Zhao Guangyi: Committed to optimizing the school education ecology

On the west side of the north gate of the Affiliated Middle School of Soochow University (hereinafter referred to as "SuDa Affiliated Middle School"), the pond with the southeast corner is named "Bantang", which germinated in the "Pantang" of the Confucius Temple, taking the meaning of "accompaniment" of education. The cress in the pond grows freely, and the "Qingyun Bridge" stands across the pond. The mound named "Wenshaotai" is separated from the pond by the "Qingjin Place" in the southeast corner of Bantang, and the surrounding apricot forest is fluttering. In the strong cultural charm, it reveals a solemn sense of history.

How to run a high-quality school? This is the question that Zhao Guangyi, the principal of Su University Affiliated High School, is thinking about all the time. He takes the construction of the cultural value system as the guide, takes the growth of teachers and the construction of the project as the starting point, stimulates the endogenous motivation of teachers and students, and rapidly promotes the development of the connotation of the school.

The original intention will not change and then return to campus

Zhao Guangyi, who was born in the hometown of Confucius and Meng, was influenced by his family and teachers to become an excellent teacher. After only 5 years of participating in the work, Zhao Guangyi was identified as the national backbone teacher training object of the "Cross-century Gardener Project" of the Ministry of Education.

In 2005, Zhao Guangyi, who was in his thirties, was transferred to SuDaFu Middle School as vice president and secretary. He led teachers to implement the "dual subject" concept of equal emphasis on teaching, strived to reduce the practice of teachers taking on a large package and overstepping their bounds in the teaching process, and improved the efficiency of education by innovating the classroom "chain" teaching method. Under the impetus of Zhao Guangyi, Su Dafu Middle School also prospectively established the Education Assistance Center and the Primary and Secondary School Teacher Development School, which caused heated discussions in the local education circle.

After that, Zhao Guangyi was transferred to the Suzhou Industrial Park Education Bureau and took up an administrative position, he said: "I will do my job solidly in the administrative position, but I will return to campus in the future." In the past 9 years, Zhao Guangyi's original intention has not changed, and his career plan is simple and firm, that is, he wants to be a good principal. To this end, he continued to study traditional culture in his spare time, learn educational theories, expand professional knowledge, and continuously pursued master's and doctoral degrees in education.

In August 2017, Zhao Guangyi returned to SuDaFu Middle School again. Ideals shine into reality, and this time, he faces unprecedented challenges.

The campus facilities that have not changed for more than 20 years are dilapidated, the sewers are smelly, the pipelines are aging, and there are frequent power outages between classes and meals; the teaching team is not connected, teachers over 50 years old account for 1/3, and more than a dozen teachers face retirement within 3 years... The many problems accumulated over the years made Zhao Guangyi decide to do a lot.

He takes the construction of the cultural value system as the guide, takes the cultural school as a culture, and improves the cultural environment of the campus through multi-project closed-loop management, creates an independent and upward cultural atmosphere for teachers and students, and comprehensively enhances the connotation of school development.

The former campus has been reborn. The campus was renovated, the pipelines were replaced, new teaching buildings were erected, and a bright, clean and modern campus stood in front of us.

Culture is smart and innovative

The hardware environment is pleasant, and the soft environment is the endogenous driving force for the school's vigorous development. "Culture can't be seen or touched, but it is like a shadow, everywhere, affecting everyone's behavior." What kind of culture there is, what kind of group. In Zhao Guangyi's view, the most direct feeling of culture is an atmosphere, which stimulates the enthusiasm of teachers and students by creating an atmosphere.

The landing of culture has always been a pain point and a difficult point in cultural construction. The sense of awe that parents lacked after entering the campus deeply touched Zhao Guangyi. "Can we create a field of educational and cultural significance?" After careful consideration, Zhao Guangyi creatively proposed the campus culture landing method of "culture + field", taking traditional culture as the background and garden culture as the carrier to create a campus cultural space with stories, culture and rituals.

On campus, the original ordinary rockeries, mounds, and ponds have become unique due to cultural endowments. "Bantang", "Qingyun Bridge", "Wenshaotai", "Qingjin"... Every place, every scene, has a unique charm. Since then, the school's annual coming-of-age ceremony has been held in "Bantang". The "Half Pond" with its own cultural heritage, superimposed with activities full of ritual sense, let the students feel respect.

Places and landscapes with special cultural significance, such as "Bantang", are located in a total of eight places on the campus of Su University Affiliated High School. In each place, the roots of campus culture are deeper.

The teaching team has also transformed in the infiltration of culture. At the beginning of his term of office, Zhao Guangyi advocated that teachers make "faulty inferences" for themselves, "friendly inferences" for others, "dream inferences" for students, "reasonable inferences" for policies, and "solution inferences" for problems... Help teachers learn to think differently and understand each other in getting along. Under the harmonious humanistic atmosphere, the teacher group is more harmonious and united, and the previous staff congress, which was often won by people, was also held very smoothly, and the salary plan related to everyone's vital interests was also passed at one time, which surprised many people.

Bold lesson reform shows results

Improving the quality of teaching has always been the core issue of Zhao Guangyi's thinking. "At the end of the day, all the difficulties and challenges are people." In Zhao Guangyi's view, how to mobilize the autonomy and growth passion of teachers and students and stimulate endogenous motivation is the most effective means to improve the quality of teaching.

Only teachers who can learn will teach students who can learn. Zhao Guangyi introduced that Su University Affiliated High School draws on the research results of the academic community, combines the actual development of the school, inherits the traditional college system, and promotes the training of the teacher team by creating the teacher development college in the school - "Bantang College".

The cultivation of students' initiative in learning has also been regarded as the top priority by Zhao Guangyi, and classroom efficiency has become a key breakthrough. To this end, Zhao Guangyi led the team to go deep into the major well-known middle schools in China for many times, absorb and refine the basic elements of successful school classrooms, integrate the results of school-based learning practice, boldly promote curriculum reform, and launch the "Yijia Ecological Classroom".

Zhao Guangyi introduced that "easy" and the dialectics and changes of the traditional cultural classic "Zhou Yi" are connected, and there is also the meaning of easy, and "plus" has multiple connotations such as "traditional + modern" and "teacher + student". After the transformation of the classroom, the classroom will truly evolve into the home of students, helping students become the main body of independent learning, active thinking, and transformation and application, and the role of teachers is to create classroom situations, guide, click, and promote students to learn.

This is very different from the previous classrooms that focused on "teaching". In just one year, the new classroom has achieved remarkable results. In the first and second grades of high school, 82% of the classes have greatly improved their regional rankings.

At the same time, Suda Affiliated High School has also won the titles of the country's first Chinese culture English curriculum base school and Suzhou Moral Education Demonstration School, becoming the only school in Suzhou Industrial Park to win the titles of the first batch of teacher development demonstration base schools in Jiangsu Province and the Jiangsu Provincial High School Principal Training Base School.

These gratifying achievements are just the beginning for a pursuer of educational ideals. "'Optimizing the school education ecology, returning to the origin of education, and enabling people to live a happy and complete educational life' is the ideal I pursue, and I will make unremitting efforts for it." Zhao Guangyi said.

Author: Correspondent Wang Ping

China Education News, February 3, 2021, 3rd Edition Title: Principal Weekly People