On November 22, the 13th special column of Guangming Daily published the article "Guiding Students to Accomplish: from Practicing to Knowing" by Professor Cui Yunhuo.

In response to the problem that the learning method has changed but with less satisfied results, the newly revised curriculum plan adheres to the human-centered and literacy-oriented education, and clearly proposes to "strengthen disciplinary practice" to change teaching methods. The essence of disciplinary practice is a set of typical practices for solving specific problems, in real situations, with subject characteristics, such as public speech in Chinese, algorithm exchanges in mathematics, scientific experimental proofs, etc., to encourage students to think and act like experts .

Disciplinary practice integrates subject logic and experience logic, which benefits the transition from knowledge learning to literacy cultivation. Subject learning must be based on a certain knowledge reservoir. Disciplinary practice emphasizes the acquisition, understanding, evaluation and application of knowledge through practice, and encourages students to construct, consolidate and innovate their own subject knowledge in practice. This process not only demonstrates the education value of the subject but also highlights the autonomy and social value of learning through practicing. It organically integrates knowledge learning and experience growth, and further cultivates students' core literacy.

Disciplinary practice is an iterative upgrade of "independence, cooperation, and inquiry", beneficial to the creative learning. Disciplinary practice goes beyond stylized inquiry activities. It is a new type of inquiry that emphasizes the typical and real nature of the discipline. In this process, students are required to think and act like subject experts, and use "subject methods" to acquire and practice "subject knowledge". It is this close combination of discipline and practice that helps students deepen their understanding of subject knowledge in the process of practice, and emphasizes social constructive interaction and problem solving in real situations in knowledge learning, thereby helping the realization of creative learning.

Disciplinary practice emphasizes "practice-reflection", which is beneficial for students to realize the unity of knowledge and practice as well as self-construction. Disciplinary practice not only emphasizes the transformation of learning methods, but also involves the refinement of learning character. Disciplinary practice itself contains the concept of unity of knowledge and practice in traditional culture, emphasizing knowing through practicing and vice versa, deepening the understanding of practice through post-learning reflection, and continuously promoting the transformation of learners' subjective experience through the practice. This mechanism of continuous interaction between practice and reflection enables students to realize their own transformation while transforming the objective world through practice, so as to connect experience and learning to promote their own development.

There are still some practical problems in the current disciplinary practice:

01

A visible but fake inquiry . Disciplinary practice is essentially a new type of inquiry, but in the process of specific development, the phenomenon of "virtual" and "fake" inquiry is very common. The so-called "virtual inquiry" only has results but no process, such as "inquiry for the sake of inquiry" that has nothing to do with the process goal. Sometimes four or five inquiry activities are arranged in a very tight class time. "Flash Inquiry": The teacher has just assigned the inquiry task, and the students are required to report and display the results in less than a minute. The so-called "fake inquiry" is an inquiry with only form but no substance, such as "stylized inquiry" that has nothing to do with the essence of the subject. It uses the "seven-step inquiry method" as a fixed program that "cures all diseases" and ignore features of the subject. As a result, students are learning science in an unscientific way, or learning English in a non-verbal way, etc.

02

Ill-designed practicing. Another important problem in the process of disciplinary practice is that it is done every day, but it is not done professionally: first, it lacks the center topic, which means it cannot anchor the disciplinary practice with a high-level concept, and embed the practice into the teaching and learning process. Second, disciplinary practice is not associated with core literacy, thus making it a practice without a goal and only an embellishment of teaching activities. Third, there is a lack of professional evaluation. It focuses on the development of activities, but ignores the effectiveness of practice, and it is impossible to use professional evaluation to provide procedural evidence for students' "practice-reflection" to support continuous improvement.

03

Practice reflection without follow-ups. An important part of the actual development of disciplinary practice is after-study reflection. This is not only because disciplinary practice itself needs to use the "practice-reflection" mechanism to achieve the unity of knowledge and practicing and develop a learning character, but also because disciplinary practice aims at the cultivation of core literacy, and reflection is the only path from knowledge to literacy. However, due to reasons such as teaching progress, teaching pressure, and study habits, after-study reflection has not been given due attention in disciplinary practice, so that the knowledge taught are not truly learned in time, and disciplinary practice has become a "hands-on" task, failing to educate people.

So, what needs to be strengthened in literacy-oriented disciplinary practice?

The first is to highlight the disciplinary characteristics. Disciplinary practice stems from the rigor of the discipline, and should be combined with the requirements of the curriculum standards to highlight its features. For example, the subject of Chinese should focus on Chinese practice, and advocate task-driven Chinese learning based on the six language learning task groups like "language accumulation and sorting", "practical reading and communication"; Geology should emphasize the geological practices while against learning geography "by hand", that is, reads or draws on the atlas. It should be advocated that learning geography with "feet", and develops geographical practice and the concept of human-earth coordination.

The second is to carry out systematic design of practice. Disciplinary practice highlights the profundity, which requires professional and systematic teaching design, such as based on the literacy cultivation requirements of specific subject, establishing organizers, including big problems, big tasks, big ideas, etc., so that the classroom content can be structured; the goal design should have clear corresponding academic quality, which adopts three-dimensional narrative to make it a guide and support for the whole subject practice process; the evaluation design should adopt goal-matched performance evaluation and comprehensive evaluation, which integrates teaching, learning and evaluation, and realizes consistence of "teaching- study-evaluation".

The third is to attach importance to reflection after disciplinary practice. Reflection after practice is an important path to turn experience into knowledge and practice into accomplishment. Teachers should pay attention to students' reflections after disciplinary practice, and design the reflection framework or path based on students’ level of retelling, association and transformation. In addition, they need to instruct students to think and learn, progressing from practicing to knowing, so students can connect what they learn with their self-developments.