消费主义文化与符号崇拜:“分数膨胀”的内在逻辑

Consumerism Culture and Symbol Worship:The Internal Logic of“Grade Inflation”

在高等教育市场化的背景下,随着高等教育毛入学率的不断增长,学生的教育竞争逐渐异化为分数的竞争。分数逐渐失去其准确评价学生能力高低的功能,进而异化为自我效能感满足的信号,即出现了“分数膨胀”现象。本文基于消费主义文化视角,运用成本收益的量化方法对我国高等教育领域“分数膨胀”现象背后的逻辑进行论证。研究结果显示:第一,“分数膨胀”看似是学生分数与其能力的不匹配问题,实则是教育商品化下的产物;第二,学生分数的“膨胀”是学生与教师基于符号消费与功用心理下追逐“净收益”最大化的结果;第三,学生的“分数膨胀”是高校面对科研压力与就业压力下对学校社会声誉符号的自我维系与自我强化。如何让分数充分发挥其教育评价作用实则是让教育重新回归“育人”的问题,其关键在于学生构建以能力为导向的发展观、教师重新拾起“教化棒”和高校重“教”育人。

In the context of the marketing of higher education,with the increasing gross enrollment rate of higher education,the education competition of students has gradually alienated into the competition for grades.Grades lose their function in accurately evaluating students'abilities by degrees,and then they are alienated into a signal of self-efficacy satisfaction,resulting in the phenomenon of“grade inflation”.Based on the perspective of consumerism culture,this paper makes an in-depth exploration of the motivation behind the phenomenon of“grade inflation”in the field of Chinese higher education.Results indicate that:first,“grade inflation”seems to be a mismatch between students'grades and their abilities,but it is actually a product of the commercialization of education;second,“grade inflation”is the result of the pursuit of“profit”maximization by students and teachers based on symbolic consumption and psychological function;third,the“grade inflation”of students is the self-maintenance and self-reinforcement of the social reputation symbols of universities under the pressure of scientific research and employment.How to give full play to grades'role in education evaluation is actually a problem of making education return to“nurturing students”,the key to which lies in the construction of students'ability-oriented development,teachers'regaining their identity of“edification”and universities'emphasis on“educating”students.