Recently, a short blogger posted a "questioning short-term teaching has become a business", which sparked heated discussions. The survey found that this kind of tourism teaching has now developed into a mature industrial chain, most of the itinerary is about a week, the registration fee ranges from 1,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan, the location is not only popular areas for foreign vacations, but also backward and remote mountainous areas in China, and most of the forms are carried out in the form of public welfare education, animal protection, environmental care and other voluntary services. Some volunteer teaching projects for poor areas not only plan the time and place of daily activities, but also the time of play experience is longer than the teaching time, and the dense itinerary is the same as the format of the travel agency's group departure notice.
It can be seen from the popularity of this kind of tourism teaching application that it is a realistic demand of many middle school students and college students to improve the probability of success in the future or study abroad through volunteer teaching experience. However, this kind of volunteer teaching with a public welfare hat on the head, in fact, has a strong utilitarian nature, deviates from the original intention of the volunteer teaching activities, makes the volunteer teaching activities formalistic, and should be regulated in time.
Teaching is a social practice with educational significance, which can improve the quality of education in the recipient areas to a certain extent, narrow the education gap between regions, and is related to educational equity, the interests of students and the future development of education in a region. Real teachers often choose to teach in schools in poor and backward areas, hoping to help children who are eager for knowledge, broaden their horizons, enrich their knowledge, and cultivate their values and beliefs with their rich teaching experience. At the same time, the volunteer teaching activities also allow the volunteers to understand the national conditions and people's conditions, stimulate their sense of social responsibility and mission, enhance their social practice ability, and cultivate their personal will.
However, when volunteering becomes a business, the negative impact cannot be underestimated. In order to obtain the maximum benefit, the organizer of tourism volunteer teaching activities usually pursues immediate benefits and ignores the systematization and coherence of normal teaching. Most of the participants in the tourism teaching may be students with various utilitarian mentalities, and some of them are in order to increase their credit points for themselves in order to successfully evaluate and protect their research; Some are to add some highlights to the resume and gain benefits in the application for further education or study abroad; Some are to experience different cultural customs and lifestyles.
These groups are often not real public welfare volunteers, and they may not have teaching experience and qualifications, have not received professional training, lack scientific and rational curriculum design, and have low teaching standards. This kind of volunteer teaching method not only does not help the children's learning much, but also interferes with their normal learning, which deviates from the purpose of volunteer teaching activities. Therefore, the top priority is to recognize the harm caused by tourism education, find the root cause of the problem, and standardize it in time.
Build a strong institutional "firewall". Formulate clear management measures and rules for volunteer teaching, and refine the definition, mode type, use of funds, volunteer selection and other aspects of volunteer teaching activities. Establish a special supervision agency for volunteer education, strengthen the review and supervision of volunteer education organizations and projects, and increase supervision. For those volunteer teaching projects with impure purposes and ignoring the quality of education, they will be resolutely rectified. Improve the volunteer registration system, and require volunteer teaching organizations and teachers to register information on the designated platform, so that the society can better understand the volunteer service. Block unregistered volunteer teaching organizations and educators to prevent illegal organizations and individuals from participating in volunteer teaching activities.
Strengthen the supervision of the "mantra of tightening". Encourage citizens, ** and other social forces to participate in the supervision of education organizations, and set up reporting channels. Establish a credit rating system for teaching organizations, and implement corresponding punishment measures for organizations that are often negatively evaluated. Promote the transparency of volunteer education organizations, and require them to regularly publish information such as project implementation plans, budgets, and implementation status, so as to ensure that the public understands the true situation of volunteer teaching activities and accepts social supervision and evaluation.
Often hit the thought of "immunity shots". Strengthen the publicity and education of students and their parents, so that they can improve their awareness of tourism teaching activities and realize the real purpose of teaching support. Carry out volunteer teaching activities in schools and communities, organize symposiums, and invite volunteers who have participated in volunteer teaching to share their experience and form a positive demonstration effect.
Improve the system, focus on details, tourism teaching can abandon the formalities, return to the original intention of the teaching activities, let more organizations and people who care about education really participate in the teaching activities, promote the long-term and normalization of teaching support, transfer knowledge and dedication to children in poor areas, and make due contributions to the education in poor areas.
Jin Weimin is an assistant researcher at the Institute of Moral Education and School Party Building, Chinese Academy of Education Sciences