The former vice minister of the Ministry of Education said that the division of arts and sciences in middle school was a stubborn disease.

　　Our reporter Zhang Guo

　　Su Yi, a professor at Nankai University who has many years of teaching experience, couldn’t believe at first that a course about distant space would have such a close role.

　　A student wrote to Mr. Su, saying that after listening to your "Introduction to Astronomy", I saw the vast universe and my mind was suddenly broadened-the student therefore gave up the idea of suicide and walked out of the shadows.

　　After hearing about this incident, Gu Pei, a national famous teacher and professor at the School of Mathematics of Nankai University, said with emotion that science courses not only cultivate people’s scientific outlook, but also have a profound impact on the cultivation of world outlook, outlook on life and values.

　　In recent years, the problem of college students’ lack of scientific literacy has been concerned by higher education workers, and the voice of society about offering science courses in colleges and universities is also constant. However, in practice, for various reasons, the development of science education in colleges and universities has always been "much thunder and little rain".

　　To open a science quality course, we should "ask grandpa to tell grandma"

　　Recently, more than 100 front-line teachers and education administrators from more than 50 universities, including Peking University and Tsinghua, called for a solution to the problem of "emphasizing literature over science" in the "Advanced Seminar for Key Teachers of Science Quality Education Courses" hosted by Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China and undertaken by Nankai University and Science Press.

　　In the curriculum of these universities, no matter comprehensive universities or professional colleges, no matter famous universities or ordinary colleges, there are many public elective courses with the surname "Wen" and few with the surname "Li".

　　The notice of the seminar briefly summarized this phenomenon: "In recent years, many college students’ cultural quality education bases are not satisfied with just offering some humanities and art courses, but hope to offer a number of scientific quality education courses at the same time, so as to truly make scientific quality education and humanistic quality education comparable to Qi Fei and achieve the organic integration of the two. However, the relevant universities often encounter difficulties in organizing science and engineering teachers to teach scientific quality education courses. This seminar hopes to exchange experiences and brainstorm in this regard. "

　　"The last thing I want to do is to be a school leader and ask my grandfather to tell my grandmother." A teacher complained to his peers about the resistance to starting classes.

　　Someone answered: "The quality of leadership is the key."

　　Others suggested: "Can we all get together and have a greater impact?" "I really want to have my own organization, my own home."

　　"Generally, the school attaches importance to what the principal attaches importance to. What we evaluate above, what we will catch. " A teacher told reporters.

　　Sometimes, teachers and students don’t necessarily appreciate the enthusiasm of the leaders. The reporter heard a joke from many teachers: a university president visited a famous university and came across the course "History of Science" of the school, which was full of praise. After returning to school, he asked that this course be listed as a public compulsory course for all majors in the school. At that time, the school did not have such teachers’ conditions, so it had to send people to a seminar on the teaching of history of science to send out job advertisements.

　　"I think it’s a little impulsive. Elective courses should be adjusted regularly, but you can’t do whatever you want, just like shopping in the mall. The school should have rational consideration and full demonstration. " A young teacher said, "In any case, you can’t transplant the version from another school directly."

　　Yang Weitu, a teacher from the School of Humanities of Beijing Jiaotong University, came to Li Jianshan, a professor at Nankai University, for advice on the experience of starting the course "History of World Science, Technology and Culture". "We are a science and engineering school, and students pay attention to natural science knowledge, but lack the background of science and technology history." He told reporters that maybe Beijing Jiaotong University will also start classes soon, and the school has realized the importance of this course.

　　It is thankless for science and engineering teachers to open public elective courses

　　When it comes to scientific quality education, many teachers are pessimistic, and "marginalization" is their common word. A university teacher in Guangxi said that the possibility of attaching importance to science courses is too small, including the evaluation of professional titles, teachers and leadership concepts.

　　"This is what fools are willing to do." An academic leader of a prestigious school told reporters.

　　He said that he organized a school-wide public course, but it was not understood in the department, because "this is for the whole school, and it occupies the teachers in the department, and also remembers the workload in the department", so the problem of teachers’ class fees has not been well solved until now.

　　Gu Pei worked as the vice-president and executive vice-president in charge of teaching in the School of Mathematics of Nankai University for 9 years. His public course "Mathematical Culture" and professional course "Abstract Algebra" are both national excellent courses. Even this national famous teacher admitted that he had encountered difficulties in organizing professional teachers to teach general courses.

　　"Most of the cultural quality education courses are humanities or art courses. The number of cultural quality education courses with scientific quality education as the main body is small and the overall quality is not high, which is still the bottleneck that plagues the development of cultural quality education courses. "

　　According to Professor Gu Pei’s analysis, teachers majoring in science and engineering do not know enough and are not good at offering scientific quality courses, and at the same time, they will encounter the embarrassment of thankless work.

　　"A math teacher may be familiar with’ mathematical analysis’, but it is very difficult to teach a cultural quality education course." Gu Pei said that the subjective obstacle is that science and engineering teachers don’t know enough about cultural quality education. "Many people have only heard of this word, and most of them are confined to the level of’ knowledge’". On the other hand, professional teachers are not good at cultural quality education courses, even if they teach such courses on the basis of their professional content, they are often at a loss and have great difficulties.

　　The objective obstacle is mainly that the cultural quality education curriculum does not promote the professional growth of professional teachers. The professional growth of professional teachers generally refers to the professional growth in teaching and scientific research of this major. Scientific research achievements are often reflected by publishing papers and are often regarded as hard indicators; Teaching achievement is reflected by teaching effect and students’ success, which is often regarded as a soft indicator. Most people first consider the investment in scientific research, and then consider the investment in teaching. For the latter, graduate teaching should be considered first, and then undergraduate teaching should be considered. Therefore, "teachers often take offering such courses as an extra burden".

　　"Different schools have different detailed standards for promotion, but few schools involve cultural quality education courses. Therefore, teachers undertaking such courses only add a little’ teaching workload’, which is not helpful for promotion. " In the promotion of teachers’ professional titles, in addition to the number of teaching hours and the number of graduate students, the number of published papers and magazines, the number of scientific research projects undertaken and the level of projects, the compilation of teaching materials and the publication of monographs, the number of awards and the level of awards are mainly investigated.

　　Gu Pei said that compared with the above difficulties, the deeper difficulty that is more noteworthy lies in the concept. Such views as "colleges and universities are factories for cultivating talents", "cultural quality education is a supplement to professional education" and "cultural quality education is the education of humanistic knowledge" lead to the neglect of quality education, and the scientific quality education is ignored by many people.

　　In addition, some people regard the cultural quality education course of science and engineering as a "compressed" and "shallow" professional course, "they don’t understand that cultural quality education is essentially an education of spirit and accomplishment".

　　Zhou Yuanqing, former vice minister of the Ministry of Education and president of China Higher Education Association, is a long-term promoter of China’s concept of cultural quality education.

　　He even said that in 1952, the adjustment of departments according to the Soviet model resulted in many single-subject universities. One reason for the merger of colleges and universities in the late 1990s is the integration of humanities education and science education.

　　"I once told the president of Tsinghua University,’ The brains of engineering can’t run a world-class university’." Zhou Yuanqing said at the seminar of Nankai University.

　　He pointed out that cultural quality education was controversial at first and gradually became a consensus. "Quality education with cultural quality education as the breakthrough point may be a higher education concept with China characteristics. Cultural quality education has been carried out for many years, and great achievements have been made, but there are also many problems. "

　　These problems include: "At the beginning, a large number of lectures on traditional culture were given, and many cultural quality courses were offered in schools. However, there are still many schools that do not have this condition to deepen on this basis. Therefore, cultural quality education is facing a deepening problem. " He believes that the exploration of scientific quality education in Nankai University is the deepening of cultural quality education.

　　"The separation of humanities education from science education in China is a stubborn disease." Zhou Yuanqing said.

　　In particular, he pointed out: "It may be time for China to solve the problem of secondary school division."

　　"When we were engaged in the college entrance examination reform, the’ three plus integration’ was to break the division of arts and sciences. However, in order to resist or because of unclear thinking, some provinces and cities have engaged in a comprehensive literature and management, and are unwilling to solve the problem of the division of arts and sciences in middle schools. "

　　"Arts and sciences branch in the world only China to do so. Few university presidents and experts agree with it, but it has been so long. Due to the division of arts and sciences, it is difficult for our liberal arts students to go to college and take some courses in science and engineering. "

　　Zhou Yuanqing, for example, said that in a narrow single-subject university, "students who study mechanics, in a school with a long-term single-subject atmosphere, are more mechanical than students who study electronics". However, the society has long valued science over literature, and they are all willing to take the science and engineering major. These persistent diseases make it difficult for the country to produce high-level talents. "The school lacks a comprehensive atmosphere, and it is impossible to cross arts and sciences. Qian Xuesen always criticizes us, which means this matter. We haven’t won the Nobel Prize for many years, which is a very important reason in terms of education. Mr. Chen Shengshen, an international master of mathematics, is very interested in history, music, painting and poetry. "

　　Wang Yizhen, former vice president of Peking University, said that this narrow professional education model is very utilitarian. "The principals said, what do we cultivate people or ambition? People become screws and tools. "

　　As for its consequences, for example, Wang Yizhen said, "Many people don’t know who wrote Water Margin and The Journey to the West. Because they are masterpieces, they think they were written by Lu Xun."

　　Zhou Yuanqing pointed out: "The living standard has improved, science and technology have developed, and morality is declining. Especially, there are many problems in our academic morality now. One of the most important reasons may be that humanities education and science education are not well integrated. Many of our disciplines are fields that combine humanities and science. If we can’t handle the integration of humanities and science education well, it will be difficult to handle the development of these fields. "

　　He emphasized: "The integration of humanities education and science education involves a country’s economic and social development. Today, it is very important to return our education to the combination of humanities and science. "

　　Over the years, Li Jianshan, a professor at Nankai University, has been very popular among students of various majors with the course of "History of World Science, Technology and Culture". This course has been listed as a compulsory course for liberal arts students in this school, which is a special case in China. In an interview with reporters, the professor said: "Why do we want to open this class? Our slogan and goal are called’ inheriting the tradition and aiming at Harvard’. Nankai University has had a course on the history of science since 1925, and the teacher who started the course is Mr. Qian Baodi. "

　　Who is Qian Baocong? -"Mr. Chen Shengshen’s science teacher".

Editor: Liu Haifeng