如何促进我国高校教学从“良心活”向“用心活”转变——基于某研究型大学调查的思考

Conscientious Teachers or Dedicated Ones?Reflections on an Interview with Teachers from a Research University in China

“教学是良心活”已然成为大学教师对教学的责任底线的标签,但是仅靠大学教师的责任底线无法实现党和国家对高等教育事业寄予的厚望。在我国高等教育刚刚进入普及化阶段的今天,这个问题必须引起高教界的高度重视。在梳理我国高校教学面临困境与挑战的基础上,对具有一定代表性的某研究型大学的20位教师进行半结构式访谈,分析结果表明,“教学是良心活”的成因包括教学效果的隐性与滞后性、教学投入的弹性与时空性、教师评聘制度的刚性与倾向性以及教学科研的脱耦性与分离性等四个方面。其中,学生需求多样化与大学教师难以满足的这个矛盾,是当下我国高校教学面临的主要困境和挑战;过度注重科研的现行绩效管理制度是导致大学教师难以坚守教书育人职责的直接原因,“教学是良心活”正是现行绩效管理制度和教师教学良知之间博弈的产物。如何促进大学教师的教学从“良心活”向“用心活”转变,需要从相应扩充教师规模、完善教师评聘制度、促进科研与教学相结合、加强同伴互助激励、强化教书育人观念等方面着手。

"It’s a matter of conscience!"has been frequently quoted by university teachers as the chief reason why they still take teaching so seriously.Nevertheless,with the rapid development of higher education in China today,this conscience-based teaching is no longer satisfactory and cannot live up to the high expectations of our nation and Party.Based on a semi-structural interview with 20 teachers from a research university in China,we found that such conscience-based teaching is due to four reasons:1)the impact of teachers on student learning is not immediately apparent;2)the input teachers need to discharge their professional duties is often unspecified,varying from person to person;3)criteria for teacher evaluation in the university is rather rigid,favoring especially researchoriented faculty;4)there seems to be an inherent conflict between teaching and research in the university.In fact,an overemphasis on research rather than teaching is the fundamental cause of university teachers’low morale in teaching.How to remedy this situation,turning those conscientious teachers into truly dedicated ones?We need to recruit more talented people to fill teacher shortages,provide teachers with support and mentorship,as well as strike a balance between teaching and research in university teacher evaluation.