How to promote the cultivation and selection of top-notch talents in basic disciplines?On December 16, the 2023 Top-notch Student Training and "High School and College Bridging Education" Exchange Seminar was held in Nankai Middle School, Chongqing, where more than 1,100 educators from 306 high schools and more than 30 key universities, scientific research institutes, and the National Association for Science and Technology system gathered together to promote the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents and the high-quality development of education.
In the keynote speech session of the main venue, Shi Yigong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of Westlake University, shared his practice as an explorer of China's higher education reform in the face of talent problems around the "Westlake Experiment of Higher Education Reform". Based on his own experience as a "competition student", he called for education reform to be student-oriented, teach students according to their aptitude, guide students to break the inherent thinking mode, stimulate students to explore the unknown world, and seek innovation.
Shi Yigong said that self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology begin with education, with a focus on basic education. To cultivate top-notch talents, we should cultivate Chinese feelings, cultivate the spirit of innovation, tap the potential of personality, and exercise "cross-border" thinking. It is necessary to emphasize the importance of rigorous scientific methods and critical thinking in scientific research, pay attention to the construction of world outlook and values, and cultivate excellent character that can cope with future challenges.
Chu Hongqi, a professor at Beijing Normal University and vice president of the China Society for Education Development Strategy, suggested that teachers should improve their teaching methods and improve the quality of students' thinking with the theme of "Cultivation of Students' Innovation Ability". He believes that teaching methods are more important than teaching materials to cultivate innovation ability. The more amiable the teacher, the stronger the student;The more democratic the school, the stronger the students' ability to innovate.
When it comes to the cultivation of innovative talents, Cao Qinghong, a professor at the School of Physics at Peking University and a distinguished professor of liberal arts, believes that the primary goal of education is to cultivate people who can think independently and have the ability to make correct value judgments, rather than acquiring specific knowledge. In the era of artificial intelligence, it is necessary to reconstruct education, reshape the education model with knowledge transfer as the core, compile homework that highlights innovation ability, and examine practical wisdom and practical ability.
Xiao Li, principal of Chongqing Nankai Middle School, took the practice and exploration of the school's top-notch talent training as an example, and introduced the four training goals extracted by Nankai Middle School: overall excellence, top-notch remarkable, outstanding specialties, and comprehensive quality. The "public energy" curriculum system, emotional curriculum system, and aspiration curriculum system offered by the school have accumulated experience for the cultivation of top-notch talents and provided practical cases.
He Xueying, secretary-general of the Chongqing Middle School Student Five Discipline Competition Alliance and deputy editor-in-chief inside and outside the classroom, introduced that under the leadership of the Chongqing Association for Science and Technology and with the joint efforts of all middle schools and competition alliances, the cumulative number of participants in the five disciplines in Chongqing in 2023 will exceed 170,000, forming a good competition atmosphere.
Outside the main venue, 6 sub-venues were set up at the same time, which were respectively held for the selection and training of top-notch talents in high schools and colleges, as well as 5 exchanges on the selection and training of top-notch talents in basic disciplines such as mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry and informatics.
At the exchange meeting on the selection and training of top-notch talents in high schools and universities, the heads of recruitment of Tsinghua University, Peking University, Nanjing University and other domestic first-class universities conducted in-depth exchanges with the heads of provincial and municipal education bureaus and well-known middle schools. At the roundtable, the guests had a lively discussion and offered suggestions for the bridging education of colleges and universities.
Upstream news reporter Tan Xu.