Can you judge a professor if you teach well？ How many ＂brushes＂ do you need to be a professor？
Li Dadong, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, teaches students. Hu Qingming photo/bright picture
Jiang Huasong, who is 54 years old and has been teaching for 33 years, was finally awarded a professor not long ago.
Different from the well-known "in the evaluation of university titles, scientific research achievements and the number of papers are the most important", the teacher of Science College of Nanjing Forestry University, who has been an associate professor for 12 years, opened the door to "professor" with "no paper, no scientific research, all relying on the performance and achievements of classroom teaching at ordinary times".
Today, colleges and universities in China are generally criticized for "emphasizing scientific research over teaching". This incident was interpreted by the media as "you can be a professor without a paper" and quickly boarded a hot search. Many netizens, teachers and scholars praised the title evaluation policy of Nanlinda University, believing that classified evaluation and giving full play to talents can promote the improvement of teaching quality in colleges and universities, change the argument that "teaching well is better than writing well" and "open up a new channel for the evaluation of professional titles in colleges and universities" and "is the general trend".
But with the fermentation and spread of things, more doubts followed.
In the past few days, more than one teacher told reporters that teaching, scientific research and social service are the three major responsibilities of professors, and one of them cannot be neglected; Teaching without research is not deep, and teaching without scientific research does not conform to the law of the development of higher education today. Some scholars even bluntly said, "Comment on ‘ Teaching professor ’ It is misleading to the public. "
Why did this incident cause such a controversy in academic circles? The reporter interviewed college teachers in depth, truthfully reflected their voices and voices, and hoped that this would lead to more thoughts on the evaluation of college professional titles.
Argument 1 “What is a professor?
[Reporter’s observation]: The reason why "you don’t need a paper to judge a professor" causes controversy lies in the different understanding of the word "professor". Wang Hao, president of Nanlin University, said that this initiative was launched because "the most important task of a university is to teach and educate people. Scientific research is important, but it is more important to let teachers return to their teaching duties". This has attracted a lot of spit: "Professor" is originally an academic title, and it is not a professor without doing research.
What is "professor"? Can only good teaching be qualified as a university professor?
● Positive: Teachers should return to their teaching duties.
Chen Feng (pseudonym), a lecturer at a university in Shanxi:
I am a university teacher who teaches public courses, and I like the professional title evaluation regulations of "teaching professor" in Nanlin University.
Since I first joined the company, I have been constantly reminded by "experienced people" that teaching is a conscientious job, and class is almost enough. The key is to hand out enough papers. For a long time, the evaluation of professional titles in domestic colleges and universities is mostly based on scientific research results, and teaching only needs to complete the class hours. Influenced by this "baton", many teachers spend most of their energy on scientific research, but only regard teaching as a "public task". "Teaching is better than writing well" and "Scientific research is a private land and teaching is a public field" are also circulating in colleges and universities. Especially for basic courses such as mathematics and foreign languages, teachers have taken on a lot of teaching tasks, so it is difficult to have leisure time to study scientific research. In addition, what was originally taught was some classical theoretical knowledge systems, so it was difficult to make a breakthrough in scientific research. Over time, the kung fu of scientific research was left behind.
Teaching and educating people is the greatest duty of teachers, and it needs to be emphasized today. In recent years, in addition to professional title evaluation, many universities have also introduced teaching bonuses, which is a good signal. Only by making it easier for those teachers who devote themselves to teaching and specialize in teaching to promote their professional titles can we stimulate the enthusiasm of the teaching staff to the maximum extent and promote the resonance of teaching and scientific research at the same frequency. This is the general trend and the aspiration of the people.
○ Against: University professors must engage in scientific research.
Wu Zunmin, a professor at East China Normal University:
It is simply unreasonable to "evaluate professors without a paper". University professors must engage in scientific research, and they can evaluate "senior lecturers" only by giving lectures without research, but they must never evaluate professors.
It is undeniable that teaching is one of the basic responsibilities of university teachers, and attending classes is the basic skill of university professors. However, as the highest academic title of a university, "professor" has only one standard in the world, that is, not only to teach first-class, but also to conduct profound scientific research and lead growth — — Teaching, scientific research and service are the three major responsibilities of professors, and any emphasis on one of them while ignoring the others will lower the standards of professors.
"Professor" comes from Latin, which originally means an expert in the field of art and science, and now it is the highest academic title in colleges and universities in the world. Its implication is simple, that is, in colleges and universities, the primary task of professors is to engage in innovative research in their respective disciplines and offer courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Compared with lecturers and associate professors, professors have more important significance in their leading role, having profound insights into the research frontiers and existing problems of the discipline, reflecting the pursuit of profound knowledge and leading the development direction of the discipline. Only in this way can professors play their due role and truly lead the growth of students and young teachers.
Of course, I’m not denying that the professor has to attend classes. Today, what we want to advocate is that professors should lead the team of teachers to improve the teaching ability, academic level and team spirit of young people. My ideal is such a state: the basic courses of undergraduates can be mainly undertaken by lecturers and associate professors, and guided by professors; The courses for postgraduate students are undertaken by associate professors and the courses for doctoral students are undertaken by professors, thus forming a three-level structure, in which lecturers are trained, associate professors are the link between the preceding and the following, and professors lead, which will not affect the scientific research level of colleges and universities and will not "kill the professors".
Debate 2: Are teaching and research complementary or mutually exclusive?
[Reporter’s observation]: What is implied in the debate about "what is a professor" is actually a dispute over the relationship between teaching and scientific research. In recent years, the call for professors to teach undergraduate students is deafening, and the debate about whether universities should focus on scientific research or teaching is heated up. During the interview, more than one teacher complained to reporters that too many class hours made him too busy for scientific research; Some teachers also believe that teaching will distract their scientific research energy and they can only "choose what is more important for their own development". But there are also many people who believe that without academic research, one’s teaching cannot achieve Excellence; "Teaching without scientific research is an education without views and soul".
How to treat teaching and scientific research? Are teaching and research complementary or mutually exclusive?
● Positive: Teachers’ energy is limited, and "teaching" will inevitably lead to "scientific research".
Tommy (pseudonym), a lecturer at a university in Beijing:
I don’t think scientific research and teaching have a particularly direct relationship in a sense. It must be admitted that there are differences between different teachers, some are good at teaching, some are good at scientific research, and a few people can go hand in hand with teaching and scientific research. In my growing experience, many times a good teacher is not a good researcher, and a good researcher’s evaluation score is very low.
There are examples. A previous survey on the School of Business and Economics of Maastricht University showed that in the undergraduate stage, the teaching of top researchers can’t improve the performance of undergraduates, and the role of these scholars will only be reflected in the postgraduate courses. From the feedback of students, they will not give these top researchers higher teaching evaluation scores. Even many undergraduate students give the best researchers in the school a score lower than the average of the school.
There are two reasons for this: First, compared with basic research, teaching is a completely different skill. The former needs to study, while the latter needs to learn from others, need special teaching skills and methods, establish close relationships with students, etc. Few people have the same excellent quality in scientific research and teaching; Second, the existing orientation makes teachers often "pay more attention to scientific research than teaching" — — "No time for scientific research" has become the most common state around me, and many teachers are unwilling to participate in teaching evaluation activities. "All-staff scientific research" is the truest portrayal of China University.
Teachers’ energy is limited, and "teaching" is bound to lose "scientific research". Therefore, I think it is necessary to set up two professional title evaluation and employment systems, namely, "research professor" and "teaching professor", so that every teacher can find his own development space and get treatment that matches his value.
○ Counterparty: Teaching without the guidance of scientific research ideas cannot be regarded as "university teaching".
Guo Yingjian, a professor at Renmin University of China:
At present, there are many misunderstandings or misunderstandings about the relationship between teaching and scientific research in universities in China. The first is to treat teaching and scientific research in opposition. But in fact, in the world, all kinds of colleges and universities have put forward much higher requirements for the scientific research of "professors". Teaching without the guidance of scientific research ideas cannot be regarded as "university teaching".
In the United States, even teaching-oriented liberal arts colleges pay more and more attention to teachers’ scientific research ability and the publication of their achievements. In May 2014, Academy, the publication of American Association of University Professors, published a research result, which showed that scientific research and the publication of teachers’ scientific research results played an increasingly important role in teachers’ evaluation, even in teaching-centered liberal arts colleges. These researchers choose four-year colleges of arts and sciences because these universities generally focus on teaching, while those research universities pay more attention to research and publication.
Scientific research promotes teaching, which is not only conducive to teachers’ innovative teaching, but also conducive to the cultivation of students’ critical thinking. It has been suggested that the times are changing rapidly, and only those teachers who are engaged in academic research have the ability to acquire and exchange the latest knowledge with students. As far as teachers are concerned, only research-oriented teachers can better choose the content of lectures, know what important topics and concepts to choose, and spread knowledge to students in a more appropriate way. Many foreign universities believe that academic research by teachers is also attractive to students. Students’ participation in scientific research or academic research has become the norm of undergraduate education in many foreign universities.
Debate 3: Can professors "rule by type"?
[Reporter’s observation]: In fact, Nanlinda is not the first person to "eat crabs". As early as ten years ago, "teaching professors" entered the institutional level of domestic universities one after another. In this regard, some commentators believe that "teaching-oriented professor" is conducive to solving the imbalance between scientific research and teaching, to the selection of university talents and the optimal allocation of human resources, and to the formation of school-running characteristics of universities according to their own characteristics. However, some people object that university professors cannot be "governed by different types" and that "teaching-oriented professors" are subjective fabrications that do not conform to the law of higher education development.
● Pro: "Teaching-oriented professor" redefines "academic"
Professor Li Qi of Beijing Normal University:
Since the end of World War II, in many countries with developed higher education, the attention paid to scientific research has far exceeded the attention paid to teaching, and even had a negative impact on the fundamental mission of talent training in colleges and universities. In this context, developed countries, led by the United States, began to reaffirm the core mission of teaching. Among them, Ernest Boyer wrote in Academic Reflection — — The report "Priority of Teaching Work" puts forward that "academic" should be redefined, and the new "academic" should contain four interrelated aspects, including "discovery, synthesis, application and teaching". To some extent, this academic idea reconciled the contradiction between scientific research and teaching, and also integrated them together. As a matter of fact, as long as university administrators allow, professors can choose one of the above four disciplines in teaching, scientific research and social services, develop relevant literacy, and thus become qualified professors.
It can be imagined that even if there is no "teaching professor", the main responsibility of teachers should be teaching in teaching-oriented colleges whose core mission is teaching. But this does not necessarily mean that teachers in teaching-oriented colleges do not need to carry out scientific research. Under the new definition of "academic", what to teach, how to teach, who will teach and who will learn are teaching problems that need to be studied, and they are professional problems. However, under the current college environment and professional title evaluation system, these problems have become management problems. Only by reducing management problems to professional problems, allowing teachers to solve specific professional problems through school-based research and guiding teachers to participate in school-based teaching research and evaluation can we achieve the goal of encouraging teachers to continuously improve teaching quality.
○ Counterparty: "Teaching-oriented professor" can only be "the product of historical transition period"
Guo Yingjian, a professor at Renmin University of China:
"Teaching-oriented professor" is only a product of the transitional period, and discussions like this and their topics — — That is, "can you judge a professor without a paper?" It’s just a transitional topic. Because this is actually a problem left over from history, that is, there are some (even a large number of) scholars born after 50, 60 or even 70. Before or after they entered colleges and universities, they did not study for a doctorate or the highest degree in related industries because of historical or personal reasons, because they did not pay enough attention to scientific research because of their biased understanding, or they were not interested in scientific research, or their scientific research ability was limited. Some of them hardly engaged in scientific research, but their teaching level was very high. However, this phenomenon will hardly appear again in the process of the growth of scholars after 75 and 80 — — Because they don’t have a doctor’s degree or the highest degree in related industries, they don’t have strict academic research training, and they don’t have corresponding scientific research results, so they can’t enter colleges and universities at all.
Personally, I think that university professors can’t "rule by type". In my opinion, universities can’t have professors who only teach and don’t do scientific research, nor can they have professors who only do scientific research and don’t engage in teaching — — It’s interesting that this type of professor exists in many colleges and universities now, but it is rarely discussed. The reason is very simple, the responsibility of the title of professor — — Teaching, scientific research and service should be indispensable. The "teaching-oriented professor" implemented in China universities at present is an expedient measure to solve the problems left over from history, and it is believed that it will gradually disappear in the future, which is not the "general trend".
Argument 4 “How to evaluate "excellent teaching ability"
[Reporter’s observation]: Among many debates, there is also a focus on how to evaluate "teaching Excellence". According to reports, there are two evaluation dimensions in the selection of "teaching professors" by Nanlin University: teacher-student evaluation and classroom quality expert evaluation. The evaluation of teachers and students is made up of the data collected by the school’s student affairs office from the graduates’ teaching activities in the past five years. The expert evaluation of classroom quality is conducted by the Academic Affairs Office, without teachers’ knowledge, by randomly grabbing three 45-minute teaching videos from the previous year’s teaching videos, and organizing at least three national or provincial-level teaching masters outside the school, as well as on-campus teaching supervision, etc. In this regard, some people think that this is a return to the initial heart and origin of teaching, giving the right to judge to students and peers; However, it has also been pointed out that "teaching Excellence" should be reflected in its popularization and reproducibility, rather than just being decided by the students in their own classes.
● Positive: Teaching should speak with classroom quality.
Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at China Academy of Educational Sciences:
At the present stage of development of universities in China, I think it is necessary to evaluate some teaching-oriented professors, and the key issue is how to evaluate them. At present, colleges and universities have not reached a consensus, but it must be recognized that teaching-oriented professors cannot be regarded as "professors with low scientific research level" and "professors who do not write papers", or they need to be evaluated from their functions.
In this regard, the practice of Nanlin University is still good. The core essence is that teaching should speak with classroom quality, especially by adding the link of attending lectures or watching teaching videos, and inviting national or provincial famous teachers and school supervisors to comment, which can effectively ensure that people who are really good at teaching can be screened out.
However, I think it is necessary to clearly distinguish the boundary between student evaluation and teacher evaluation, and use teacher-student evaluation scientifically: due to the limitation of students’ knowledge level, student evaluation is more about evaluating teachers’ attitude and their own learning feelings, rather than teachers’ professional level; Teachers and experts should pay more attention to professional evaluation, and ensure that authoritative experts generally recognized by teachers form a third-party evaluation agency to maintain the authority and credibility of the system.
○ Counterparty: "Excellent teaching ability", and the bottom line of scientific research cannot be broken.
Tang Bin, Associate Professor of Southwest University:
I don’t think that public teachers don’t have the time and space to do scientific research, and "teaching professors" don’t need to issue papers. Students and peers are indispensable for the evaluation of "excellent teaching ability", but the evaluation of professors must have a considerable level of scientific research, and this bottom line cannot be broken.
From my own experience, I feel that scientific research and teaching are "separated" in the first two years. At this stage, a lot of time is spent in the process of preparing lessons, getting familiar with teaching materials, making courseware, and repeatedly modifying teaching design. There is not much real scientific research. But after this stage, you will find that the existing knowledge reserve, teaching methods and teaching design can’t meet the requirements of high-quality courses, but can only say that the knowledge is spoken out. From then on, scientific research and teaching have interacted and started to promote each other — — To teach a course well, teachers need to constantly delve into problems and break through the original knowledge pattern, which will form a process of "looking for scientific research in teaching and feeding back teaching with the results of scientific research or phased results".
Therefore, I think that the current evaluation dimension of "excellent teaching ability" is more important than not losing scientific research, but this kind of scientific research can be more reflected in teaching research, as well as the replicability, popularization and influence of teaching experience, such as publishing teaching reform papers, participating in teaching reform projects, and obtaining teaching results.
Debate 5: Can the teaching indicators of different levels and types of universities be different?
[Reporter’s observation]: As of June this year, there were 2,956 institutions of higher learning in China. During the interview, some teachers said that more than 2,000 universities should be divided into levels and functions, and China does not need so many research universities. In non-research universities, professional title evaluation should pay more attention to teaching or achievement transformation; In this regard, some people also expressed strong opposition, saying that no matter what type or level of colleges and universities, the scientific research skills of "professors" must not be lost.
Can the evaluation index and orientation of professional titles in different levels and types of universities be different?
● Positive: The evaluation of professional titles should move from "a ruler" to distinctive and differentiated.
Li Huadong (pseudonym), a staff member of the Personnel Department of a university in Jiangsu;
My college is a national demonstrative higher vocational college. I think that the evaluation criteria of professional titles in different levels and types of colleges and universities are different, and we can’t "measure everything with one ruler" but have characteristics and differences.
In Jiangsu, in fact, many colleges and universities have started reforms like Nanlin University. On the basis of fully considering the diversity of teachers, all colleges and universities have formulated professional title evaluation methods that are suitable for the actual situation of teachers in each school according to the differences in disciplines and types. As we evaluate professors in vocational colleges, we should pay more attention to the classroom effect, social contribution, the effectiveness of the transformation of achievements, or even more, instead of judging heroes by scientific research achievements, as in research universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua.
○ Counterparty: Teaching, scientific research and social services, the "three brushes" of professors must not be lost.
Cheng Fangping, a professor at Renmin University of China:
I think that no matter what type and level of colleges and universities, the orientation of professor evaluation is the same, that is, teaching, scientific research and social service can not be lost. Only in different levels and types of colleges and universities, the specific indicators or manifestations of the above three points are different.
The first thing in university education is to teach professionally, the second is to explore unknown fields, and the third is to serve the society, regardless of ancient and modern times. Therefore, even in some application-oriented universities, teachers also need scientific research to study how to explore and spread outside the teaching materials. It’s just that there are academic research, practical research and practical research, and research-oriented and applied universities have their own research paths. Some of these are new discoveries and inventions, and some are the transformation of existing achievements, but this must not be ignored because of the different types and levels of universities. It should also be noted that today, we can not only emphasize that teaching-oriented teachers should attach importance to scientific research, but also emphasize that teachers who are good at research should attach importance to the improvement of teaching methods, and they can have different weights in different series of evaluation and employment standards, but teaching and scientific research must be evaluation dimensions and are indispensable.
(Reporter Deng Hui)