Huang Zhao, who is currently in the fourth grade, is a little naughty, but "learning is very smart", the grandfather who picks up this precious grandson to and from school every day proudly said. "In the first and second grades, he memorized the "Three Character Classic" and 365 ancient poems, and also read famous works such as "Journey to the West" and "Water Margin"; for several holidays, we went to extracurricular classes such as taekwondo and swimming, and every day when he came home from school, he had to practice brush writing." The grandfather pointed to the calligraphy work posted on the wall and praised. Why do children have so much time to learn beyond the curriculum? Huang Zhao himself rushed to say, "Because I only started to learn mathematics from the third grade, I can learn more things I like in the first two years!" ”
"Just to make it easy for children to learn"
In the new semester of 2015, Huang Zhao, who had just entered Zhengyang Primary School in Chibi City, Hubei Province, and his classmates participated in this experiment of "learning mathematics in the third grade", and the school only ran their one experimental class that year. Out of caution, parents who choose the experimental class for their children sign before entering the class.
Wu Zhenqiu, principal of Zhengyang Primary School and designer of this experiment, prefers to emphasize that this is an "experiment of overall optimization of the primary school curriculum" rather than simply postponing the start of learning mathematics. This experiment, which is both a research and a reform experiment, aims to learn mathematics from the third grade in the primary school stage and proceed at a normal pace from the fourth grade onwards, so that students can successfully complete and firmly grasp the entire content of mathematics in the six-year primary school in four years. At the same time, it pays attention to cultivating students' good learning and living habits, and educates children to love science and love labor through more activities; increases the intensity of language learning, appropriately improves the standard requirements of listening, speaking, reading, writing and thinking; strengthens artistic and sports activities to enhance interest and self-cultivation. During the implementation, the school has reorganized the lower grade curriculum, such as changing the lower grade music to singing tour, art to art, sports to physical activities, middle grade music to singing, and art to drawing, so that children can develop easily and happily in the curriculum that is more in line with their age characteristics. The first and second grade students who do not have mathematics learning can use the "provincial" class time and a more relaxed mentality to learn more about other subjects such as Language, Science, Music, and Art, and finally form an overall promotion and enrich the comprehensive quality. At the same time, the suspension of the opening of the primary school lower grade course after the mathematics class is more convenient for the implementation of the theme-based synthesis, which is more conducive to the development of students' interests and hobbies.
So by the time he entered the third grade in 2017, Huang Zhaohe and the other students in the experimental class had completed the main knowledge of mathematics in the first and second grades and the mathematics textbooks for the third grade in one year. In the final exam of the third grade, the math and Chinese scores of the students in this class were 11.5 and 15.3 points higher than those in the regular class, respectively, and the paper was neat, the writing was serious, and the accuracy rate was high. The parents of the experimental class students are very satisfied with their children's physical and mental development.
The experiment of reducing the burden from the mathematical "opening knife" is difficult to advance
As a mathematics teacher, Principal Wu Zhenqiu, why does he "not attach importance" to mathematics? After years of persistent and in-depth research, he has a sufficient reason to carry out reforms-
First, the two main courses of Chinese mathematics in the initial grade of basic education are opened at the same time, so that the early childhood articulation slope is too steep, so that students are overburdened: the main task of kindergarten children is to play, and once they step into the primary school, they will "press" the upper body of two courses, in addition to the constraints of rules and regulations such as sitting posture, standing posture, and listening attentively, and students will be in a tense state.
Second, children in the lower age are mainly based on image thinking, they like to read, write, write, recite, sing, jump and graffiti, and are not suitable for learning mathematics with logical thinking as the main feature, not to mention that the existing textbooks have content that exceeds the thinking and language expression level of lower grade students.
Third, today's lower grade students learn mathematics basically in the case of not recognizing words, especially in the first grade of the two volumes of mathematics, the topics, instructions, prompts, requirements, etc. in the text are Chinese characters, in the school by the teacher, at home by the parents to help read the problem, the meaning of the topic, invisibly to the teacher, parents increase the burden, but also waste teaching time, but also may affect the mood and interest of students to learn mathematics.
What made President Wu Zhenqiu confident in carrying out this experiment was also supported by "evidence" similar to the results of the education reform: two famous experiments in the 1980s and 1990s - Teacher Ma Xinlan of Beijing Happiness Village Central Primary School taught the five-year primary school mathematics content in three years; Professor Zhao Songguang of Guangdong Xinghai Conservatory of Music", who taught the mathematics teaching content of the six-year primary school in two and a half years - gave Principal Wu the courage and determination to experiment. In 1992, inspired by these experiences, Wu Zhenqiu launched the first round of experiments on the "New Curriculum for Primary Schools" based on the actual research of local students. After six years, the average score of the experimental class students in Chinese and mathematics was 3 to 5 points higher than that of the comparison class. The experiment was interrupted in 1998 due to personnel changes, and this round of upgraded experiments presents the overall optimization of language, mathematics, and music and body beauty. At present, there are five experimental classes in the three grades of the school, all of which are voluntarily registered by parents.
Student development is the "hard truth" of principals
The new school year 2017 began, and the first experimental class entered the third grade. When the teacher handed out the experimental mathematics textbook with the aroma of ink to the students, the children were overjoyed, and their eyes showed their eagerness to learn mathematics. That scene touched the principal Wu Zhenqiu Haosheng: "Our students start mathematical learning in this state of active yearning for mathematics, and they don't have to worry about starting late, because the energy they contain can make them accelerate fast and stay strong!" Huang Zhao now smiles brightly when talking about his third-grade learning experience: "I like to learn mathematics so much!" "The results of the students in the experimental class in mathematics in one academic year proved the original experimental hypothesis.
The experimental class students not only ahead of the ordinary class in terms of test scores, but also showed advantages in many other aspects: in the past three years, students of the same grade have participated in the school's word dictation and recitation competitions and other activities at the same time, and the winning rate, high score rate, full score rate and ranking level of the experimental class are higher than that of the ordinary class. Moreover, they have developed faster in terms of "bookish fragrance, word beauty, and sweet words". Usually, in the school's literary and artistic activities, sports competitions, as well as civilized courtesy, organizational discipline, class attendance rate, etc., the experimental class students are also more active and good character.
In order to enable students to systematically grasp the backbone knowledge of mathematics in grades one to three, Principal Wu Zhenqiu has been planning to write a math book to be used in the first experimental class since 2016. After reading through the 12 volumes of primary school mathematics textbooks, he printed out all the catalogs and compiled a "condensed version" of experimental textbooks through learning, analysis, and research on knowledge structure, arrangement methods, and timing and methods of knowledge presentation.
Primary schools start from the third grade to learn mathematics, not only can learn all the contents of six-year primary school mathematics in four years, but also the students' learning burden has been reduced, the learning effect is good; the lower grades of primary schools do not learn mathematics but focus on learning Chinese and strengthen the teaching of arts and sports subjects, in line with children's cognitive laws and physical and mental development laws, students' reading, memory, comprehension and expression and other abilities and qualities are thus enhanced - all of which have increased Principal Wu's determination and determination to continue to carry out experiments. (Reporter Su Ting)
China Education News, December 12, 2018, 7th edition