How to get out of the misunderstanding of theme class meeting performance

First, the performance of theme class meeting

The curriculum of primary and secondary schools in China has arranged special class meeting time. Class meetings occupy class hours, but they are not "classes" in the conventional sense. According to the explanation in the Dictionary of Education, a class meeting is a meeting of all the class members, which is used to discuss and solve various problems in class collective study and life. It is an organizational form of school moral education; It is helpful to cultivate students' democratic consciousness, exercise their autonomy and self-care ability, and form a stable class group.

Class meetings have different forms. Sometimes a meeting discusses and deals with many problems, and sometimes a meeting focuses on one problem. Theme class meeting is a class meeting held around a certain theme. The themes selected by the theme class meeting mainly include: (1) issues that students care about and are interested in; (2) There are differences in understanding among students; (3) Major problems in the collective. The theme class meeting aims at raising awareness, developing personality, enjoying life and promoting the formation of a good class spirit. Researchers believe that organizing theme class meetings has educational functions such as strengthening class construction, optimizing teacher-student relationship and promoting students' development [1].

In order to improve the effect of moral education, many schools require class teachers to organize theme class meetings to reduce the time occupied by class meetings and turn class meetings into criticism classes. However, the conventional theme class meeting is prone to the following problems: (1) The theme of the class meeting is arranged by the management department, which is not necessarily a problem that students really care about, and it is not attractive to students; (2) The class meeting was hastily held, teachers and students lacked preparation, monotonous activities and lack of interest, knowledge and education; (3) Teachers "in a word", the head teacher puts forward requirements for the class according to the theme. Students just obey and echo, and have no chance to express their true thoughts.

High-quality theme class meetings in exhibition activities often take a long time to prepare and polish. Compared with ordinary theme class meetings, this class meeting has outstanding advantages: (1) The theme is clear, targeted and attractive; (2) Rich in content and lively in form, which is deeply loved by students; (3) Give full play to students' hobbies and specialties, and students participate in a wide range; (4) The class teacher retired behind the scenes, and the students became the protagonists of the class meeting.

While seeing these advantages, we also have some concerns. Although some really excellent class meetings have achieved real educational results, many excellent theme class meetings look beautiful and are a visual and auditory feast for the audience, which is not necessarily a good thing for the students in the class, because these class meetings have fallen into a misunderstanding of performance.

Theme class meeting is an educational activity, and its primary goal is to promote students' development; The performance-oriented theme class meeting, with the primary goal of impressing the judges and the audience, has been shelved. The performance-oriented theme class meeting has the following characteristics:

(1) There are many forms and links of activities, which make people dizzying.

Excellent thematic courses will become a special open class. Compared with the open classes of various disciplines, the theme class meeting is not limited by disciplines and learning periods, and there is no definite teaching goal. Therefore, teachers have more freedom in designing activities. In the 40-minute class meeting, there are not only regular links such as group discussion, class communication, individual questions, teacher comments, but also various display forms such as debate, drama performance and chorus. Give full play to students' talents in all aspects, and go into battle with 18 kinds of martial arts. For example, arranging students to perform musical instruments in the lead-in session and arranging students to perform dancing or singing in the discussion session greatly improves the appreciation. The process of class meeting is full of link changes, which quickly deepens the theme and makes people see things in a blur.

(2) Teachers and students have exquisite language, elegant words and deeds, and no defects such as stage fright and missing words.

In the exhibition activities, the hosts of theme class meetings are mostly students. The small host presided over in an orderly way, guiding the transition between each link and introducing the wonderful performance of all the students; When holding hands in groups, the speeches are tit for tat and endless, and sometimes there will be some cognitive conflicts or opinions that are contrary to the mainstream concepts; Teachers will make comments and summaries in time, and a few words can help students get out of confusion and take the discussion to a new height. In this process, students show broad vision, fluent eloquence and natural and graceful language art, and teachers show skillful educational art and resourceful educational wit. Judges often praise this. However, if what students say is written and memorized in advance, if the confrontation and conflict between students and between teachers and students are arranged in advance, should such a theme class meeting still be highly praised? With the orderliness of the small host and the angry words of the students, there are too many presuppositions for the theme class meeting, and the teachers have arranged the details. The task of students is to act out the conflicts arranged by teachers like actors, and finally give the audience the impression that major problems have been solved through class meetings.

(3) One class solves a problem, and the classroom effect is incredible.

The theme of a high-quality theme class meeting must be a prominent problem that has attracted much attention and is difficult, and this class meeting activity will definitely solve the problem. Take the most popular class meeting with the theme of "Thanksgiving" as an example. The class meeting began with an ungrateful event of some young people or students in the class, which made their parents sad. Through a series of situational experiences and opinions, all the students were moved by it and cried. Finally, let's sing "Grateful Heart" together, or voluntarily share the action plan of thanking parents and repaying society. As far as the class meeting itself is concerned, the effect of the activity can be described as "immediate". But are the students really educated because of this activity? How long can this activity last? This really needs a question mark.

The harm of the theme class meeting performance is the loss of the educational function of the theme class meeting. The starting point of organizing theme class meetings in primary and secondary schools is to guide students' development and help them understand the phenomena and problems in their study life more comprehensively, profoundly and correctly. The performance-oriented theme class will "perform for the sake of performance", turning all the students into actors. The students are just reciting the lines designed by the teacher, and their real ideas do not appear. How do they achieve ideological progress? Before attending the formal performance, the class teacher should lead the students to rehearse and polish several class meetings. It can be said that the more wonderful and perfect the students' performances are, the more serious the performance problems of the theme class meeting will be. If researchers and managers applaud it, or even popularize this theme class meeting on a large scale, school moral education will go further and further on the wrong road.

Second, the analysis of the reasons for the performance of the theme class meeting

The serious theme class meeting was moved to the exhibition venue selected by the district, city and province theme class meeting and won different awards. Why is this happening? The author believes that the selection of theme class meetings held by relevant departments is the incentive for teachers to carefully arrange theme class meetings, and the unclear and unreasonable selection criteria are the direct reasons for the performance of theme class meetings, while the low status of moral education in schools and the disciplinary understanding of moral education by front-line teachers are the deep reasons for the performance of theme class meetings.

(1) The selection activities of theme class meetings at all levels are held one after another, which is the incentive for teachers to carefully arrange theme class meetings.

In school, many class teachers lack enthusiasm for organizing theme class meetings, and the Moral Education Department must make provisions such as "deducting points for not opening theme class meetings" in order to make the class teachers reluctantly do it. However, these regulations can only force teachers to organize class meetings, but they cannot guarantee the quality of theme class meetings. In order to arouse teachers' enthusiasm and give full play to the educational effect of theme class meeting, educational administrative departments at all levels and teaching and research institutions have organized theme class meeting selection activities one after another. The awards awarded by these activities are helpful for teachers to promote their professional titles, evaluate performance pay and select advanced workers. Therefore, teachers are willing to carefully arrange some theme class meetings, and school leaders also fully support teachers to carefully polish these theme class meetings.

It is necessary to carry out the selection of theme class meetings in a certain sense. At present, primary and secondary schools are generally faced with the problem of low effectiveness of moral education. Faced with these problems, theoretical researchers have expressed their views and put forward countermeasures. Front-line teachers need to see carriers that can concretize and visualize these views and countermeasures. The theme class meeting in the exhibition activities has been carefully polished, which embodies modern moral education concepts such as respecting students' dominant position, paying attention to situation design and student experience, and has a certain promotion effect on promoting modern moral education concepts and advocating the transformation of school moral education. However, the negative impact of these theme class meetings should not be underestimated.

(2) The unclear and unreasonable selection criteria of theme class meetings are the direct reasons for the performance of theme class meetings.

What kind of theme class meeting is excellent, which can win and which should not win? The key problem in the selection activity is the selection standard or scoring system, which can reasonably select the truly excellent theme class meeting and guide the correct direction of the design and organization of the theme class meeting; The standard is unclear and unreasonable, and the selected "excellent theme class meeting" needs quotation marks, which will lead the teacher's energy in designing the theme class meeting astray.

There is no clear standard for the selection of a large number of theme class meetings. The judges are professors of education, teaching researchers, well-known class teachers or principals. They are basically graded according to their personal views and experiences, and there is little difference between the grading standards and those of open courses: whether the theme is novel or not, whether it is targeted; Whether the teacher's design is smooth and whether it reflects educational wit; Whether the students' performance is natural and graceful, and whether their expression is flawed; Whether the activity flow is pleasing to the eye and innovative; Whether the teacher's "lecture" after the activity reflects the modern moral education concept ... The qualifications of the class teacher, the ranking of the school and other factors will also affect the score.

There are many problems in this nonstandard selection standard: first, it is subjective and there is no standard; Second, only pay attention to the performance process, not asking the truth, not asking the effect of the activity, especially the sustainability of the effect (some effects, such as students' tears or promises, will also appear during the activity, but no one will ask whether this effect can last). So there is a strange phenomenon: the judges know that the students have participated in the same theme class meeting as many as four or five times, knowing that the feelings and confessions expressed by the students are the plots arranged by the teachers, but they still give high marks to the class meeting, so that the teachers can get corresponding rewards. The theme class meeting is cheating, and the judges are supporting this kind of cheating, so cheating is becoming more and more serious: teachers try their best to choose the theme that can attract people to do as the Romans do and impress students and judges, so gratitude education prevails, students will not stop crying, and "students cry" becomes a symbol of class meeting success; The teacher started as a screenwriter and arranged the class meeting activities as rich as a literary evening; The teacher makes a guest appearance as a "gunman", writes a good speech for the students, and asks the students to say the lines in the speech seriously and emotionally (sometimes the students will say the lines in the next paragraph in advance at the scene).

(3) The low status of moral education in schools and the disciplinary understanding of moral education in education circles are the deep-seated reasons for the performance of theme class meetings.

When professors and researchers cheered for the performance-oriented theme class meeting, they actually participated in the "fraud" and became actors in this farce together. Why do people act together? The author intends to propose two deep-seated factors.

1. The theme class meeting selection activity itself is a kind of performance. As we all know, the status of moral education activities in schools is not high. "It's important to talk about it, but it's not important to do it. Don't be busy." I will choose a theme class meeting to make this kind of activity that I don't usually do seriously become the theme of my work one day. The teachers and principals present put on a serious attitude of paying attention to moral education at ordinary times and performed all the time. Schools and teachers actively participate in the selection of theme class meetings, not to ask experts how to solve moral education problems, but to win prizes; Organizers and judges all know the purpose of the school, but they also praise the school and the class teacher for attaching importance to moral education and theme class meetings. Sometimes there is a theme class meeting in the school, and the school will suspend all students' "performances", and each class will show its own strengths on campus. It seems that attaching importance to moral education is the consistent practice of our school. The whole activity seems to be a big performance: schools attach importance to moral education, teachers attach importance to theme class meetings, and students attach importance to character cultivation. The whole incident was covered with a veil, that is, no teenager came to pierce the enough paper and loudly said the truth that "the emperor was naked."

2. The theme class meeting has become a type of open class, which is the objective result of the disciplinary understanding of moral education in education. At present, the theme class meeting has even become the most difficult one in the open class, because many judges expect teachers to completely retreat behind the scenes in the theme class meeting and let students become the masters of the class meeting. In order to satisfy the judges, the teacher had to provide the students with an extremely detailed script. The judges hoped to see the students' emotional ups and downs, ideological changes and personality development within 40 minutes, so the teacher tried to design the plot and made the class meeting into a miniature theater. However, students' ideological changes and personality development cannot be proved by their statements and tears in class, but must be tested by practical actions after class. However, the selection of the theme class meeting only depends on the performance or classroom performance. What is reflected here is the disciplinary understanding of moral education, that is, taking moral education as a special subject, hoping to achieve the purpose of cultivating students' good ideological and moral quality through isolated theme class meetings and moral education classes. However, many educators have long pointed out that it is impossible to cultivate real moral quality only by relying on the direct teaching of moral education classes.

Third, how to get out of the misunderstanding of the theme class meeting performance

At present, many teachers and researchers have realized the performance problem of the theme class meeting, not only from the perspective of choosing the theme of the class meeting and optimizing the activity design, but also put forward the viewpoint of serial design of the theme class meeting. For example, Li advocates planning the theme class meeting activities based on the overall long-term development of students, and integrates the pre-planning preparation, activity implementation and follow-up summary of the theme class meeting into a big project [2]. The author believes that it is impossible to cultivate stable moral quality by holding one or two theme class meetings independently without institutional arrangements; Following the law of moral education, absorbing the existing experience and carrying out the activities of moral education theme week in an all-round way can not only provide a suitable platform for moral education theme class meetings, but also fundamentally reverse the inefficient pattern of moral education and reduce or eliminate similar moral education activities such as performance-based theme class meeting selection.

(A) the significance and possible value of moral education theme week activities

Carrying out moral education theme week in primary and secondary schools is a way for schools to carry out moral education. Specifically, it is a good choice for schools and classes to determine a theme of moral education every week, so that students can contact and experience this theme through various platforms and activities, and be influenced by it in their study, life and ideas, so as to realize moral development.

When European and American schools carry out character education, they often adopt the form of theme week; Some schools in China have tried this form and achieved good results. According to the experience at home and abroad, the educational activities of moral education theme week can widely mobilize the enthusiasm of teachers and students, and ensure that all members of moral education work know and participate; Can guide students to gradually deepen their understanding, generate interest, form habits and develop their character; It can correct the formalization of school moral education and improve the effectiveness of moral education.

Compared with the use of class meeting time to carry out the theme class meeting activities, the theme week of moral education can achieve the goal of moral education better: (1) The theme week of moral education is a week, which allows students to keep in touch with an important moral education theme, reflect on related issues and realize moral growth. (2) Moral Education Theme Week activities are carried out through various platforms and activities, striving to create a positive moral education field for students and promote their moral growth in the benign interaction with the environment. (3) Moral Education Theme Week focuses on the major themes in students' development and class construction, and guides the development direction of students' moral education in all directions. Moral education theme week requires choosing a theme every week to ensure the series and continuity between weekly themes, which can cover important themes in students' growth and class development and avoid the disorder of moral education work.

(B) Moral Theme Week activities to carry out the way

At present, the educational activities of exploring the theme week of moral education in China are still in the initial stage. Based on the practice at home and abroad, considering the characteristics of heavy teaching tasks and large class size in primary and secondary schools in China, the following implementation ideas are proposed.

1. Basic Platform Construction of Moral Education Theme Week

In order to build a "theme moral education field" as comprehensively as possible, we suggest to develop and build a basic platform for moral education theme week, so that students can "touch" the theme in various ways, including:

(1) Put a theme sign at the door of the classroom. Make a sign at the door of the classroom to facilitate the insertion and removal of this week's theme. Signs should be simple, generous, beautiful and creative.

(2) Set up a thematic education column on the big blackboard. Open a small space on the big blackboard, let the students on duty write a famous saying related to this topic on it every day, and ask all students to copy it into their diaries.

(3) Add a special exhibition board for theme education at the back of the classroom. Add a simple and generous special exhibition board for theme education at the back of the classroom, and paste stories and essays related to this theme on it. In order to save time and energy, posting materials can be printed or designed by students themselves.

(4) The whole class takes turns to write theme diaries. The class sets up a theme week diary, and a classmate is responsible for writing the diary every day. Students should copy the daily sentences of the day and write a diary related to the theme.

(5) Teachers write notification letters and summary letters on theme activities to promote home-school cooperation. The head teacher tells parents about last week's class (including theme education) and this week's class plan (including this week's theme education plan) by email, so as to maintain close cooperation between home and school.

(6) Carry out practical activities related to this topic. Practical experience can comprehensively mobilize students' knowledge, feelings, intentions and actions. When time and resources permit, practical activities related to the theme should be carried out, such as activities of senior students helping junior students and activities of cleaning gardens.

(7) Use the class meeting time to hold a theme class meeting to guide the students to focus on reviewing their growth and important experiences of the week and deepen their understanding and experience of the theme.

(8) Fill in the theme week activity schedule and summary table. The two forms should have a relatively fixed format, which is convenient for teachers to fill in and file.

(9) Take relevant photos. The class teacher and the moral education office should take relevant photos for future use.

2. Construction of auxiliary platform for moral education theme week

The theme week of moral education activities hopes that class teachers and all teachers will enhance their sense of moral responsibility and strategy, study moral education issues and improve the effectiveness of moral education. Moral education theme week activities can be extended and explored in the following aspects:

(1) Organize the theme week of moral education "collective lesson preparation". Two or three class teachers * * * are responsible for the resource package development and case exploration of a theme week, and then provide the basic resource package and implementation cases for the class teachers of the whole school. Other class teachers can innovate or use it directly on this basis.

(2) Each class teacher carefully designs and explores a certain topic every semester, and strives to generate excellent cases and papers.

(3) According to the weekly theme, teachers give some explanations in class, provide or design some valuable reading materials and practical activities, and give full play to the moral education function of classroom teaching.

(4) Set up a special webpage for theme week activities, publish the planning, pictures, deeds and reading materials of theme week activities online, attract students, teachers and parents to read and reply, and open up a network moral education platform.

(3) How to carry out the theme class meeting with the theme week as the background?

In the theme week activity platform designed by the author, the theme class meeting plays an important role in connecting the past with the future and deepening the theme. Class meeting time can be fully utilized in many ways: teachers and students discuss and debate around this week's theme; A summary of the activities of teachers and students' theme week, and students' reflection and exchange on the progress since the week; Teachers and students arrange, discuss and adjust the activity plan for the next theme week and think about the next goal. Because of the preparation for this week's activities, students have real thoughts and feelings about this week's theme, and can communicate openly with teachers and students at class meetings, inspire each other and make progress together.

From the perspective of institutional arrangement, we hope to strengthen the comprehensive evaluation of the effect of school moral education and reduce the fragmented evaluation of theme class meetings. Setting aside special time to create a beautiful theme class meeting does not explain how well the school has done in moral education. Departments at all levels reduce the evaluation of moral education activities and provide more practical and operable resource packages for theme week activities. On the contrary, they can give more support and more relaxed working space to class teachers, which will help to slowly mobilize their enthusiasm and creativity in moral education and find an inexhaustible source for improving the effectiveness of moral education.