After the “double reduction”, improving quality and efficiency in the school has become another development focus. Some regions have made it clear that they should further do a good job in experimental teaching in primary and secondary schools and help “double reduction”. Most school experimental courses are attached to daily courses, such as science, physics, chemistry and so on. What changes have taken place in the experimental course without “a place” from scratch to full development? How will China’s primary and secondary school laboratories develop in the future?

01

Eggs should be used

Experiment or eat?

As early as the early stage of reform and opening up, Chinese educational researchers have introduced foreign advanced teaching models to optimize Chinese classrooms, including inquiry and discovery teaching. However, such methods are more suitable for scholars with college education or above to study and explore, rather than guiding students to learn knowledge in the classroom. In the following decades, many Chinese scholars have continuously introduced many foreign educational ideas and conducted research and discussion in order to find the teaching methods most suitable for China’s national conditions and students’ actual situation.

In 1985, the decision of the CPC Central Committee on the reform of the educational system was issued, requiring all parts of the country to deepen educational reform and strive to do a good job in experimental teaching. At that time, both teachers and students were unfamiliar with the experiment. First of all, the vast majority of teachers have been receiving traditional education in the process of growing up. They also continue this form of education and teach students. The addition of “new forms” is difficult for teachers and students who have been solidified in their way of thinking and learning habits to adapt quickly. And there are not enough teaching instruments, equipment and experimental places. Experimental courses, slow development.

In 2001, the Ministry of Education issued the notice on printing and distributing the opinions on carrying out the experimental promotion of the new curriculum of basic education. According to the requirements of attaching importance to practice and experimental teaching in the new curriculum, strengthen the construction of educational and teaching facilities such as laboratories and improve their use efficiency, and promote the construction of student activity places and social practice bases; Two years later, the Ministry of Education issued the physics curriculum standard (Experiment) for senior high school, which defined the requirements of students’ scientific inquiry ability and physics experiment ability for the first time, and pointed out the direction for teachers and students: what is the purpose of inquiry, what to do, and to what extent can we meet the inquiry requirements. Since then, scientific inquiry has been popularized and implemented nationwide, but some teachers still haven’t really implemented scientific inquiry into teaching. The reason is not only the tense class hours and the lack of teachers’ ability, but also the pressure from paper and pencil examination. From the college entrance examination to the in class test, they are all paper and pencil tests, and students’ scores have become a shackle to the implementation of experimental courses.

In 2009, the Ministry of Education issued the regulations for primary and secondary school laboratories, which requires the construction of primary and secondary school laboratories as an important content of comprehensively promoting quality education, deepening curriculum reform and improving education quality; Ensure the annual growth and use efficiency of laboratory construction funds in primary and secondary schools. The experimental related education in rural primary and secondary schools has been further improved.

02

Experimental examination,

Beat “exam taking” with exam taking

With the continuous promotion of national policies for more than 20 years, experimental courses have entered schools large and small. Under the background of the new curriculum reform, the experimental course is also paid more and more attention. Teaching students knowledge through experiments is undoubtedly one of the teaching methods with strong experience, participation and memory. However, there are still gaps in experimental teaching equipment and classroom configuration in different regions, and the guarantee funds for experimental teaching are also different in different regions. Laboratory equipment also needs to be updated and upgraded regularly to ensure the safety of the experiment and the accuracy of the results, which will also be a large cost. And most of the experimental courses are attached to the subjects of physical and chemical students. In the past for a long time, some colleges and universities lacked special personnel to be responsible for the size of the laboratory. Trying to become a high-frequency experimental classroom, it has become an unattended field of “black under the light”.

In addition, under the pressure of examination oriented education in senior grades, the large-scale implementation of experimental teaching seems to be a “waste of time”. In addition to the necessary experimental projects, teachers rarely take the initiative to increase. Under the whirlpool of exam oriented education, in 2019, the opinions of the Ministry of education on strengthening and improving experimental teaching in primary and secondary schools was released, which said that we should open up experiments stipulated in national curriculum standards and effectively reverse the tendency of ignoring experimental teaching. It is clear that the experimental operation should be included in the junior middle school academic level examination before 2023, and the examination results should be included in the basis of enrollment in senior high school; In the general senior high school academic level examination, qualified areas can include the experimental operation of physical and chemical students into the provincial unified examination. Boost the rapid development of experimental courses from the examination end. Subsequently, in 2021, nearly 20 provinces or cities across the country issued the implementation rules for the physical and chemical students’ experimental operation examination of the middle school entrance examination:

Although the proportion of experimental operation in the overall score of the middle school entrance examination is not high, it has shown that the experiment has become an indispensable part in the future education and teaching work. In fact, the experimental part has been added to the junior middle school academic level test in some areas in the early years. However, limited by the examination room equipment, the final presentation form of the experimental examination only exists in the report. The ability and standard of experimental operation are not included in the assessment. In other words, even without experiment, students can “simulate” to answer such an answer sheet with known answers.

If the standard of experimental operation is included in the examination results, it will be more difficult to read and judge the “test paper”, and further requirements need to be made for the invigilator, the examination venue and the ability of data transmission (text, picture and video data). In May 2021, the China Education Equipment Industry Association issued the China education equipment industry group standard technical specification for experimental operation evaluation system, which clearly incorporated AI scoring into the experimental operation evaluation technical system, and steadily promoted the application process of AI scoring according to the three stages of exploration period, probation period and practice period. However, the differences of scoring standards between different regions, the types of experiments and the types and models of application instruments all make it difficult for AI marking. At present, there is no case that AI is fully used for formal examination in China. Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places at the forefront of innovative application still use teacher scoring as the main evaluation means, and AI scoring is only used as an auxiliary means to carry out pilot in a small range.

03

Those experimental classes that started at the age of three

Outside the campus, before “double subtraction”