editorial comment/note
Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Party put forward: "Coordinate the collaborative innovation of vocational education, higher education and continuing education, promote the integration of vocational education, production and education, science and education, and optimize the positioning of vocational education types."
This has found a new path for the development of vocational education in the new era, and is regarded as an important breakthrough for vocational education in the new era to open up new fields and new tracks, and constantly shape new kinetic energy and new advantages.
We opened a column "Pay attention to the high-quality development of vocational education" and carried out a series of reports around topics such as vocational and general integration, integration of production and education, and integration of science and education throughout the year.
"How to take the road of integration of science and education in vocational education" is one of a series of reports, which mainly discusses the pain points, blocking points and difficulties of integration of science and education in vocational education. How to fully integrate teaching and scientific research? These problems need more practice and exploration, and you are welcome to discuss them with us.
— — — — — — — — — —
In the 32nd year of front-line teaching, when I first heard the word "integration of science and education", Wang Qin, a national model teacher and professor of the Mechanical and Electrical College of Weihai Vocational College, said with emotion: "In fact, this is exactly what I have led students to do for many years."
Over the years, based on the actual needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, Wang Qin has set up research teams in different directions, focusing on the research and development of non-standard automation equipment and the digital transformation of service enterprises. Many students in the team joined the project from the big one, and the old students brought new students. The fire of scientific research was passed down from session to session, and at the same time, many student associations with electromechanical innovation technology were hatched.
Report to the 20th CPC National Congress of the Party put forward: "Coordinate the collaborative innovation of vocational education, higher education and continuing education, promote the integration of vocational education, production and education, science and education, and optimize the positioning of vocational education types." This is regarded as an important breakthrough for vocational education in the new era to open up new fields and new tracks, and constantly shape new kinetic energy and new advantages.
At the 2023 Vocational Education Activity Week held in Shandong not long ago, the new path of vocational education development of "integration of science and education" became the focus of hot discussion in vocational colleges all over the country.
At present, what are the pain points, blocking points and difficulties in the integration of science and education in vocational education? Compared with undergraduate education, how should the scientific research orientation of vocational education highlight its characteristics? In specific teaching practice, how to fully integrate teaching and scientific research? Seriously analyze the connotation of the integration of science and education, and these problems need more practice and exploration.
The present situation of "two skins" in teaching and scientific research needs to be solved urgently
"The integration of vocational education and teaching with scientific research and production is not a new problem." According to Xiao Mei, secretary of the Party Committee of Rizhao Vocational and Technical College, "With the acceleration of industrial transformation and upgrading, the problem of" stuck neck "is prominent, and economic and social development has higher and higher expectations for vocational education. Facing the new situation and new requirements, Industry-University-Research in vocational colleges, especially teachers’ scientific research orientation, integration of scientific research and teaching, personnel training and other issues are highlighted.
Among all kinds of pain points, the problem of "two skins" in teaching and scientific research is particularly prominent. Xiao Mei said frankly that there is no positive interaction between talent training and scientific research in vocational colleges, and the phenomenon of "two skins" between teaching and scientific research is serious. On the one hand, scientific research content and teaching content are irrelevant, and the school’s curriculum system and teaching content are still far from the actual needs of scientific and technological innovation and industrial technology research and development; On the other hand, the teaching process and scientific research process are separated, so it is difficult for students to participate in scientific research activities; In addition, there is a lack of certification and support for students to participate in scientific research and scientific research results.
Wang Jianxu, deputy director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office of Weihai Vocational College, also observed that in most vocational colleges, most teachers are still engaged in traditional teaching tasks, and there are fewer teachers doing scientific research, and their enthusiasm for scientific research is relatively low.
In Xiao Mei’s view, this involves the orientation of teachers’ scientific research.
"Vocational colleges are homogeneous with general education in the orientation of teachers’ scientific research, and more of them are follow-up, explanatory and superficial scientific research, which is out of touch with the actual needs of enterprises. When the project is finished, it is shelved, and the results cannot be effectively transformed and applied, which deviates from the main direction of service industry development." At the same time, Xiao Mei believes that there are insufficient incentive mechanisms and policies to guide teachers to engage in application-oriented scientific research; In addition, the lack of sufficient high-level scientific research platform makes it difficult to focus on the research direction, effectively integrate teachers’ research strength and accumulate scientific research advantages.
In addition to the urgent need to improve the scientific research quality of teachers, in daily work, Du Xinnan, director of the school-enterprise cooperation office of Weihai Vocational College, noticed that "our students lack scientific research thinking, and the cultivation of this scientific research thinking really needs long-term efforts and promotion".
This obviously involves some problems in cultivating students’ innovative ability in vocational colleges.
"With the industrial upgrading, the production organization mode of enterprises has changed, which puts higher demands on employees’ ability to solve complex problems, learn and innovate. However, due to the inaccurate positioning of scientific research in vocational colleges and the insufficient integration of scientific research and teaching, it will inevitably bring problems. " Xiao Mei said.
In her view, these problems include: inaccurate positioning of talent training, emphasizing students’ skills training and general basic ability training, and neglecting innovation ability training; The mode of talent training is not new, students do not pay attention to student-centered design and implementation of teaching in teaching, students’ passive learning and ability to solve complex problems cannot be cultivated, students have shortcomings in putting forward new problems, exploring new knowledge, discovering, inventing and innovating, and can not meet the needs of future posts well, and so on.
Du Xin-nan believes that there is still a problem worthy of attention in the integration of science and education, that is, when vocational colleges cooperate with the government, enterprises or research institutes, the relationship between powers and responsibilities, resource integration and benefit distribution among the cooperative subjects still need scientific exploration.
"The initial purpose of our cooperation with enterprises is to introduce advanced management technology, experience and excellent human resources of enterprises to help us build a stronger teaching team. Relatively speaking, the previous forms of cooperation may be relatively simple. Regardless of resource integration or sharing relationship, institutional mechanisms are needed to give better protection. " Du Xin said.
"Integration" and "Combination" of Teaching Education and Scientific Research Education
For Wang Qin, one of the main achievements of teaching and educating people over the years is to bring out a group of "good young people" who engage in scientific research. On some important occasions, she always pushes a group of students including Liu Junliang to the front desk, "These are all mine ‘ Works ’ 。” She laughed.
Liu Junliang, 22, is a junior majoring in electrical automation technology in Weihai Vocational College. When he first entered school, because he didn’t understand the nature of his major, the young man only planned his future career as an electrician. Now, under the guidance of Wang Qin, he has chosen the research direction of "embedded development" and has completed more than a dozen enterprise R&D projects. At present, he is leading a team of nine students to carry out a battery management system research and development project of an enterprise.
During his three years in school, Liu Junliang was always influenced by the scientific research atmosphere. In front of a huge round table, teachers, students and business experts discussed the direction and detailed progress of the project from time to time. In the "brainstorming" again and again, Liu Junliang eagerly absorbed the cutting-edge scientific and technological knowledge and constantly found his own shortcomings in the project. "These experiences made me grow up as soon as possible."
Compared with himself three years ago, Liu Junliang is no longer confused. He is going to sign up for the direct recruitment of non-commissioned officers after graduation, so that the skills he has learned can be brought into play in the army.
The effect of the integration of science and education needs to be measured by the quality of trained talents. Among them, the most crucial thing is to turn the "two skins" of teaching and scientific research into a "chain" to achieve the deep interaction and organic integration of teaching and scientific research.
However, how do the two interact? Is teaching guiding scientific research or scientific research guiding teaching? In 2021, Zou Lihong, an associate professor at the Art College of Weihai Vocational College, was transferred from a teaching post to the director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office of the Art College. Before that, she had been teaching in fashion and costume design for 20 years.
After a period of confusion and confusion, Zou Lihong finally gave her own answer: "I always thought that teaching was the most important thing based on teaching, but after more contacts with enterprises in scientific research, I gradually subverted my previous ideas. It is really scientific research that is guiding teaching."
Zou Lihong still remembers the embarrassment when she started to dock with the enterprise: "I found that we couldn’t do many of the requirements put forward by the enterprise, because there are some practical contents that our colleges don’t have." Finally, after on-the-spot investigation and accurate docking of the digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading needs of enterprises, the college has set up an order class for clothing IE engineers from scratch. 20 people in the order class have participated in the horizontal project of the enterprise since their sophomore year. Now, 10 people have successfully signed contracts with the enterprise.
In Shunde Vocational and Technical College, the mode of "education, training, research and application" promoted by professional groups is a highlight. "Education" refers to personnel training, "training" refers to skill training, "research" refers to technological innovation research and development, and "use" refers to technological application transformation.
"This model refers to all-round school-enterprise cooperation in the whole process of technological innovation research and development and technology application transformation of high-quality development of service industry. While realizing application transformation, technological research and development achievements are transformed into personnel training content in time, improving the technical skills of school-enterprise students, supporting technology application and redevelopment, thus deepening the integration of production and education and realizing the integration of science and education." Yang Xiaodong, vice president of Shunde Vocational and Technical College, introduced.
"Pilot Workshop" and "Site-based" Scientific Research
What kind of characteristic road should scientific research suitable for vocational education be? How should its scientific research value be reflected? Many higher vocational colleges have been exploring and achieved certain results.
The practical training of 120 students moved into the pilot production workshop of the pharmaceutical company in batches, and each student became a member of the research and development of the enterprise — — This is a new attempt of pharmaceutical biotechnology specialty in Kangyang College of Weihai Vocational College since 2022, and it has become a typical example of the integration of science and education in this school.
Lin Dongmei, 21, is one of the students who benefited. In this course of biological separation and purification technology, she and her classmates’ understanding of the concept of "fucoidan" is no longer a dry term explanation in textbooks and a "scratching" process in teaching videos, but an extraction process in which every link is operated by themselves in the enterprise workshop. In her view, "the real combination of textbook knowledge and practical ability has benefited us a lot."
Since 2020, the above-mentioned majors have specially set up a five-person doctoral service group to actively connect with seven industrial clusters in Weihai, focusing on the small-scale and personalized needs of small and medium-sized enterprises with regional characteristics. The teachers’ team went deep into the front line of enterprises in the form of winter and summer vacations and attachment to the vice president of science and technology, participated in the scientific research of enterprises, and at the same time further fed back the scientific research results.
"The team of teachers has brought the new technologies and projects of enterprises into classroom teaching. Schools and enterprises have jointly developed one online open course and two digital textbooks, which have exposed students to the most cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements and effectively improved the teaching quality." Zhang Haiyi, a teacher of this major, introduced.
With the deepening of school-enterprise cooperation, the enterprise pilot production workshop has become a practical training classroom for students, who can directly participate in scientific research projects in the classroom, and the students’ scientific research literacy has made great progress. A clear example is that the team of 2020 students of this major participated in the quality analysis of Fucoidan, an enterprise raw material drug, and won two third prizes in the Shandong University Students’ Science and Technology Innovation Competition.
Not only that, scientific research further supports the development of the school and effectively enhances the scientific research strength and service deepening ability of the school. At present, schools and enterprises have jointly established a number of research and development platforms such as Weihai Key Laboratory of Marine Functional Polysaccharides, and developed products such as seaweed polysaccharide special medical food and medical materials. In the future, they will carry out in-depth cooperation in students’ practical training, teachers’ scientific research and personnel training.
This is the vivid epitome of the integration of science and education in Weihai Vocational College. At present, the school has built 17 innovation platforms involving schools, governments, industries, enterprises and research institutes, forming a national, provincial, municipal and school-level scientific and technological innovation platform system, making the school the source and gathering place of regional scientific and technological innovation services.
Wang Fan, a student majoring in food processing technology in Rizhao Vocational and Technical College in 2015, has a representative experience. Today, Wang Fan is still very grateful for her wonderful "fate" with the Antarctic krill project in college, which laid the direction for her future career choice.
During the study in Rizhao Vocational and Technical College, once in class, Wang Fan became interested in the Antarctic krill project that the teacher talked about, and immediately joined the teacher’s project. "Since then, my after-school life has also become enriched, like opening a door for me, and the teacher’s attitude towards scientific research Excellence has benefited me a lot." Wang Fan recalled.
Under the guidance of the teacher, Wang Fan’s Antarctic krill oil has won many important awards in provincial and national innovation and entrepreneurship competitions. In the laboratory, Wang Fan followed the research group through R&D, small test and pilot test in krill oil, Antarctica, until he successfully realized industrial production, and also had the opportunity to enter the enterprise internship produced in krill oil based on the horizontal project platform between schools and enterprises.
This experience directly affected her choice of postgraduate entrance examination. In 2020, Wang Fan was admitted as a graduate student majoring in food processing and safety in Yantai University. His research direction is still the extraction of marine natural products and the study of biological activity. She hopes that by exploring marine living resources, she can contribute to promoting China’s maritime power building to make new achievements.
In Xiao Mei’s view, higher vocational colleges should pay more attention to the production line, serve industry enterprises, be application-oriented, base on local economic characteristics, carry out "site-based" scientific research according to the production technology needs of enterprises, write papers in the fields, stand on the industrial needs and use the results in the production line. In the direction of scientific research, we should not only meet the needs of enterprises and solve technical problems in production practice, but also meet scientific research institutes, transform advanced technology into productive forces and play the role of "pilot workshop"
Zhongqingbao Zhongqingwang reporter Xing Ting