| With the continuous advancement of geographical teaching reform,the increased demands have been placed on students’ geographic literacy.Meanwhile,as the geography test papers of the college entrance examinations are gradually becoming more flexible and more practical,it is particularly important for students to solve the practical problems by what they have learned skillfully.The column of "Problem Research",an important part of the content of the teaching material,plays a unique role in helping students review the knowledge,foster their ability in exploration and solve practical problems.However,due to the influence of multiple elements like the teachers’ insufficient cognition of the "Problem Research" column,the slow updating of textbooks,and the hectic schedules of front-line schools,the explanation for this part in the actual teaching process has not highlighted its uniqueness and failed to take its role it was supposed to.Therefore,to clarify the core and sort out the elements of teaching according to the "Problem Research" column,to summarize and analyze the problems met in this course,and to put forward relevant countermeasures is of particular importance.Starting from teasing out the existing research on "Problem Research" column and geographical teaching in senior high school,this paper summarizes the main concerns for geographical teaching in senior high school in recent years from different aspects as analysis and interpretation of geography curriculum standards,the core geographic literacy,the use of different teaching methods,the impact of the new college entrance examination,geography test questions and so on.Then,it concludesthe relevant research on the "Problem Research" column from the aspects of its connotation,classification,function,relationship between "inquiry learning" and "problem solving",and relevant instructional design as well as teaching strategies.Besides,the paper defines the basic concepts of the "Problem Research" column — The "Problem Research" column for geography of senior high school is a kind of teaching activity that students understand problems relatively comprehensively,analyze and solve problems in cooperation,improve exploring ability and achieve the development of scientific literacy under teachers’ guidance on the basis of the perspective that students are the masters,which is based on raising questions closely connected with the real life combining the related knowledge of geography.Through the analysis of the "Problem Research" column teaching process,teacher-student relationship and textbooks,the five particularities of the column in high school geography are summarized — the inquiry view that attaches importance to the teaching process,the practical life view based on teaching materials,the process view containing cooperation and programming,the method view that students act as the masters and teachers as guiders,and the evaluation view concerning the feedback from interaction between teachers and students.Based on the analysis of sixteen "Problem Research" columns,this paper puts forward the core and elements of the column teaching in senior high school geography,among of which appropriate research problems,appropriate teacher-student interaction,inspiring scaffolding instruction are three basic elements with enhancing the inquiry ability as the core.Based on theoretical construction,detailed observations are carried out on the actual situation of the column teaching.It is difficult to observe different curriculum content if it is conducted on the actual classroom observations within a fixed number of schools for the actual observations will be limited because of the assigned course contents.In addition,each place has its own unique teachingcharacteristics,so the actual situation of "problem research" teaching on a large range can not represented by a fixed small range of observation.On this basis,the project of "One Teacher,One Excellent Course" of the Ministry of Education is selected.The excellent courses in the project come from different parts of the country,and teachers differ in their teaching styles,also the uploaded excellent courses are appraised through comparison every year.Hence based on the consideration of curriculum content,the opening time and teaching quality,twenty excellent courses at ministerial level were selected from 2014 to 2017 for detailed observation,trying to summarize and extract the main problems existing in the current "Problem Research" column teaching through the analysis of these twenty courses.Professor Cui Yunhuo’s classroom observation paradigm — LICC — is used as the observation tool and four points are adopted for observation specifically,namely classroom interaction and the achievement of teaching objectives,integration of classroom teaching resources,design and utilization of learning scaffolds and the way of teachers’ feedback.Through the actual observation of these twenty courses,several major problems were found in the current "Problem Research" column teaching,which contains low level of teaching objectives achievement in the specific implementation,little infiltration of explorative thinking in the teaching process,a lack of fit between the provision of instructional scaffolding and students,and weak motivation and pertinence of ways of teachers’ feedback.After a thorough analysis of these problems,it is considered that the shackles of traditional educational concepts have affected the development of "Problem Research" teaching,and that the limitation of internal and external environment has affected the choice of teaching content of "Problem Research",which also objectively consumes too much energyfor teachers to go far on the relevant research(neither actively nor passively).Furthermore,the confusion and swing of teacher-student relationship has affected teachers’ choices of teaching methods,making teachers pay insufficient attention to students’ learning situation and information transfer between teachers and students.Finally,four kinds of improvement strategies are put forward in this paper targeting at the above mentioned reasons for the problems existing in current teaching,whose number amounts to eleven — In terms of teaching objectives,we should firstly establish a correct concept of education and always attach importance to the long-term development of students;in the evaluation method,we should pay more attention to the evaluation of students’ learning process instead of judging students with finality valuation;besides,we are supposed to get rid of the previous idea of "exalting only one’s own self" in knowledge,focus more on exploring and growing together with students,and provide timely support to promote student’s ultimate development according to the variation in their development zones recently. |
