培养学生自主学习能力的几点建议*

张　伟, 张　睿, 吴承伟

(大连理工大学运载工程与力学学部, 辽宁　大连　116024)



培养学生自主学习能力的几点建议*

张伟, 张睿, 吴承伟

(大连理工大学运载工程与力学学部, 辽宁大连116024)

现代社会发展需求具有高度自主学习能力的人才，因此高等教育的基本使命之一是培养学生自主学习的能力。笔者首先讨论了培养学生自主学习能力的必要性并分析了目前这一过程中所面临的挑战。在此基础上，结合笔者教学经验，提出了培养学生自主学习能力的几点建议。尽管学习过程应该是以学生为中心，但教师适宜的引导和帮助仍然不可或缺。

自主学习; 培养；教师的作用; 素质教育; 高等教育

1　Necessity and challenge of cultivating self-motivated learning

In accordance with The Outline of the National Program for Long-and Medium-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020), the primary goal of education is to cultivate students’ abilities of self-motivated leaning and adapting to the society[1]. Apparently, one fundamental mission of our high education is to give students the appropriate training and enable them to study independently afterwards.

However, in primary and high school, the subjects of studying are almost fixed, basically, guided by the National Entrance Examination to University. All the students have the clear ideas on what they should learn and how hard they should work since the objective is visible and it is a must for most of them to achieve such a target. In sharp contrast, the undergraduates and postgraduates in universities and colleges enjoy high levels of self-learning. To a large extent, they themselves can determine what to learn and how much time they will devote to the subject. Facing such a precipitous transform of learning style, it is not surprising that part of students become confused, even lost, as the learning objective suddenly becomes fuzzy and the stress of study is abruptly released.

To help students deal with such a situation and develop the habit of self-motivated learning is one of the basic goals of our high education, and its importance can never be over emphasized. In a way, one of the most difficult aspects of becoming a teacher is learning how to motivate our students. Although we have already recognized this, how to achieve this is another story and as a matter of fact, this is still a challenge open for debate and discussion[2]. A student may be unmotivated for a variety of reasons. They may not be aware of the change and still stick to the previous learning style after a while until they are baffled. They may feel that they have no interest in the subject. They may find the teacher’s teaching manner is boring. They may wonder why they should learn these complicated and dull formulae and principles. Although the learner-centered activities and collaborative work in classroom has been high valued in modern education system, by no way, it means the teacher becomes less authoritative. He/she still has to contrive the enabling conditions for learning, has still to monitor and guide the process[3]. Based on our teaching experiences, we herein proposed a couple of ways for cultivating the students’ self-motivated learning abilities.

2　Suggestions for cultivation

2.1Strengthen the importance of self-motivated learning

Prior to university/college, the students’ education is largely examination oriented, whereas for undergraduates and postgraduates diathesis education takes the priority. Examination score is no longer the sole rule to evaluate a student’s performance. This shift naturally requires the students to make the corresponding change. Otherwise, it is hard for them to get used to the university study. For instance, in just one hour, the university teacher may go over 30 pages of the text book, which may take them one week to study in high school. As such, the differences between these two education modes should be clarified by university teachers unambiguously. Students should clearly understand that from the time being they are expected to conduct self-motived and even exploratory study, in particular after class. For the first time, they as an individual will have the primary responsibility of planning, implementing and evaluating their own learning activities. No one will give them the very detailed guidance as before. It sounds somewhat cruel but true. This is not because university teacher are unable or unwilling to do this, but because of the fast pace change in society and technology. Living in a modern society, one needs to update his/her knowledge and learning new skills continuously. This means much of after-university learning will take place at one’s own initiative and consequently one is expected to have such kind of training in university.

2.2Optimize teaching manner

Students look to teachers for approval and positive reinforcement, and are more likely to be enthusiastic about learning if they have the sense that their work is recognized and highly treasured. Thus encourage is of great use in teaching and we praise our students often for their contributions. Don’t be stingy with your compliments, even if the progress sometimes seems quite tiny. Equally important is to get students involved in class as much as possible. Ask them to read the materials loudly in front of all the classmates, promote critical thinks, even though it may sound weird, ask them to demonstrate how to deal with real problems with the theory they have learned, ask students to work in group and assign each a role, tell them what they are expected to do and push them slightly by setting the reasonable requirements. These are proposed ways to create a sense of ownership for students. Once the students have this sense, they will be more eager to participating and learning. Another important issue is about the teaching courseware. Enrich the subject matter with visual aids, like colorful charts, diagrams, animation, videos and movies to avoid monotony, and transform the concepts of the discipline into terms that are understandable to students. Still another way to get students motivated is to share the teacher’s enthusiasm. When the teacher is excited about teaching the scientific principles, the students will be much more excited about learning. As simple as this!

2.3Implement individualized education

Some students have a natural love of learning and these students are usually self-motivated. There is no doubt that teaching such students is really an enjoyable thing. However, for students without a natural drive, a teacher can also turn everything over by making the learning fun and eventually inspiring those students to reach their full potential. These unmotivated students virtually have difficulty learning and need to be given special attention. Thus, we have dialogues with our students frequently, giving them feedback as well as receiving feedback from them. By these face-to-face communications, we can find what the students are really thinking and what they love to do. And then we can modify our teaching strategies according to the particular students.

3　Summary

The purpose of high education is to create a healthy and well developed society, wherein the center is the educated and resourceful individual. In this perspective, the art of education is to inspire, awake, encourage and guide students to make them understand the knowledge the society has accumulated and also to facilitate them acquire the ability to learn things that completely unknown to them. In viewpoint of development, the latter become essential and students are expected to be a self-motivated learner after university study. Strengthening of the importance of self-motivated learning, optimization of teaching manner, implement of individualized education, association of text knowledge with real life are believed to effective ways assisting in the achievement of such a goal.

References

[1]http://www.china.com.cn/policy/txt/2010-03/01/content_19492625_3.htm[EB/OL]. 2015-05-19.

[2]Tang H. Promoting learner autonomy through reader response approach in EFL literature classes [J]. Oversea English, 2014(3):9-11.

[3]Widdowson H G. The roles of teacher and learner [J]. ELT Journal, 1987, 41(2): 83-88.

A Couple of Suggestions for Cultivating Self-motivated Learning*

ZHANGWei,ZHANGRui,WUCheng-wei

(Faculty of Vehicle Engineering and Mechanics, Dalian University of Technology, Liaoning Dalian 116024, China)

Graduates with self-motivated learning ability are highly desirable by modern society. For this reason, one fundamental mission of our high education is to foster this ability. Herein, the reasons and challenges in cultivating the ability of self-motivated learning of undergraduates and postgraduates was discussed, followed by the suggestions on how to achieve such a goal. Although the learning process is student-centered, university teachers still have an important role to play in terms of guiding and monitoring.

self-motivated learning; cultivation; teacher’s role; diathesis education; high education

大连理工大学教育教学改革基金资助项目(项目编号：MS201572)。

张伟(1976-)，男，博士，副教授，博士生导师。

吴承伟(1957-)，男，博士，教授，博士生导师。

O31

A

1001-9677(2016)03-0173-02