为提高各校SSI-L活动的方案设计质量,为提升各校SSI-L活动的课程实施效益,北京师范大学SSI-L项目组小学学段于2020年12月16日在腾讯会议室举行在线研讨会,全国小学学段负责人、北京市通州区教师研修中心小学特级教师曹春浩老师、山西省教育科学研究院尚秀芬老师等学科专家出席指导,来自14所基地校的四十余名教师参与了本次研讨。
山东省荣成市府新小学的王英水老师首先发言,介绍该校《景观树》SSI项目的设计和实施情况。辽宁省青峰山镇学校季立伟老师提问,活动中的实地调查采访是如何组织引导学生开展的?上课的时候采取怎样的授课方式?是否有涉及滨海广场之外的其他地点?王英水老师分别进行了举例回答,第一个活动调查景观树选用情况,先引导学生学习调查方法,各种条件成熟后再去广场实地调查,通过查看每棵树上的牌子并用手机扫码了解树种等信息;小组活动时,参与SSI项目的老师分别指导不同小组的活动,班级授课时,长处不同的老师分别负责不同内容的讲授;滨海广场是市政府下了大投资选种、养护的,离学校比较近,综合考虑安全、交通等因素,因此只选择这一个地点,项目的重点在于学生积累研究经验,而不在于得到可推广的研究成果。哈尔滨市继红小学赫英红老师提问,科学自然笔记是否可以融入美术学科内容?五星图中“功能”是否应当改为“环境”?对比社会性科学议题与项目化议题,学生的感受是否有不同?评价有何不同?随着研究的深入,学生对争议性话题的兴趣是否有加深?是否出现超出教师预期的主动性?王英水老师对前两个提议表示认可,并回应了另外三个问题,不同年龄的学生的认识能力有所不同,研究经验有差异,所以把不同年龄孩子按兴趣混合分组,可以很好发挥高年龄段的引领作用;每个小组都有一个项目学习手册,内容包括学生的研究记录、研究成果,教师会根据这些文本材料进行评价,教师还会根据学生的课堂表现对学生的创意物化、情感态度价值观、团队协作等进行评价,整体上采用过程性评价;实施中更关注学生的研究过程,没有很多考虑学生兴趣在过程中的变化,根据研究结果看,每个人对结果都有不同的价值取向,说明争议性有所体现。尚秀芬老师建议,设计中要考虑调查活动的指向性与顶层设计的联系。
图1 山东省荣成市府新小学的项目实施情况
Picture 1 Project implementation status of Fuxin Primary School of Rongchen City, Shandong Province
四川省简阳市简城第一小学的袁肖肖老师发言,介绍该校《魔豆的一生》SSI项目,并向参与者提问若增加“转基因”的内容,学生能否接受?温州道尔顿小学缪旭春老师回应,转基因相关知识在小学较难开展,一般不建议;缪旭春老师从设计意图出发,结合核心素养标准,为该校的议题设计了一个五星图,剖析了该校议题的驱动性问题和SSI重要特征,并为该校提供了一些进一步拓展的点子,如设计“魔豆王国”桌游,进行大豆的营养检测,比较黄豆和其他主粮在膳食宝塔中的不同位置,进行玉米大豆的投入产出比、进出口贸易值、人口需求与占地的数据分析,探讨大豆振兴计划、国产大豆品牌形象设计等。大同市平城区御河小学谢凯旋老师提出,五角星图中经济方面可以加入大豆的潜在价值,如作物轮作制中维持地力等,认为通过学生调查决定SSI议题的做法很有趣,但希望加强SSI议题拟定过程中教师对整体流程的把握,认为把黄豆、豆豉与中国文化联系起来的做法对其他学校很有借鉴价值。尚秀芬老师补充了一个问题,魔豆这一比喻的涵义是什么?
图2 温州道尔顿小学为《魔豆的一生》设计的五星图
Picture 2 “Life of Magic Beans” five-star map designed by Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School
山东省威海市千山路小学王传胜老师发言介绍该校《学校田园基地是种植薰衣草还是种植其他作物?》议题的设计和实施情况。大同市平城区文慧小学蔡雪姣老师提问:集体买卖活动如何保证每个学生的参与度?如何进行量化的学生评价?学校传统的“田园五节”中有买卖节,其中会用到学校的代币(体验币、参与币),学生在这个活动中历来参与度很高,此外还会让学生在附近社区摆摊,并依托学校微信公众号网店进行售卖,多渠道地保障集体买卖活动的推进和参与;SSI议题不希望给学生太多压力,所以不准备量化考评和学生排名,学校为各类研学活动准备了系统的档案袋评价体系“研学护照”,该议题的评价均在该框架下进行。大同市平城区第四十七小学赵巧洁老师认为该议题基础扎实,深度结合本校和地方特色,可操作性强,产学研结合,能产生多方面效益。尚秀芬老师补充,可以增加植物生长发育的知识。
图3 山东省威海市千山路小学的项目实施情况
Picture 3 Project implementation status of Qianshan Road Primary School, Weihai City, Shandong Province
尚秀芬老师提示各位老师在设计中要考虑SSI的育人功能有何独特性,能够承载什么其他课程形式不具备的功能,并提议在研讨中不用完整地呈现议题全貌,而是聚焦实施的一些细节经验详细展开,曹春浩老师提示各位老师要注重SSI研究结果的整理和收集。曹春浩老师总结道,经过四次研讨,小学组的老师们在课程设计上的进步非常显著,对SSI的理解和方案的可操作性越来越强了,希望在以后的研讨中,不同学校的老师相互交流中多用头脑风暴法,让议题内容更加丰富、创新。
To improve the quality of SSI-L project design in all schools and increase the effectiveness of SSI-L activity curriculum implementation, an online discussion was held among the elementary-school stage schools of the Beijing Normal University SSI-L project team via Tencent meeting on December 16, 2020. Cao Chunhao, head of the elementary-school stage project team and a special-grade senior teacher from the Beijing Tongzhou District Teacher Training Center Primary School, Shang Xiufen, a teacher from the Shanxi Academy of Educational Sciences, and other disciplinary experts attended the discussion. Over 40 teachers from 14 partner schools participated into this meeting.
Wang Yingshui, a teacher from Fuxin Primary School of Rongchen City, Shandong Province gave the first presentation, introducing the project design and implementation status of the school’s “Landscape tree” program. Ji Liwei from Qingfengshan Town School in Liaoning Province raised questions around how to guide and organize students to conduct field investigation and interviews in this project, what kinds of teaching method are adopted in class, are there any locations involved other than Marina Plaza? Then Wang Yingshui answered these questions with examples. The first activity investigates the selection of landscape trees. Students are guided to learn investigation methods, then go to the plaza to conduct field investigations when all conditions permit. They can learn about the tree species by checking the tag on each tree and scanning the code with mobile phones. In group activities, different teachers of the SSI-L project team guide activities of different groups. Then in class, teachers with different strengths are responsible for teaching different content. The municipal government has invested heavily in Marina Plaza on plant selection and maintenance. It is also nearby the school. So with overall consideration of safety, transportation and other factors, only one location is selected. The focus of the project is for students to acquire research experience, not generalizable research results. He Yinghong from Harbin Jihong Primary School asked questions on whether natural science notes can incorporate content of art subjects, should the idea of “function” be changed to “environment” in the five-star map, is there any difference in students’ experience when comparing SSI issues and projectized issues, how different is the evaluation process, to what extent students will be more interested in controversial topics as the research goes further, is there any students’ proactivity that exceeds teachers’ anticipation? Wang Yingshui agreed with the first two suggestions and answered the other three questions. Students of different ages have different cognitive abilities and different research experiences. Therefore, it can encourage senior students to play a leading role if all of them are divided into groups with mixed ages based on their interests. Each group has a project learning manual, which includes students’ research records and research results. Teachers evaluate students based on these text materials, and other evaluations are also conducted based on students’ performance in class, including materializing students’ creativity, their sentiments, attitudes and values, teamwork, etc. In general, process assessment is adopted. Such evaluations put more emphasis on students’ research process. There is not much consideration of the changes in students’ interest during their research. According to the research results, everyone has a different value perspective to the results, which shows the controversiality of the issue. Shang Xiufen suggested that the project design should consider the connection between the directivity of investigation activities and top-level design.
Yuan Xiaoxiao from Jiancheng No.1 Primary School in Jianyang City, Sichuan Province, gave a presentation to introduce the school’s SSI-L project “Life of magic beans”, and raised a question for participants on whether students can accept it if some content on “genetically modified organism” is included. Miao Xuchun from Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School responded that it is difficult to develop genetically modified knowledge in primary schools and thus recommended not doing so. Then starting from the design idea, she combined core literacy standards and designed a five-star map for this school project. She also analyzed motivation questions of the school’s issue and significant characteristics of the issue, and offered some ideas for further exploration, such as designing a board game “Magic Bean Kingdom”, conducting nutritional testing of soybeans, comparing different positions in the diet pagoda between soybeans and other staple foods, analysing data of corn and soybeans on input-output ratio, import and export trade volume, population demand and land occupation, discussing soybean revitalization plan and domestic soybean brand image design, etc. Xie Kaixuan from Yuhe Primary School in Pingcheng District, Datong City, pointed out that the potential value of soybeans can be added into the economic dimension of the five-star map, such as maintaining soil fertility in crop rotation. He believed it is interesting to determine SSI issues through student surveys, but meanwhile hoped to strengthen teachers’ control of the overall process in formulating the topics. He suggested that it is a practice with great referential significance to combine soybeans, tempeh with Chinese culture. Shang Xiufen added another question, what the metaphor — magic beans means.
Wang Chuansheng, from Qianshan Road Primary School, Weihai City, Shandong Province, gave his presentation, introducing the school’s project design and implementation status, “whether the school’s pastoral base is to grow lavender or other crops”. Cai Xuejiao from Wenhui Primary School in Pingcheng District, Datong City, raised several questions: How to ensure the participation of each student in collective trading activities? How to carry out quantitative evaluation? There is a trading festival in the school’s traditions, “Five Pastoral Festivals”, where school tokens (experience tokens and participation tokens) are used. Students have always engaged in this activity with high degree of participation. In addition, students are allowed to set up stalls in nearby communities. They can sell products on the school’s WeChat official account online store. Multiple channels have been running to ensure the promotion and participation of collective trading activities. The SSI project does not want to impose too much pressure on students, so quantitative assessment and student rankings are not considered. But the school prepares for various research activities a systematic portfolio evaluation system called “Research Passport”, under which the evaluation of this topic is carried out. Zhao Qiaojie, from the 47th Primary School in Pingcheng District, Datong City, believed that the topic has a solid foundation, deeply integrates characteristics of the school and local environment. It is also highly operable. With the combination between production, education and research, the project can generate multiple benefits Shang Xiufen added that the project can include knowledge of plant growth and development.
Shang Xiufen suggested that when making project design, teachers should consider what unique features the SSI’s educational function has and what functions the SSI-L curriculum undertakes but other curriculum formats don’t. At the meantime, she proposed that it is not necessary to present the whole topic completely in the discussion, just to focus on unfolding in detail some of the experiences in implementation. Cao Chunhao reminded all teachers to pay attention to the sorting and collection of SSI research results. He summarized, after four rounds of discussions, the teachers from elementary-school stage schools have made significant progress in curriculum design, with better understanding of SSI. The operability of their project designs has become stronger. It is hoped that teacher from different schools will have more brainstorming in communication and exchange for future discussions, so that the topics can be more diverse and innovative.