principal of Beijing No. 2 Experimental Primary School, member of the Board of Directors of the China Education Society and member of the Academic Committee.
Meaningful learning should focus on "asking" rather than "knowing"
Children's growth is regular. With more than 30 years of experience in teaching and reviewing various schools of thought, I believe that the laws of children's growth can be condensed into one of the simplest but most meaningful words: people.
How is the word "human" interpreted, and what is its meaning? It should be an important topic that every educator and parent must study and ponder.
Children's development can be seen from two perspectives: cognitive development, which can be seen as the left-handedness of the word "person"; and the social development of personality, which can also be called non-cognitive development, can be seen as the right hand of the word "person". One by one, the combination is a complete "person" word.
Left-handed cognitive development is mainly completed in the process of children's learning, and the key to learning is to make children "learn to learn". Only in this way can we achieve lifelong learning and lifelong development of each individual.
However, the "learning" that every child receives is not necessarily the same or equivalent. Because teaching is for the purpose of not teaching, it is the highest state of teaching. Therefore, truly meaningful learning should focus on the word "seeking" in "learning to seek knowledge", rather than "knowing". That is to say, the learning of knowledge only provides a platform, a means and an opportunity or process, which focuses on the process of learning to let children learn the method of "seeking" and stimulate the desire to "seek" more deeply, rather than the knowledge mastery itself.
Therefore, we have repeatedly emphasized that good classroom teaching is the teaching of methodology and values through limited knowledge learning. Because of this, from the perspective of children's cognitive structure and cognitive process, the core is to train children to learn to think.
I do not recommend that teachers and parents spend a lot of effort every day to check whether the specific knowledge is accurately remembered, and ignore the valuable "thinking" and "curiosity" about the problems and tasks themselves implied in the learning process of children. Only "thinking" and "thinking ability" are the key to learning.
Do not neglect the cultivation of children's communication skills
The social development of the right-hand personality is mainly completed in the process of socialization of children, and the key to socialization lies in learning to be a "person" - the person here refers to "social person".
In the process of growing up, children will learn what can be done, what can not be done, what can only be done on what occasions and a series of social customs and rules, social civilization and values, in this process gradually penetrate into the hearts of children, so that they transform into a "social person". The process of socialization cannot be completed in the laboratory, nor can it be realized by imagination, and the process of socialization is inseparable from "human interaction".
Children's development must not only focus on cognition, but neglect or neglect the cultivation of children's communication skills. "What habits, politeness, what love, filial piety, what cooperation, communication, when he grows up, he will naturally become", this is a terrible understanding. In fact, children who exhibit behavioral problems are first and foremost characterized by inadequate social skills.
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Will not express emotions, needs, directly "start and move";
Do not know how to join the activities of others, trying to get attention in a destructive way;
When encountering difficulties and bullying, they do not know the normal means and procedures for seeking help, and directly "shoot" or "shout" and "lose their temper";
There is no concept of "taking turns", "waiting" or even "all" in collective life ...
In my opinion, grasping these two points well in education: teaching children to learn to think and teaching children to learn to communicate will basically control the healthy growth and all-round development of children.
The child's life experience must be rich
People grow up making mistakes. Everyone has scars on their bodies – scars are signs of growth. When we block all the difficulties and setbacks for the child, we also block the colorful experience of the child's life and block the child's future achievements.
From the structure of the word "person", we condense the law of children's growth. If we follow these laws, it is not difficult to imagine that the child's life experience must be rich and varied.
Whether it is thinking or communicating, there are successes or failures, or the result of being accepted and rejected. Behind different outcomes are different life experiences, some positive, such as self-identification, pride, excitement, joy and satisfaction, and so on; there are also negative ones, such as self-denial, frustration, anger, guilt, and self-blame. In addition to the experiences associated with the results, there are also the anxiety, anxiety, persistence, firmness, courage to try again, and patience that may accompany the process. In addition, there is the plain, calm, peaceful and regular, rhythmic life of daily life.
Every aspect is an indispensable part of life, and nature is also a part of life that children will definitely encounter and experience in life.
Each aspect actually has its own different values. Positive life experiences can make us feel the joy of being "alive," negative life experiences, or tell us: Hey, we need to pay attention, we need to make an effort or it's time to change direction. And those blandness in life just hone our will and may directly affect the results.
However, in real life, there are often deplorable phenomena. The reason for this is mostly to go against the law, depriving children of the colorful life experience that they should have.
Typical performance one is to let the child accept only the beautiful part, and for the negative part, the doting parents build an "ivory tower". People grow up making mistakes. Everyone has scars on their bodies, whether they are naughty or careless, they have all been injured - scars are signs of growth. In a sense, when we block all the difficulties and setbacks for the child, we also block the colorful experience of the child's life and block the child's future achievements.
The second typical manifestation is to recognize the existence of failure, but in the face of negative experiences, they are powerless and helpless, and thus move towards self-abandonment or even self-destruction.
The third typical performance is that regardless of success or failure, he only likes to be gorgeous, ignoring the power of plainness, ordinary peace and peace.
Only by cherishing the colorful life experience can it be possible for children to know more about what is healthy and happy after illness and loss, and will also know more how to cherish and create "health" and "happiness"!
The most powerful education must be true education
The most powerful education must be real education - around the real life of children to lead to educational problems, so that children personally experience the process of seeking knowledge and communication, not simulation, bystandering, but immersive; then use their own words to summarize, share, in the collision and exchange to experience the true meaning of life, absorb the essence of civilization.
In a teaching seminar, the content of a text once again strengthened my idea: helping children enjoy a colorful life experience is laying the foundation for their healthy and happy growth.
I saw a story like this:
There were two old people who planted trees, and they each planted a forest, one of whom watered the trees every day, while the other old man went for a walk in the woods every day and "took care" of the trees for a month or two.
After a few years, the trees planted by the old people grew into tall trees. One night, there was an unusual storm. After a night of thunderstorms, the air was exceptionally fresh, and the two old men came to their respective woods again, and saw that one of the trees had all fallen, while the other was standing in the same place as before.
The fallen woods were planted by the old man who watered the tree every day, because the roots of the trees that were watered every day would not grow downwards, nor would they cling to the land, of course, they could not withstand the shaking of the wind and rain. And the tree that has only been "cared for" for a month or two, because it is not watered every day, so the roots will continue to grow downwards so that the land is firmly grasped, and even the biggest storm is treated as a small matter like sesame.
Growth is like that. Excessive attention and too much arrangement deprive the child of the right to experience the subject, which is the dislocation of love! The healthy development of children must be based on self-development ability, and self-development ability must be cultivated in the real world, so that children face the truth, experience the truth, and embrace the truth.
For this reason I propose that the most powerful education must be the education of reality.
First of all, real education is to lead to educational problems around the child's real life, and promote the child's "thinking" and "interaction".
In the life around children, there are colorful topics to study: why there is a rainbow in the sky, what is weightlessness in the universe, what is the warming of the earth, why the car semicolon restriction is different every day... Children are able to discover these questions, generate small question marks, and have a variety of thoughts in research.
Secondly, real education is to let children experience these processes of knowledge and communication, not simulation, not bystanders, but immersive.
Investigation of the living conditions of the disabled, participation in the election of small cadres, washing the feet of the elderly in the nursing home, washing the hair of grandparents, volunteering at the science and technology museum, publicizing environmental protection in the community, making a dish for the mother...
These things that the children personally experience are all mixed with their respective rich emotional experiences, and only when they have really done it, the taste will really pour into the heart, can taste the five tastes and wonders of life, and truly guide the children's goodness and upwards.
Third, the real education is to let the children summarize and share with their own words after experiencing it, and truly appreciate the true meaning of life and absorb the essence of civilization in collision and exchange.
As long as it is the result of his own painstaking efforts, not naïve or mature, scattered or rigorous, nor how long or short, I firmly believe that the words and phrases written by the child are engraved on his heart, so that it is a powerful and effective educational result!