After the double reduction, subject education and training have been reduced, and with the support of artificial intelligence development and policies, children's programming education, as an important subdivision of quality education, has become the focus of the transformation or development of many educational institutions.
Recently, Cui Xiangeng, CEO of Stan Planet, shared his views on the current children's programming education track in an interview with Duo Whale. He believes that under the superimposed influence of the double reduction and the epidemic, the entire education and training industry ecology has undergone complete changes, especially the children's programming education track. Under the general trend of AIGC, how will children's programming companies achieve long-term development in the future?
Three years later, the eyes turned back to the present, capital gradually withdrew from the market, the certainty of industry norms landed, and the policy faced a lot of supervision, making the marketing-driven model come to an end. Enterprises pay more attention to product research and development and teaching quality, and the original extensive operation has gradually shifted to healthy and sustainable development. At the same time, the mentality of parents is gradually changing, and more attention is paid to the quality of the curriculum and visible learning outcomes, such as whether the child can achieve a considerable scientific and technological innovation resume, competition rankings, etc.
After the demand and expectation in the market are transmitted to the supply side, how should enterprises respond? In Cui's view, Stan Planet has been emphasizing systematic, standardized, and sustainable operations, and setting high health indicators. There are a lot of shackles within the company, which can be divided into three dimensions. First, the dimensions of teaching services, such as parent satisfaction NPS, full class rate, renewal rate, competition and examination attendance rate, etc. Taking the renewal rate as an example, Planet Stan can reach more than 80%; Second, marketing dimensions such as referral rate, conversion rate, etc., in 2023, Stan Planet's enrollment capacity has returned to pre-epidemic levels, while the cost of customer acquisition has further decreased; Third, financial dimensions such as cash flow balance, profit, etc. Planet Stan's cash flow was flat during the three-year pandemic, and the cash flow balance increased significantly in 2023, achieving large-scale profitability. 」
In addition, Stan Planet attaches great importance to team and faculty building. At present, there are more than 1,500 employees in the national center, including hundreds of professional teachers, an internal R&D team of 30-40 people, a planetary think tank team covering professors from famous universities such as the Beijing Qing Dynasty, and a consultant team of about 10 people in Canada. After years of iterative upgrading, Stan Planet has established an industry-leading diversified and integrated STEM AI curriculum system, providing a full range of teaching services for children aged 3 to 16, such as science and technology, robotics, programming, competition and examination, science and technology toys, and STEM research. For the teacher assessment method, the company will set up a 'teacher of the king' assessment incentive system, from the teaching service itself and health indicators to assess from multiple dimensions, and at the same time, according to different years and even different quarters, adjust the key indicators for dynamic assessment. In addition, the company will also conduct phased training and teaching competitions for professional teachers, which are regarded as 'infrastructure construction' by Stan Planet, Cui said.
One wave of capital has passed, allowing enterprises to return to the essence of business operations, and another wave of times has arrived. Nowadays, the rapid development and application of large-scale language models and a series of artificial intelligence content generation technologies have also shaken the children's programming education industry. Cui Xiangeng has his own answer: In another 5 years, the learning of programming language knowledge itself is definitely not the focus, it is just a basic means, we can't help but ask, what is the children's programming learning? In this process, the value of knowledge itself is decreasing, and how to acquire and apply knowledge becomes more important. The core is to let children grasp the principles behind knowledge, understand the relationship between artificial intelligence and human intelligence, and expand and practice. Through project-based teaching, the combination of knowledge learning and real-life scenarios in life, so that children can learn to define, analyze, and solve problems, and let children create innovation, which is an important value for the existence of an educational institution, Cui Xiangeng explained.
Cui Xiangeng took Stan Planet's Python AI course as an example, we use a combination of software and hardware to combine the learning of Python language with the application of artificial intelligence, so that children can first familiarize themselves with various equipment and tools such as main control boards and sensors in the process of project-based learning, understand machine vision, speech recognition, interactive robots and other knowledge and skills, and then gradually start to use the world's top artificial intelligence platforms and tools such as Amazon and IBM to design projects and even participate in competitions. In the process, we will also provide AI assistants for children, such as asking them to 3D print a MOSS prototype (inspired by the name of the intelligent quantum computer in the movie "The Wandering Earth" series), and connect with ChatGPT through an interface to create a personal assistant. Another example is to provide 24-hour AI teacher problem analysis and development services while children are doing homework. This can make young children feel the existence of large models more trulyUnderstand the principles, exercise the mind, and improve efficiency, not just the mechanical learning of the software language itself.
STEM education abroad is more mature than in China, which is first reflected in the abundant resources of the society on artificial intelligence, and the abundance of learning tools and scientific and technological innovation projects related to communities and schools; Secondly, the educational concept of encouraging children to explore and innovate abroad is very compatible with STEM education.
But at the same time, there is a lack of systematic and systematic teaching in children's STEM education abroadThere is no focus on learning outcomes。Therefore, a challenge in front of children's programming education enterprises is how to localize, and to do a good job in localization, it is necessary to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and break them one by one according to the characteristics of domestic teaching.
First of all, we need to build a systematic curriculum. In Cui Xiangeng's view, only self-research can build a systematic curriculum that conforms to the essence of STEM education, and polish a complete STEM curriculum system, covering multiple dimensions such as scientific experiments, building block building, robotics, and programming, so as to meet the needs of children aged 3-16 for scientific innovation and AI programming. I never say that we are doing pure programming education, not just doing robotics projects, our curriculum is very comprehensive and integrated, which is the essence of STEM education, so that children can learn more and learn more deeply, so they will have a more comprehensive ability to acquire, a stronger willingness to learn and a stronger motivation to learn.
Secondly, the curriculum system must match the cognitive development level of children at different ages. In the process of research and development, the Stan Planet team has specially studied the development guide for 3 to 6-year-old children, teaching standards for primary and secondary schools, and artificial intelligence curriculum development standards at home and abroad, etc., to understand the physiological and cognitive development stages of young children, so that the construction of the knowledge system matches the age characteristics of children. Even with the level of age and cognition, we are not the same as abroad. For example, the accumulation of knowledge in China is stronger than that of American children at a young age, but we may be weaker in some hands-on operations and the use of new tools, which are related to the localization of the curriculum system.
Specifically, in the kindergarten stage, the curriculum focuses on scientific enlightenment, world cognition, basic construction, and initial experience of procedures, so that children can become a small encyclopedia when they graduate, establish a comprehensive cognitive framework, and cultivate their strong interest in exploring the world; In the lower grades of primary school, you can get in touch with programming, learn programming modules, combine a series of customized chips, sensors, mechanical kits, electronic circuits, etc., to comprehensively cultivate children's programming thinking, hands-on ability, analysis and judgment ability; In the upper grades of primary school, children can get in touch with **, learn python or C++, and Stan Planet will help children complete the introduction from module programming to **programming by fighting monsters, maintaining children's interest and reducing discomfort. In the learning process, a combination of software and hardware is also adopted, so that children can get in touch with and understand artificial intelligence and fully experience the application of artificial intelligence through various projects, Cui said.
Finally, the curriculum needs to be personalized. As they grow older, young children will choose their own courses according to their own interests and expertise, some children are better at math and have enough patience, then they can continue to deepen the path of programming, and there will be a letter Olympiad C++ course, some children are good at teamwork and strong hands-on ability, then he can go to participate in the robot competition, and some children have more ideas and comprehensive skills, Stan Planet's idealab can also help them achieve inventions.
At present, there are 130 offline campuses and tens of thousands of long-term students. In the field of to b, public schools have high requirements for curriculum standardization, and standardized teacher training in the field of children's programming education is still a pain point and insufficient scale. And the continuation and in-depth course is precisely the advantage of Stan Planet, so from a certain point of view, the two do not match very well, so the company's current business focus is still on the C side, Cui Xiangeng said frankly.
In May 2023, the Ministry of Education and 18 other departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Science Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in the New Era", which clearly pointed out that more high-quality science education should be provided for primary and secondary school students and comprehensively improve students' scientific literacy. Although the current market penetration rate is less than 5%, according to the statistical estimation of the Multi-Whale Education Research Institute with a penetration rate of 5%, the market size of children's programming in 2024 will be about 48.8 billion yuan, and the growth rate will maintain 13% from 2023 to 2027, and the market size is expected to reach 68.6 billion yuan by 2027.
At present, the children's programming business is gradually sinking to the second and third-tier cities, but the programming courses and teacher resources in schools in some remote areas are relatively scarce, which hinders the improvement of the penetration rate. In Cui Xiangeng's view, from the social level, this still needs to be updated in the concept of education, that is, how the society should select and evaluate talents, and how children should grow and develop, so as to be a so-called excellent person, this road is still blocked and long. Only when this road is completed can the problem of lack of teacher resources be fundamentally solved. At the enterprise level, the teaching gap can be reduced through the standardization of teaching plan tools, the openness of teaching scenarios, and the combination of online and offline.
For example, Stan Planet's lesson plan requirements are very detailed, and what should be said in the classroom transition link will be recorded to ensure that the standardization can be replicated, and at the same time, we will also build a real-life classroom, record classroom teaching**, conduct group grinding classes after class, understand the teaching standards, we will make full use of tools to let famous teachers teach online, and every winter and summer vacation will also conduct offline training and learning in different parts of the country, so that children from all over the country can compete on the same field, and solve the problem of differences in resources around the country through the above methods.
Talking about the company's future business goals, Cui Xiangeng saidStan Planet will continue to focus on the quality and effectiveness of teachingContinuous research and development and optimization of the curriculum, continuous construction of a scientific and advanced ecological STEM AI curriculum system, cultivating children's future competitiveness, and allowing children to enjoy the joy of learning here are the fundamental pursuits of the existence of Planet Stan; The second is to ensure the healthy operation of the companySeveral core indicators must be 100% healthy. For example, for cash flow to be absolutely healthy, the company has to be consistently profitable, and we've basically achieved that. On the basis of the healthy development of the enterprise, the revenue scale can reach a moderate growth of more than 20% per year. The third is to build a people-oriented teamTempering a high-quality, high-income and high-performance elite team, the company and employees work in the same direction, establish a positive corporate culture, and assume more corporate social responsibility.
Cui Xiangeng believes that in the future, the children's programming education track will reach 20%-30% growth every year, and the development of the science and technology industry needs to integrate social resources to create innovation, and educational institutions are obviously within the framework of the system and need to play their own roles. What is our role? It can flexibly and quickly combine advanced concepts and practices at home and abroad, and integrate artificial intelligence toolsWe will make educational products refined, detailed and practical to help today's children face the uncertain social competition in 20 years
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