2021年6月23日晚7:30-9:40,SSI-L项目初中组在腾讯会议室举行在线研讨活动。本次研讨的主要内容为两所基地校汇报项目设计与课程开展情况。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,各学段基地校骨干教师、学科指导专家等40余人参与了本次研讨。
浙江省北京外国语大学瑞安附属中学的杨开天老师汇报了本校议题“高科技眼镜的未来——虚拟与现实的抉择”的开展情况。该议题承接上学期的议题内容,进一步扩展了议题的讨论范围,并结合VR、AR等前沿科技,充分调动学生的学习兴趣。议题以光学物理知识为科学内容基础,学生可以通过体验并制作VR眼镜,思考如何利用虚拟现实技术改善生活体验。杨老师指出,该议题的内容深入且前沿,因此将在每节课前做好充足的准备,教师和学生在此过程中共同进步,互相学习。在学习结束后,教师将从寻找需求、亲身体验、头脑风暴以及未来展望四个层面对学生展开评价。最后,杨老师也提出了目前存在的困惑:(1)如何获取更贴近学生认知的议题?(2)当议题离学生认知较远时,如何更有效地开展议题?(3)当学生知识储备较少时,如何平衡学习知识和解决议题矛盾两个目标?
山东省威海市望海园中学的乔然洁老师认为,该议题与上学期议题一脉相承,能够充分将一类议题做深做透,是一个值得借鉴的思路。针对第二个问题,乔老师建议当议题离学生认知较远时,可以先提供少量的知识铺垫,随后采取实验等形式开展议题;望海园中学的王真老师认为该议题的最后两个活动很吸引人,对学生的创新力和发展力均有重要作用,并建议该议题问卷需要确保群体具有一定的VR基础,以增强调查的有效性。
彭梦华老师指出,瑞安附校的工作非常扎实认真,值得肯定。但也存在几点主要问题:其一,3D眼镜和VR眼镜有所区别,VR眼镜的技术难度较大,学生制作非常困难;其二,团队设计了调查、讨论、实验等形式多样的活动,但仍需要增加学生亲手制作眼镜的实践性活动比重;其三,议题学习需要增加其社会性比重,必须基于现实需求开展学习活动。
针对杨老师提出的第三个问题,张涛老师指出,社会性科学议题并非以获取知识为目的,知识是为解决议题矛盾而服务的。张老师建议该议题学习可以分为“对眼镜功能的调查”、“了解VR眼镜的功能”、“对经济、安全、伦理问题的思考”、“展望眼镜的未来”五个部分开展,以融合五星图中的各个方面。
浙江省温州道尔顿小学的鲍珍怡老师认为该议题能够激发学生的兴趣。VR技术能够在5G背景下具有巨大的优势,但也存在VR技术可能导致个体的注意分散,视觉疲劳、引发潜在高科技犯罪等诸多伦理问题,也是议题中可以纳入讨论的话题。
山西省太原市尖草坪第三中学的温丽仙老师汇报了本校议题“错放的资源——校园垃圾”的进展情况。尖草坪三中确定了主题班会的三个内容:校园垃圾种类知识再认知;废纸、塑料瓶的回收利用;布置任务:废物利用,变废为宝。项目团队以一个班为例,估算了废纸及塑料瓶回收利用的经济价值和生态效益,充分引起了学生共鸣,调动了学生的学习积极性。随后,教师发动学生以制作工艺品、制作果皮酵素的形式开展“变废为宝”活动,并充分思考如何将规模更大的厨余垃圾进行有效处理。温老师指出,在下一阶段的工作中,团队有增强学生从源头处理垃圾的意识、提出整顿校园垃圾桶的意见、建立专门的垃圾分类回收社团以及建立专门回收机构四个工作方向,争取能够设计更有深度和广度的学习活动。
山东省威海市高新区一中世昌校区的孔鹏飞老师指出,该校的议题选择贴近学生生活,且采取学校通力合作的形式确保议题顺利开展的方式值得借鉴。但是孔老师指出,该议题课程的探究性可以进一步提升。
北京教育学院的于晓雅老师提出,垃圾分类是一个十分庞大的工作,不可能使其在校园这一小环境中完成闭环。于老师建议项目在更大的社会场域中思考问题,团队需要促进学生像工程师和科学家一样思考和解决问题,找准一个角色,可以设计诸如“为社会提出垃圾分类方案”、“为工厂提供垃圾处理流程”等活动,从而找准议题的定位。
彭梦华老师指出,该议题的内容和学校的尝试都值得肯定,但是学习的定位需要更高。彭老师认为,学习活动需要培养学生节约资源、物尽其用的意识,目前社会的垃圾分类工作有非常大的提升空间,学生需要在社会角度进行考虑。
SSI-L项目负责人、中国基础教育质量监测协同创新中心科学提升部主任林静对今晚的研讨内容做出总结。林老师首先针对两所学习的议题开展情况提出建议。针对VR眼镜议题,林老师指出,该议题在当今高近视率的社会背景中意义重大,但在内容设计的方面,需要符合社会性科学议题学习发展学生思维的初衷,在教学中尽量将知识范围划定在浙江科学课程内容之内,不必要让学生提前接触高年级课程内容;针对垃圾分类议题,林老师指出该议题活动的研究重点仍然在顶层设计,需要明确课程指向于达成怎样的目标,并在此基础上思考应为该目标设计怎样的活动,活动是否具有可行性等问题,从而最终能够顺利落实以素养为本的教学。在后续的教学活动中,团队教师可以借鉴国际的视频资料,拓展议题的讨论思路,让学生思考如何从源头减少垃圾。最后,林老师高度肯定了一个学期以来各基地校团队的努力以及取得的显著进步,并针对未来的社会性科学议题学习开展工作提出了几点建议:第一,社会性科学议题学习的实施必须杜绝学习与生活相剥离的问题,议题学习必须贴近学生生活,议题讨论对学生个体具有切实影响;第二,学生在学习社会性科学议题时一定要换位思考,站在他人的角度思考问题,从而引起共鸣,发展其社会责任感和道德感;第三,社会性科学议题学习的根本目的之一是发展学生的思维而非知识拓展,面向未来的人才应当具有与时俱进的科技素养,他们应当对身边的事物保持旺盛的好奇心和求知欲望,因此社会性科学议题学习中的活动必须指向学生思维发展,而非学习更多的科学知识。
本次会议是本学期最后一次初中组研讨活动,为一学期的议题研讨画上了圆满的句号。经过近一年的实践和反思,各校团队的议题设计都取得了显著的提升,骨干教师对SSI-L的理解也更加深入。相信在未来,各校能够再接再厉,为“立德树人”目标的实现而做出进一步的努力和有价值的探索。
图1 研讨会议剪影
Fig. 1 Snapshot of the Seminar
At 7:30-9:40 pm of June 23, 2021, the middle school team of SSI-L project held an online seminar in the Tencent Conference Room, where two partner schools reported their project design and course implementation. The seminar was chaired by Zhang Tao, the Head of Middle School Section and the Director of the Middle School Teaching and Research Department of Shandong Weihai Education and Teaching Research Center. It was attended by more than 40 backbone teachers and academic steering experts from partner schools.
Yang Kaitian, from Zhejiang Ruian School Affiliated to BFSU, reported the implementation status of the topic “The Future of High-tech Glasses–A Choice between Virtuality and Reality”. This topic carried on the topic of last semester, which further expanded the discussion scope and combined with advanced technology such as VR and AR to fully arouse students’ interest in learning. The topic is based on the knowledge of optical physics, and students can experience the making of VR glasses and apply virtual reality technology to improve their living experience. Yang pointed out that, this topic contains profound and cutting-edge contents. Therefore, it is important to make full preparation before each class, so that teachers and students can progress together and learn from each other. After the class, teachers should evaluate the performance of students from four levels, including exploring demands, personal experience, brainstorm and prospect. In the end, Yang also mentioned the currently existing confusions: (1) How to obtain the topics that are closer to the students’ cognition? (2) When the topics are far from students’ cognition, how to effectively carry out the research? (3) When students’ knowledge reserve is relatively small, how to balance the objectives of learning knowledge and solving problems?
Qiao Ranjie, from Wanghaiyuan Middle School, Weihai, Shandong, believed that this topic carried on the topic of last semester. They can make a thorough study of this type of topic, so this idea is worth learning from. Regarding the second question, Qiao suggested that when the topics are far from students’ cognition, teachers could prepare with some knowledge before unfolding the topic in such forms as experiments. Wang Zhen, from Wanghaiyuan Middle School, believed that the last two activities of this topic are quite appealing, which play an important role in students’ innovation and development, and suggested that the questionnaire of this topic should ensure that the group has a certain foundation of VR, so that the investigation can be more effective.
Peng Menghua affirmed the solid work done by Ruian School Affiliated to BFSU. However, there are still some problems. First, 3D glasses and VR glasses are different. The VR glasses area characterized with technical difficulty, which are not easy for students to make. Second, the team has designed various activities such as investigation, discussion and experiments, yet still needs to increase the proportion of practical activities of students to make glasses by themselves. Third, the proportion of practical activities should be increased in carrying out the activities based on practical needs.
On the third question raised by Yang, Zhang Tao pointed out that, SSI-L project does not aim to acquire knowledge, since knowledge serves to address the issues. Zhang suggested that this topic can be divided into five parts, including “studying the functions of glasses”, “understanding the functions of VR glasses”, “consideration of economic, security, and ethical issues” , and “prospects of glasses”, which will be consistent with each aspect of the star chart.
Bao Zhenyi, from Zhejiang Wenzhou Dalton Elementary School, believed that this topic can arouse students’ interest. VR technology boasts great advantage in the era of 5G, accompanied by problems such as causing distraction and visual fatigue among individuals, and triggering potential high-tech crimes, which could also be included into the discussion of this topic.
Wen Lixian, from No.3 Middle School of Jiancaoping District, Taiyuan, Shanxi, reported the implementation status of the topic “Misplaced Resources–Campus Garbage”. The No. 3 Middle School of Jiancaoping District determined three parts of content for the themed class meeting: recognition of the types of campus garbage, recycling of waste paper and plastic bottles, and assigning tasks: turning wastes into a useful resource. Taking one class as a sample, the project team estimated the economic value and ecological benefits of recycling and utilizing the waste paper and plastic bottle to fully arouse students’ sympathy and enthusiasm in this topic. Later, the teacher encouraged students to participate in the effort in the forms of making handicrafts and fruit-peel enzyme, and consider how to effectively dispose kitchen waste of a much bigger scale. Wen pointed out that, in the next stage, the team should work in four directions, namely promoting the students’ awareness of disposing the wastes at the source, making suggestions on managing dustbins in the campus, setting up a professional community for garbage sorting and recycling, and setting up special recycling organizations. In this way, they aim to design learning activities more deeply and extensively.
Kong Pengfei, from Shichang Campus of No. 1 Middle School of High-tech Zone, Weihai, Shandong, pointed out that, this topic is close to students’ daily life and can go smoothly with the all-out cooperation of the school, which is worth learning. However, Kong pointed out that the exploratory nature of this topic can be further promoted.
Yu Xiaoya, from Beijing Institute of Education, mentioned that garbage sorting is a great task, which is impossible to form a closed loop in the small environment of campus. Yu suggested that this topic can be considered in bigger social fields. For this reason, the team should assist students to think and resolve problems as engineers and scientists do and can design activities such as “proposing a garbage sorting scheme for the society”, and “providing garbage disposal process for factories”, thereby positioning the topic accurately.
Peng Menghua pointed out that, the topic and attempts of the school deserved affirmation, but the positioning of learning should be higher. Peng believed that, the learning activities should train students’ awareness of saving resources and making the best use of things. Currently, there is huge space for the improvement of garbage sorting in society, which should be considered by the students from the perspective of society.
The seminar tonight was summarized by Lin Jing, the project leader and the Director of Science Education Quality Development Department at Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment for Basic Education Quality. First, Lin put forward suggestions for the implementation of the topics in the two schools. Lin pointed out that, this topic of VR glasses is significant under the high myopia rate in today’s society. However, its content design should fulfill the original intention of SSI-L project to develop students’ thinking ability. The knowledge scope in teaching should be limited within the science curriculum of Zhejiang so that the students will not contact the contents expected for students of higher grades. On the topic of garbage sorting, Lin pointed out that the research focus still lies in top-level design, and it is necessary to determine the objectives of the course, consider what activities to design and whether the activities are feasible. In this way, they will fulfill competence-based teaching smoothly. In the subsequent teaching activities, the teacher team can learn from international videos, expand the ideas for the discussions of the topic, and ask students to consider how to reduce garbage at the source. In the end, Lin highly recognized the efforts and distinctive progress of the team of each partner school in this semester, and proposed several suggestions on future SSI-L projects. First, the implementation of SSI-L project cannot separate learning from life, but should be close to students’ life, so that the topic will have a practical effect on students. Second, students must think in the shoes of others in the SSI-L project to arouse their sympathy, and develop social responsibility and moral sense. Third, one of the fundamental objectives of SSI-L project is to develop students’ thinking ability rather than increase their knowledge. The talents for the future should be equipped with scientific literacy to keep in pace with the times, and maintain strong curiosity and desire for knowledge. Therefore, the SSI-L activities must be aimed to develop their thinking ability rather than increase their scientific knowledge.
This meeting was the last seminar of middle school team in this semester, which was a successful conclusion for the seminars held on the topic in this semester. After nearly a year of practice and thinking, topics of each school have improved significantly, and the backbone teachers have a deeper understanding of SSI-L. In the future, each school will work harder to make more valuable exploration in fulfilling the objectives of “moral education”.