experts | qiu zhijian: mobilize students' subjectivity and enthusiasm to make them like school
2024-09-13
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recently, qiu zhijian, the principal of guangzhou no. 5 middle school, retired. this year, guangzhou no. 5 middle school achieved the best results in the middle school entrance examination and the college entrance examination, and won the first place among the schools in the 11 districts of guangzhou, which put a perfect end to qiu zhijian's teaching career. therefore, the change of the principal of no. 5 middle school has attracted much attention from the public. yangcheng evening news reporter exclusively interviewed qiu zhijian, reviewing his 43-year teaching career, the way of being a teacher and a principal, no. 5 middle school that he and qiu zhijian achieved together, and his life after retirement.
yangcheng evening news: who will take over after you retire? what changes may happen to the fifth middle school in the future?
qiu zhijian:xia haibo, the party secretary of the school, was appointed as the principal. xia haibo is an educational talent introduced by haizhu district from hefei, anhui in 2019. he is a special english teacher, the former vice principal of hefei no. 1 middle school, the principal and party secretary of hefei no. 3 middle school, and the vice principal after he came to no. 5 middle school. old xia has a big pattern, a broad vision, a strong sense of professionalism and business ability, and is humble and generous. we have cooperated for five or six years, and i know his ideals and feelings, character and school governance ability very well. he is the best candidate for the principal of no. 5 middle school, no problem.
i have a good understanding with xia xue, and we have built the school management and the backbone teaching team together. the school's operating mechanism, core management departments, and the heads of teaching, student development, and logistics support are all the same. in the next five or six years, no. 5 middle school will not have any substantial changes, but will only develop further on the existing basis. if there are any changes, they will only get better.
yangcheng evening news: the haizhu district education bureau has launched the process of recruiting the chief principal of the guangzhou no. 5 middle school education group nationwide, and you are one of the candidates. if you become the chief principal of the group, what will you do?
qiu zhijian:if he becomes the president of the no. 5 middle school education group, he plans to focus his main energy on macro policies, development plans, curriculum design, and teacher development, and will not interfere with the specific daily operations of the core and member schools.
yangcheng evening news: how to balance the relationship between the old principal and the principal of no. 5 middle school after he becomes the group’s chief principal?
qiu zhijian:the best way to get along with the new team is to stay out of their own business. this is also conducive to the unity of the school leadership and the operation of no. 5 middle school. i told the new team: "if i continue to serve as the new no. 5 middle school group principal, please do not ask me for instructions on everything. i will try not to participate in the routine management of the school. if you need to invite me to make important decisions, i can serve as a consultant and give some reminders and suggestions, but everything is up to you."
yangcheng evening news: when you became the principal of no.5 middle school 8 years ago, it was the second to last among the 24 national model high schools in guangzhou. the high school admission score was at the bottom of the national model high schools for many years. the export performance was not good, the source of students was poor, and there was a serious loss of excellent teachers. 8 years later, no.5 middle school has gone from being relatively backward among the 24 national model high schools in the city to being the first in the district. what did you do right?
qiu zhijian:the first thing i did when i took office was to motivate the students. i focused on the study style, class style, and school style. i would rather cut 10 minutes of morning reading to make sure they did exercises. within a month, the students' mental outlook changed dramatically.
at the same time, the school impressed the parents. more than 7,000 students and their parents held 22 parent meetings in one month to discuss how to be a principal, a teacher, a student, and a parent in no. 5 middle school. haizhu residents spread the word that the new principal of no. 5 middle school looks pretty good. the neighborhood residents had confidence that they could learn well by following this principal.
in terms of internal school management, my strategy is to "show weakness" and not rush to establish my authority. at the first teachers' meeting, i told the teachers: "when i was 17 years old, although i had relatively outstanding academic performance, due to various restrictions, i did not enter university. instead, i stepped onto the podium and started my teaching career. you are all graduate students and undergraduates who graduated from regular universities. you are all better than me. you are all my role models. i serve you." as soon as i took office, i did not replace the senior three teachers. "if all the good teachers are in the senior three, won't the first and second grades of high school collapse?"
yangcheng evening news: "is there a necessary connection between how well teachers teach and how well students perform in exams?" different answers to this question will lead to different school governance strategies. which of the two do you focus on?
qiu zhijian:should we put more effort into "punishing" students or teachers? it is important for teachers to teach well, but the subjectivity of students is more important. a good school spirit, learning style and class spirit, students' enthusiasm, initiative and internal motivation are the key factors that determine the quality of grades. there is not much difference in intelligence among children in ordinary high schools. the decisive factors are non-intellectual factors, will and quality.
therefore, in my 43-year teaching career, whether as a teacher or a principal, my focus has always been on students, mobilizing their subjectivity and initiative. the first three years of development in each school are very critical. if the first shot does not work, and parents and students do not choose it, it will be difficult to follow. i strengthened stratified teaching and differentiated development, and the college entrance examination scores of no. 5 middle school have improved year by year, which is the first shot.
yangcheng evening news: in this year's college entrance examination, no. 5 middle school achieved excellent results, especially in liberal arts. how did a district-level school achieve this?
qiu zhijian:first, we strengthen math teaching for liberal arts students. "liberal arts students are usually weak in math, but we strengthen math for history students and adopt a dual-tutor system to improve students' math scores."
secondly, thoroughly study the college entrance examination questions and guide teachers to change their teaching methods.
the current college entrance examination emphasizes problem-solving skills. you must stick to the textbooks, understand the core concepts, and don't do stupid questions. i asked teachers to only buy one copy of teaching materials and not assign too many homework. i announced to the whole school: students can apply for self-expansion without homework if they have a legitimate reason and have mastered the content of the homework. the teacher must approve it.
yangcheng evening news: what do you think is good education?
qiu zhijian:good education must be an education that allows children to thrive and a place where education is implemented. students will like, love, miss, and even be obsessed with this place. there they read and explore, sing and exercise, organize clubs, and their potential is tapped, their personality is developed, and their character is sound. there, instead of being vigilant and competing with partners and winning battles, they establish a relationship of common development and growth with classmates in close communication. in such a scene, there should be young people with lofty ambitions, a sense of pride, responsibility, and problem solving.
text | reporter jiang junfigure | provided by the interviewee
