In the big picture of China's basic education, junior high school is a subtle "station" in the time chain of adolescent growth.
For the school, what is pouring into the school gate is a group of children whose "minds are gradually finalized but have not yet solidified"; for the students, what comes to them is the scene of "competing independently on an unfamiliar track" for the first time.
When the mind grows roots, the earth accepts every seed, and everyone has the potential to rewrite their destiny; now that the future is uncertain, all evolutions lead to growth, and all problems are the prerequisite for education to occur.
Just as the "waist and abdomen" are the starting point of the life cycle, I always believe that the greatest significance of junior high school career is that it is a special moment for a person to "strengthen the waist"; the quality of junior high school education determines life growth and development, and lifelong happiness the quality of.
What stage are teenagers aged 12-15 years old at? We might as well do a sorting out from the outside to the inside -
- The critical period for physical fitness
Students of this age group have basically formed their movement coordination and flexibility, and have developed bones and muscles. To improve quickly, you need to strengthen physical training in frequency, agility, and strength. At the same time, it is more important to establish exercise habits and discover your own potential and hobbies. Junior high schools must first realize that the emotions released and the learning effectiveness brought about by exercise will definitely have a positive impact on children's current and lifelong lives.
- The sensitive period of pubertal development
is also called the psychological weaning period . It is the transition process of children from childishness to maturity in this age group of adolescence. For example, they have a "sense of adulthood", have stronger self-esteem, pursue independent personality, and need more independent behavior and equal treatment; for example, with the emergence of secondary sexual characteristics , children's gender awareness has become stronger and they prefer to get along with the same sex. Admiration for the opposite sex; psychologically "closed" characteristics, not easy to reveal true feelings, but also eager to be understood.
- Independent thinking and self-management ability development period
Children at this stage have rapidly enhanced self-awareness, gradually formed their own values about the world and society, and no longer easily believe in "what others say", but more confident in "what they see and understand themselves"; They begin to make a preliminary assessment of "themselves" and "sway with the wind", constantly jumping between self-confidence and inferiority; their independence in learning increases, independent thinking in the classroom and independent arrangements outside the classroom increase - how is school education? Grasping this characteristic and reducing the "learning dependence" of junior high school students on teachers and parents is an invisible and key process.
- The best development period for non-intellectual factors
The development of a series of non-intellectual factors such as motivation, interest, emotion, will, and personality will basically take shape at this stage. For example, in "emotional development", students in this period begin to break away from simple and innocent childhood emotions and gradually develop into advanced social emotions: a sense of community, a sense of morality, a sense of beauty, a sense of social responsibility, and mature emotions that yearn for beautiful ideals—— This is also the psychological basis for adolescent education and moral ideal education.
- The golden window period for the growth of learning ability
The brains of young people are transitioning from concrete to abstract. Attention, observation, memory, thinking, imagination and other learning abilities related to a person's life will continue to activate their potential in various attempts. Shaped by learning content, learning methods, physical and mental development, reading expression, important relationships, and surrounding environment. I always believe that in such a "golden window period", the improvement of learning ability is the top priority of junior high school curriculum and teaching design.
12-What stage is a 15-year-old boy in? If you want to express it in one sentence, it is "the comprehensive foundation and development stage of morality, intelligence, physical education, art and labor". Of course, what children need is not just subject knowledge that goes straight to grades.
At the same time, what we still need to ask is, what will they encounter tomorrow?
After graduating from junior high school, children will go to high school to study. In today's China, they must face one of four kinds of ecology:
Some high schools still believe in "difficulty exceeding the standards, training exceeding the amount, and progress exceeding the standards"; some high schools have begun to require students to independently solve problems, discover learning goals, and challenge project topics. ; Some high schools train students on how to choose a career direction, learn vocational skills, and see the value of a career; some high schools pursue "having their cake and eat it too," and simultaneously advance test-taking abilities and comprehensive literacy...
In another 5-10 years, children will inevitably What kind of life and society are you going to?
There is no doubt that they will face more real challenges: fruitful work, risky entrepreneurship, a life of love and collapse; face lifelong learning and growth, more accurate self-shaping; face the consequences of self-decision; face more Diverse social relationships; face the dual variables of value and reality in the pursuit of life; face the crueler, better, and more difficult-to-define micro and macro narratives of the world...
From the perspective of the school, we see that in today's era , it is still an era of "big challenges and big tasks".
For example, in the context of the Sino-US game and talent competition, the key points of the Ministry of Education’s work in 2022 are clearly stated in Article 20: “Organize big tasks, build big platforms, and form big teams.” To put it simply, in such an era, future talent standards will inevitably require them to have the ability to "arrive at the scene" and discover goals; to have the ability to construct complex systems, take on big challenges, and complete big tasks... Of course, the future college entrance examination will also Resonating with this frequency.
I gently opened a classroom and saw dozens of childish faces. What I had thought was that no matter where each of these children would go, ordinary high school, vocational high school , key high school, study abroad... maybe , the only thing they cannot lose is the "healthy and complete basic colors of life" that education has paved for them at this special moment of growth.
What is that? I think the most critical "bright colors" are the general ability to solve problems and the quality of will to meet challenges.
Therefore, junior high school education needs a "purposeful romance" - Facing an uncertain future, the times call for junior high school education to achieve a balance of tool attributes, value attributes, and behavioral attributes. Knowledge is no longer king, but Turning to the development of comprehensive literacy, multiple intelligences, a complete life, and a sound personality, pointing to "what kind of person do I want to be?"
On this road, junior high schools need to make a "courageous choice" - weaken the school-running value orientation with "score fairness" as the fundamental goal, choose a broader "development fairness" that is equal to all students, and make every effort Develop the habits, abilities, and qualities that will allow them to make the best choices on whatever path they take.
Because we are increasingly aware that a school that is still in inertia and achieves a high enrollment rate may not be a good school in the long run. This depends on the support of its good results and good enrollment rate - that is, the school By what means, by what path, and at what cost was this support obtained?
In my opinion, junior high school education should be committed to the reconstruction of three aspects:
Integration of five educations: In the past, junior high schools did a lot in "separation" and very little in "integration". Today, , five education and need to be integrated to educate people completely and fully release time and efficiency. This is a major challenge in the construction of school curriculum and learning methods.
Three-dimensional evaluation: Evaluation is the phased "signpost" for all learning goals, so a good junior high school education must have a three-dimensional evaluation system - academic evaluation, value-added evaluation, process evaluation, comprehensive quality evaluation, selective and challenging self-improvement The more diverse, complete, sinking, and autonomous the evaluation system is, the more complete and proactive the students will be in their growth.
Driven by ambition: How to develop a child with a strong and positive heart? Our proposition is to focus on six areas: strengths and goals, problems and challenges, reading and walking, environment and aesthetics, psychology and defense, and life and health. The first thing to do is to discover your own strengths, see your own interests, and find your own goals.
Some people say that when a person knows what vision he is starting from, he can endure any "path".
One day when this person looks back at where he came from, he will say: "I was timid, collapsed, and self-doubt...until I opened another world. That was the new world that education gave me, allowing me to have everything on any road. The possibilities are endless.”
