良好的顶层设计是SSI-L项目顺利实施的基础保障,是后续课程设计的指导方针。为推动各基地校进一步将项目的顶层设计做细、做实,并对其中存在的疑问进行交流与讨论,2020年12月30日晚7:00-9:30,SSI-L项目初中组在腾讯会议室举行第三次在线研讨活动。本次研讨的主要内容为目前项目开展进度较快的六所基地校进行顶层设计的汇报与相互交流点评。会议由初中学段负责人,山东省威海市教育教学研究中心初中教研室张涛主任主持,初中学段10所基地校的骨干教师、其他学段负责人和骨干教师40余人参与了本次研讨。
威海市望海园中学的王玉凤老师对议题“是否应该大力推广草木染染制的衣物”的修改思路和设计内容进行了汇报。望海园中学对议题的表述形式和五星图设计都进行了反复研讨和修改,力图向更科学化、更社会化、更可操作化的方向改进。在项目评价方面,课程采用每节课的学生自评、教师评价、作品互评相结合的方式进行评价。最后,王玉凤老师提出了项目的未来优化方向,希望与其他学校进行资源交流和共享,并对项目的资料进行整理、修改和优化。威海市高新区一中世昌校区的孔老师认为望海园中学反复修改优化的思路值得借鉴,目前的设计也趋于完善,建议学生能够在最后将自己的作品进行展览。张涛老师对五星图中科学和政策部分的表述提出了建议,建议其表述要更加准确严谨。
图 1 威海市望海园中学五星图设计
威海市高新区一中世昌校区的孔鹏飞老师对议题“威海小石岛是否有必要填海造陆”进行了汇报。该选题以世界各地不断涌现的填海造陆工程为背景,探讨威海本地填海造陆的必要性,既是社会热点话题,又贴近学生生活。孔老师对五星图设计进行了详细阐述,该设计均与“填海造陆”的主体紧密相关,并依据该五星图设计了9个教学活动。此外,该校还提出了如何促进学生形成课堂行为规范、有没有适合SSI的教学评价模式、如何促进学生表达逻辑性、如何在日常教学中渗透SSI思想四个问题。望海园中学的乔然洁老师认为该课程的五星图设计详细,准备充分,认为学生受限于年龄,其逻辑性不需要过于强求。望海园中学的王真老师认为可以引导学生全面考虑国家政策和当地发展。威海市南海新区实验中学的于东升老师认为“填海造陆”问题的争议性有待商榷。张涛老师认为现场考察的课时可以提前安排,先培养学生的感性认识;课堂规范可以给学生更多的自由,不必过多限制;大概念统领的单元式教学是目前教学改革的重点,各个课程都可以找到合适的话题切入。
图 2 威海市高新区一中世昌校区五星图设计
杭州市三墩中学的吴幸春老师汇报了本校议题“人类能防控水体富营养化吗”的设计内容。本议题来源于学校校园内的水体富营养化现象,与学生的学习较为贴近。三墩中学团队首先进行了课时内容设计、随后确定了五星图设计和核心素养的指向。课程评价体系由互评、自评、师评相结合,并依托实验室提供奖励机制,已经形成了较为完善的课程设计体系。北京外国语大学瑞安附属中学的薛孝锋老师肯定了选题贴近生活、课堂多样化、评价方式合理等优点,同时也与吴老师讨论了议题如何体现出争议性的问题。张涛老师提出了该议题是否只具有科学性而不具有社会性的疑问,吴老师回应认为水体富营养化受到人类社会活动的影响,学生可能从人类活动的角度进行考虑。
图 3 杭州市三墩中学五星图设计
北京外国语大学瑞安附属中学的薛孝锋老师对议题“你会选择佩戴眼镜还是激光手术来矫正视力”进行了总结性的汇报。本议题来源于温州“明眸皓齿”工程,同样与学生的生活关系密切。单元学习目标包括知识与原理、分析与应用、思考与辩证、预防与政策四个方面,同时体现了课程的科学性和社会性。学习评价方面,课程采用作文、物理模型、数据模型和海报四种方式对学生进行评价;教学过程方面,以“三层智力”的形式开展,首先培养学生将信息转化为“作品”,随后培养学生开展团队交流与建模,最后培养学生的应用能力。最后,薛老师提出了对学生思维的培养是否有侧重点、如何支持学生拓展深入某个议题、如何平衡学生兴趣和后期的课程知识等问题。杭州市三墩中学的董艳萍老师认为,该议题与学生息息相关,能够激发学生的动机和兴趣,在学习中可以开展更加多样化的活动形式,进一步提升学生的实践能力。张涛老师认为该校的课程实践具有较多的可借鉴性。
图 4 北京的外国语大学瑞安附属中学五星图设计
山西省太原市尖草坪区实验中学的张岚老师对议题“塑胶跑道的未来将走向何方”进行了汇报。议题同样来自于学生身边发生的学校建造塑胶跑道事件,与学生的日常生活联系密切。该议题涉及到生物、物理、化学等多个学科内容,因此团队中包括各学科背景的教师,也针对不同学科内容制定了相应的驱动性问题。在项目实施中,学生的实践能力和自主学习能力获得了较大提升,但是也存在五星图在具体教学中的渗透不够明确这一主要问题。临汾市解放路学校的吉青青老师认为该项目有议题与生活联系密切以及学生广泛参与实践两个值得借鉴之处。张涛老师认为该议题是开放性的问题,较富有新意,值得好好研究。
图 5 山西省太原市尖草坪区实验中学五星图设计
山西省临汾市解放路学校的吉青青老师针对本校议题“转基因大豆大量引入国内好不好”的设计进行了汇报。该议题是社会关注的热点话题,具有较强的科学性和研究价值。依据项议题的五星图设计,本学习该校已经完成了10课时的学习,形成了丰富的成果。尖草坪实验中学的张岚老师肯定了解放路学校的成果展示形式,并对其课时设计的具体内容提出了问题,孟春林老师建议可以从跨学科的角度考虑议题,进一步充实课程的内容。张涛老师认为该议题与其他议题的区别在于转基因食品在科学上还暂无定论,需要考虑具体的处理,此外需要考虑活动与议题本身的关联,切忌出现形式大于内容的问题。
图 6 山西省临汾市解放路学校五星图设计
张涛老师对本次研讨进行了总结,认为本次研讨体现出三个方面的特点:其一是各校的顶层设计已经有了明显的进步;其二是各校不仅停留在设计方面,也进行了大量教学实践的工作;其三是大家对于社会性科学议题的思考越来越深入。本次研讨总体上富有成效,为各校在新的一年中进一步顺利开展SSI-L项目提供了有力支持。
A good top-level design is the fundamental guarantee for the successful implementation of the SSI-L project and the guideline for the design of the follow-up courses. In order to encourage all partner schools to refine their top-level designs and exchange ideas about the problems they meet in their design processes, the middle schools involved in the SSI-L project attended the third online seminar which was held through the Tencent Conference Room from 7pm to 9:30pm on December 30th, 2020. Six partner schools where the SSI-L project is better carried out gave reports on their top-level designs and shared related ideas. Zhang Tao, who is in charge of all the middle schools in the project and also the director of the middle school teaching and research office in Weihai, Shangdong, chaired the seminar. Backbone teachers from the 10 middle schools, 40 directors and teachers from other schools took part in this seminar.
Wang Yufeng, a teacher from Wanghaiyuan Middle School in Weihai, Shandong, reported on their modification thoughts and design about the topic “whether clothes dyed by vegetation dyes should be popularized vigorously”. Wanghaiyuan Middle School has repeatedly discussed about and refined the representation form and the five-star chart design of the topic, striving to improve them in a more scientific, more socialized and more operational way. When it comes to the project evaluation, the combination of student self-evaluation, teacher evaluation and mutual evaluation for the students’ work is employed. At the end of the report, Ms. Wang put forward their ideas on how to optimize the project in the future, in the hope that all partner schools could exchange and share resources as well as sort, modify and optimize resources together. Mr. Kong from Shichang School of the No.1 Middle School in the high-tech development zone of Weihai deemed that the repeated modification and optimization of Wanghaiyuan Middle School was worth learning from. And he also thought that their design was approaching perfection, hoping that students could display their work at the end of the course. Teacher Zhang Tao gave advice on the expression of science and policy sections in the five-star chart, suggesting that their expression should be more accurate and precise.
Kong Pengfei, a teacher from Shichang School of the No.1 Middle School in the high-tech development zone of Weihai gave a report on the topic “whether there’s a need to reclaim land from the sea in Xiaoshi Island”. Based on the background that the sea reclamation constantly springs up all over the world, this topic explores the necessity of sea reclamation in Weihai, which is not only a hot issue in society, but also close to students’ life. Mr. Kong elaborated on the design of the five-star chart, which was closely related to the topic of sea reclamation. He also designed nine teaching activities on the basis of the five-star chart. Besides, Shichang School also put forward another four questions: how to promote students to develop behavioral norms in the class; whether there is a teaching evaluation model fit for the SSI-L; how to promote students’ logic of presentation and how to infiltrate the ideas of SSI in daily teaching. Qiao Ranjie, a teacher from Wanghaiyuan Middle School, considered that the design of the five-star chart was detailed and we should not demand too much on students’ logic because of their age. Wangzhen, a teacher from Wanghaiyuan Middle School thought that we could guide students to have an overall consideration about the national policy and the local development. Yu Dongsheng, a teacher from the Experimental Middle School in Nanhai District of Weihai, deemed that the sea reclamation was controversial and remained to be discussed. Teacher Zhang Tao offered the following suggestions: the site inspection class could be arranged in advance to develop students’ perceptual knowledge; teachers could give students more freedom considering the behavioral norms in the class; teaching by unit which is organized through big ideas is the key point in the educational reform now and each course could find their own starting point.
Wu Xingchun, a teacher from Sandun Middle School in Hangzhou reported their topic “whether human could prevent and control water eutrophication”, which is inspired by the water eutrophication in their school, thus closed to students’ study and life. Teachers from Sandun Middle School first designed the contents of each class and then pinned down the five-star chart and the orientation of the key competencies. The course evaluation system combines mutual evaluation, self-evaluation and teacher evaluation. And the laboratory will also provide awards. All above means that the design of the course system is comparatively sound. Xue Xiaofeng, a teacher from the Rui’an Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Foreign Studies University, affirmed that the topic was close to students’ life; their classes were diversified and the evaluation system was reasonable. Meanwhile, he also discussed on how to present the controversy of this topic with Mr. Wu. Teacher Zhang Tao thought that this topic was scientific but didn’t have social meaning. Mr. Wu replied that the water eutrophication was affected by human social activities, so students could consider the topic from the perspective of human activities.
Xue Xiaofeng, a teacher from Rui’an Affiliated Middle School of Beijing Foreign Studies University, gave a summary on their topic “whether you will choose glasses or laser surgery to correct vision”. The topic is inspired by the “bright eyes and white teeth” project in Wenzhou, which is also close to our daily life. The learning objectives in each unit include knowledge and theory, analysis and application, thinking and dialectics, prevention and policy, which reflects the scientific and social meaning of the course. As for the learning evaluation, this course adopted articles, physical models, data models and posters to evaluate students’ performance. The teaching process is carried out through the form of “three layers of intelligence”, which first develops students’ ability to transform information to “work”, then develops students’ ability to communicate with teams and model, and last develops students’ application ability. At the end of the sharing, Mr. Xue raised the following questions: whether there is emphasis on students’ cultivation of thinking; how to support students to probe into some topic; how to balance students’ interest and the knowledge in follow-up courses. Dong Yanping, a teacher from Sandun Middle School in Hangzhou, thought this topic is closely related to students, which could stimulate students’ learning motivation and interest, so teachers could hold more diversified activities in learning to improve students’ practical abilities. Teacher Zhang Tao deemed that other schools could learn a lot from this course.
Zhang Lan, a teacher from the Experimental Middle School in Jiancaoping District of Taiyuan, Shanxi, reported on their topic “the future development of the plastic running tracks”, which is also from students’ daily life. This topic is involved in biology, physics, chemistry and some other subjects, so the teachers in this topic are from different subjects and they draw up driving questions related to their subjects. In the implementation process of the project, students’ practical abilities and self-learning abilities are improved significantly. However, the five-star chart was not infiltrated to the students well in the teaching activities. Ji Qingqing, a teacher from Jiefanglu Middle School in Linfen, Shanxi, thought that this topic was closely related to students’ life and students could extensively participate in the practical activities, which could be worth learning from. Teacher Zhang Tao thought that this topic is an open-ended and creative question, which was worthy of study.
Ji Qingqing, a teacher from Jiefanglu Middle School in Linfen, Shanxi, gave a report on their topic “whether the massive introduction of GM soybeans is good”, which is a hot social issue and has great scientific meaning and research value. According to the five-star chart of this topic, Jiefanglu Middle School has carried out 10-hour classes, having lots of achievements. Zhang Lan, a teacher from the Experimental Middle School in Jiancaoping District, affirmed the display of their achievements and raised some questions about the detailed design of each class. Teacher Meng Chunlin suggested that we should consider the topic from interdisciplinary perspective to enrich the course content. Teacher Zhang Tao deemed that the difference between this topic and other topics was that the GM food was still controversial in scientific areas, so there’s a need to consider how to deal with the topic properly. Besides, teachers also need to think about the relation between activities and the topic itself, avoiding forms outweighing contents.
Teacher Zhang Tao summarized the main content of this seminar, holding the idea that this seminar reflected three characteristics: firstly, the top-level designs in each partner school has improved greatly; secondly, all partner schools not only consider the design, but also carry out lots of teaching practices; thirdly, all partner schools seem to explore more into the topics with both scientific and social meanings. This online seminar is overall productive, offering great support for partner schools to further successfully carry out SSI-L project in the new year.