Teaching competitions are becoming more and more popular. Some people have achieved growth, some have resigned after getting the trophy, and some teachers have complained, "Is this the competition to promote teaching or is it kidnapped by the competition?"
Why are college teachers’ “class competitions” so complicated?
The Sixth National College Teacher Teaching Innovation Competition National Live Competition (hereinafter referred to as the "Teaching Innovation Competition") concluded recently, and many universities released good news and announced the results of the competition. The reporter learned that six years after the start of this teaching competition, which is recognized as the most valuable in the education industry, 570,000 teachers across the country have signed up to participate, which shows the wide coverage. The National College Young Teacher Teaching Competition (hereinafter referred to as the "Youth Teacher Competition") is equally valued as the Teaching Innovation Competition. The awards in these two events can be called the "hard currency" of individual teachers and even the school's teaching performance.
However, as the popularity of "class competitions" continues to rise, some teachers have begun to complain anonymously on social media about being "kidnapped by competitions": Class competitions are becoming a source of workplace stress. The long competition cycle, the physical and mental torture caused by repeated lessons and competition preparations, and the pressure from superiors eager to win awards have made many teachers bluntly say they were "overdrawn". Some said they resigned after receiving the trophy.
The original intention of "class competition" is to promote teaching through competition and improve the teaching level of college teachers. Has the teaching of participating teachers really improved? Why do so many teachers desperately want to get involved in the “class competition”? The reporter interviewed teachers from many universities and found that they are more concerned about how to reduce the additional burden caused by "class competition" for teachers who truly have educational ideals and career pursuits. In addition to competitions, is there a more scientific mechanism to consider the effectiveness of teaching and educating people, so as not to chill "non-class competition" teachers?
The fiercely competitive "class competition" makes teachers love and hate it
In the college circle, the Teacher Innovation Competition and the Youth Teacher Competition are recognized as the two types of teaching competitions with the highest value and the highest attention from schools. Among them, the participation threshold for the Teacher Innovation Competition is relatively higher. Many young teachers admit frankly that participating in youth education competitions is almost the "only way" for young teachers under the age of 40. And as the weight of municipal and national competition awards in professional title evaluation increases year by year, many young teachers with relatively weak scientific research achievements even regard winning competitions as a "breakthrough" for career development.
"Now the competition in competitions has become so precise that the winner is determined by a few tenths of a cent." A young university teacher told reporters that in order to widen the gap, many contestants will inquire about the judges' preferences in advance, and even contact the judges privately to win impression points.
“Achievements in competitions are no longer a personal matter for teachers, but are tied to the teaching honors of the school and even the province and city where they are located.” Ding Yan, deputy director of the Teacher Teaching Development Center of Fudan University, revealed that some colleges and universities will even include awards in such competitions as admissions promotion materials, directly linked to the quality of students.
In order to compete for higher awards, local education departments and universities will invest a lot of resources to "protect" participating teachers. Huang Youchu, a professor at the School of Education of Shanghai Normal University, is known as the "gold medal coach" in the young teacher teaching competition. He told reporters that for teachers entering municipal competitions, schools usually have two special support teams: one is composed of senior professors from the college, responsible for controlling the professionalism of subject content; the other is composed of education experts and famous teaching teachers, responsible for polishing teaching design and teaching behavior. In addition, there are often dozens of people providing support to a contestant at the same time, coupled with the team established by the participating teachers themselves. Some universities will even arrange for teachers who are shortlisted for the national competition to suspend classes for one semester and hire top experts from outside the school to provide half-year off-the-job competition preparation guidance. "The teachers who can enter the municipal competition and the national competition are all selected from the best. The gap between everyone's basic abilities is very small. The final competition is the polishing of details. Multiple rounds of high-intensity classes and layer upon layer of performance pressure will indeed put pressure on participating teachers." Huang Youchu said.
Is "class competition" a performance or a teaching?
On social platforms, the most criticized aspect of "class competitions" is the "performance" - there are no students in the audience, only judges and audiences. Many people question whether the "perfect classroom" carefully performed in the competition is really suitable for real academic conditions?
Many college teachers interviewed admitted that the display in the competition setting does have certain performance attributes. The professional background and personal preferences of different judges will have an impact on the final score. However, this cannot completely negate the value of the event, let alone use the word "performance" to obliterate all efforts.
Huang Youchu believes that there are accidental factors in teaching competitions, and the most investment does not necessarily mean the best results. However, the more energy invested in the preparation process, the deeper the teacher’s understanding of teaching will be and the richer his teaching skills will be.
"Rounds of grinding classes can indeed help young teachers grow quickly." Peng Cheng, a teacher at the School of Resources and Environment of East China University of Science and Technology, is both a witness and a beneficiary of the "class competition". He has won the first prize in the Natural Science Applied Subject Group of the Youth Education Competition. She was deeply moved by a lecture given by a teacher from Shanghai Jiao Tong University at the competition site. "The level is really high. I guessed at that time that he should win the special prize, and he lived up to expectations." Peng Cheng lamented that peers can tell whether a teacher has spent time on teaching and polishing his classes.
When he first started teaching at the school after graduating with his doctorate, Peng Cheng was confused about teaching. At first, he taught from the textbook, thinking that explaining the knowledge points clearly would be a good lesson, but the response from students was mediocre.
After experiencing the youth education competition, her curriculum has been reconstructed through many rounds of polishing. Nowadays, teacher-student interaction has greatly increased in her classroom. "More and more students began to take the initiative to raise their hands to ask questions, go on stage to explain their ideas, and even debate the feasibility of a certain engineering solution I talked about in class during class."
Peng Cheng’s experience is also the epitome of the vast majority of young teachers with non-education backgrounds.
Huang Youchu said that many young teachers focus on scientific research when they first join the profession. Classroom teaching is "teacher-centered" deductive teaching, and they pay more attention to whether they can complete the knowledge points. "This is not teaching in the true sense." In his view, "class competition" should be a way to promote the growth of young teachers. It can "push" teachers out of their teaching comfort zone and complete the transformation from "being able to give lectures" to "being able to teach good classes."
Don’t let non-teaching burdens drain teachers’ enthusiasm
However, with the heavy prizes, many people found that the "competition class" began to change a bit. When selecting participating teachers, some colleges and universities concentrate resources and opportunities on those who already have advantages. The "winner takes all" phenomenon is obvious. Not only do some teachers become professors for winning awards, but some schools also pay high bonuses to winning teachers.
"Is this a bit too much?" Ding Yan believes that if the evaluation orientation focuses too much on award-winning levels, teaching competitions may become a stage for a small number of teachers to showcase and compete. Colleges and universities should pay more attention to whether the results of the competition can be transformed into a lasting driving force for higher education teaching innovation. "Have the participating teachers truly improved students' learning experience and learning outcomes? Have they set an extensive demonstration and leading role for their peers? Have they promoted the improvement and development of departments and even school teaching organizations?...Answering these questions well is the key."
"It's really not easy to take a good course!" Fu Yi, a professor at the Shanghai Normal University Business School, lamented that in many university classrooms nowadays, "teachers and students are busy with their own affairs." How to attract students in the classroom and how to improve students' classroom participation has become a common challenge for universities. In his view, competitions may bring fame and honors, but only real classrooms can improve teachers’ teaching standards. "To become an excellent teacher, you must train yourself in 'home lessons.'" Fu Yi's team also won awards in the teaching innovation competition this year, but he said that winning the award is not the end, and the results of the competition will ultimately feed back into the real classroom.
Many experts also said that the problem is not the competition itself, but the teacher evaluation system. At present, colleges and universities require too much from the teacher title evaluation system. If a young teacher wants to be promoted, he must have a certain number of years, a paper, and a competition, all of which are indispensable. The contradiction lies in the fact that the subject evaluation in colleges and universities is required to include the assessment of teaching results, and in the end it can only turn to quantifiable indicators such as "class competitions". Another teacher put it bluntly: If we want teachers to really concentrate on teaching, we can no longer use the "anti-villain system" to evaluate teachers.
Many scholars suggest that colleges and universities should strictly control the entrance of young teachers and provide loose soil for growth, so as not to let non-teaching burdens consume their enthusiasm for teaching. Colleges and universities should also introduce multiple evaluation mechanisms when evaluating actual teaching, especially to increase the proportion of teaching process evaluation in course evaluation.
Source: Wen Wei Po Author: Wu Jinjiao
