Path dependence and path adjustment of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges

Path dependence and path adjustment of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges

Abstract: At present, the practical teaching in China's higher vocational colleges has appeared development bottleneck. In order to make a difference, we must adjust our thinking, break through the shackles of the original thinking inertia and make major adjustments to the practical teaching path. Practical teaching in higher vocational colleges has heavy tasks and high expectations. Finding the right direction and orientation of practical teaching is the urgent task of practical teaching reform in higher vocational colleges. We should attach great importance to the purchase of teaching equipment and teaching AIDS, and make up for the shortcomings of the soft environment construction of training places while vigorously improving the hard environment of training places. In the setting of training items, we should adopt a scientific selection method, so that students can master simple skill-based training items themselves and concentrate on training complex skill-based projects in class. Adjust the mode of school-enterprise cooperation, explore the construction of multi-win mechanisms such as "factory lieutenant colonel" and "factory lieutenant colonel", and create a new situation of school-enterprise vocational education.

Paper Keywords: higher vocational colleges; Practical teaching; Path adjustment

In recent years, China's higher vocational education has made great progress. From a macro perspective, vocational education is shifting from teaching professional theoretical knowledge to emphasizing professional practice teaching. The educational model has gradually changed from traditional subject education to employment-oriented technology application education. The experimental training teaching, which occupies the core content of higher vocational education, has been highly valued, the training environment inside and outside the school has been greatly improved, and the school-enterprise cooperation has also undergone new changes. However, the above changes have not brought obvious improvement to the quality of our graduates, and there is still a big gap between the requirements of graduates and employers. The reason is that "path dependence" of practical teaching is an important source. Although there has been a great breakthrough in the form of training, our deep-seated concept is still influenced by the original inertia of thinking and has not been adjusted to a scientific and feasible track in time, comprehensively and truly. Therefore, getting rid of the shackles of "path dependence" and comprehensively adjusting the training ideas has become an important content of China's current higher vocational education reform.

First, carefully examine what we have done in practice teaching, change our ideas, get rid of inertia thinking and realize the great adjustment of practice teaching path.

The theory of "path dependence" put forward by Douglas North, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, holds that in human social activities, technological evolution or institutional changes have inertia phenomena similar to those in physics. Once a person chooses a good or bad road, he may become dependent on it. Under the action of inertia, he will continue to strengthen himself and get deeper and deeper, and will not give up his original choice easily [1]. After the emergence of this theory, its application has expanded from the economic field to many related fields. When we use this theory to analyze the practical teaching activities in higher vocational colleges in China, it is not difficult to find that the development path of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges in China has obvious path dependence characteristics.

The development of social and economic construction puts forward high requirements for talent training in higher vocational colleges, which promotes the attention and reform pace of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges. In the process of improving practical teaching, we believe that the experimental training mode, training items and contents, and school-enterprise cooperation mode have not changed qualitatively, but are more based on the original repair and improvement, reflecting obvious path dependence. The reasons for this situation are as follows: First, the investment of practical teaching staff and property is huge. If we take another way to carry out practical training reform, it may lead to the waste of investment in previous practical training construction, and it is difficult to solve the new investment in practical training construction, so we give priority to the past practical training path; Second, the breakthrough of the training path is risky. It is more convenient and safer to follow the original path and the established direction than to find another path. Third, many people have not found some unscientific places in the original training path, so they have no idea of reform. Moreover, the recent improvement of practical teaching in some higher vocational colleges has achieved good results, further strengthening the idea of integration.

We should be soberly aware that the practical teaching of higher vocational colleges in China needs adjustment and breakthrough, both in concept and in the concrete implementation of practical training. At present, our tinkering and improving methods may have a temporary effect, but in the long run, if we don't make a breakthrough in thinking and paradigm change, practical teaching may fall into a development dilemma. Thought is the forerunner of action. To really improve the practical teaching level of higher vocational colleges in China, we must emancipate our minds, renew our concepts and get rid of inertia thinking in time.

Second, practical teaching in higher vocational colleges has heavy tasks and high expectations. Finding the right direction and orientation of practical teaching is the urgent task of practical teaching reform in higher vocational colleges.

For a long time, higher vocational colleges have always followed the discipline-based training mode, paying attention to the teaching of theoretical knowledge and not emphasizing the cultivation of professional skills, so graduates can hardly meet the job needs of employers. Therefore, higher vocational colleges have carried out a more comprehensive teaching reform, focusing on practical teaching. However, in this process, many colleges and universities put too much emphasis on skills training, and put forward that graduates should become skilled technicians, achieving zero "running-in period", zero-distance employment and seamless connection between graduates and enterprises. This kind of self-pressure formulation and practice is actually unrealistic and the positioning is too high.

(1) Higher vocational education is to enable the educated to acquire the professional knowledge, professional skills and professional ethics needed to engage in a certain occupation, both of which are equally important and cannot be neglected.

Fundamentally speaking, higher vocational education is also professional quality education. Cultivating sound personality and rational thinking is as important as training skills, and sound personality and rational thinking have a far-reaching impact on people's growth. More than 200 years ago, Germany's "Education Manifesto" said: The purpose of education is not to cultivate people to adapt to the traditional world, not to focus on practical knowledge and skills, but to awaken students' strength, cultivate their initiative, abstract induction and understanding of autonomous learning, and enable them to make meaningful choices in various unpredictable future situations. The orientation of higher vocational education must be clear and accurate, and vague or careless orientation is harmful. In the past, due to our lack of knowledge and experience, it was wrong not to emphasize the training of vocational skills. Now, it is also wrong if we emphasize skills training and ignore the education of professional knowledge and professional ethics. Graduates who only have professional skills but lack professional ethics and comprehensive quality may achieve zero-distance employment when they graduate, but they will soon distance themselves from their posts. Therefore, in all aspects of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges, professional knowledge, skills and morality should be organically combined, and they should not be separated, nor should they be biased.

(B) the objectives of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges should be clearly understood, accurately set, biased understanding and high positioning will bring confusion to the development of practical teaching.

Now there is a general view that it is the natural mission of higher vocational colleges to cultivate a technical application-oriented talent. Graduates trained in higher vocational colleges should become qualified technical application-oriented talents, and should achieve zero "running-in period", zero-distance employment and seamless connection with enterprises, otherwise our practical teaching goals will not be achieved. This view not only brings great pressure to practical teaching, but also leads to the wrong direction of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges. Higher vocational colleges undertake the teaching of a comprehensive technology. Once "technology" enters the classroom, its form needs to be theoretical and systematic. Once technology is theorized and systematized, it is bound to abstract life and delete details, and it is bound to take cold books and fake simulations as carriers. Technology is practical and changeable. "technology will not be universally applicable, but it needs to be flexibly mastered according to the times and events." Technology that comes from practice can only be truly mastered in practice. This kind of opposition in content and form determines that higher vocational colleges cannot independently complete the task of cultivating technology-applied talents, but can only cultivate a "blank" with the potential of technology-applied talents. Only through the "polishing" of enterprises can they become real technical application talents. "The vocational skills and vocational skills that technical application-oriented talents should possess have the attribute of implicit experience, which can only be obtained in the practical activities of applying it and mastered in the relationship between people's emotions and environment". Only when higher vocational colleges have a correct orientation of practical teaching objectives can they adjust the direction and path of practical teaching and really get out of the predicament of practical teaching.

Third, higher vocational colleges should jump out of the influence of the original path as soon as possible, and make scientific planning and design on the construction of training places and the setting of training projects on campus.

At present, the practical teaching work in higher vocational colleges in China has the phenomenon of path dependence and fixed thinking at the specific operation and implementation level. It is necessary to make substantial adjustments from the most basic training equipment construction, the environmental layout of training venues, and the setting of training programs.

(1) Higher vocational colleges should attach great importance to the purchase and research and development of teaching equipment and teaching AIDS in the construction of training instruments and equipment.

Since higher vocational colleges attach importance to practical teaching, all colleges have increased the construction of training places, especially the purchase of training instruments and equipment, which has alleviated the shortage of training teaching hardware to some extent. However, in order to keep up with the pace of enterprises, many higher vocational colleges have purchased a lot of productive instruments and equipment, but the teaching equipment and teaching AIDS that really have practical training effects for students have not been increased and updated in time. Teaching equipment and teaching AIDS can reveal the working principle, working process and working state of training content in a concise way, which has the effect of drawing inferences from others and plays an irreplaceable role in cultivating and improving students' comprehensive ability. What is most needed in practical training in higher vocational colleges is teaching equipment and teaching AIDS, and meeting the most basic practical teaching needs should be put in the first place. It is not only wrong, but also difficult to maintain with the follow-up funds to buy a large number of productive equipment in order to let students know about the similar equipment of enterprises during their school days. Therefore, the limited funds should be concentrated on the purchase and renewal of teaching equipment and teaching AIDS to change the situation that the number of teaching equipment and teaching AIDS is small and weak.

(2) The hard environment of training places in higher vocational colleges has been greatly improved, and the crucial soft environment of training places is relatively lacking. Making up for the shortcomings of the soft environment in training places is another problem we need to consider.

The so-called soft environment of training places refers to the quality of personnel, organizational forms, management methods, technical information, rules and regulations, discipline requirements and their coordination, as well as the working environment atmosphere of similar enterprises and so on. Constructing these soft environments is not only conducive to students' rapid mastery of professional skills, but also helpful to cultivate students' professional ethics. In addition to more and more instruments and equipment, many training places in higher vocational colleges ignore the creation of cultural atmosphere, and students can't get the proper professional culture influence in this environment. The trained students are far from what we hope to achieve: "people who have mastered professional knowledge and skills and can innovate in their work;" People with correct professional ethics can work diligently for the enterprise; People with social responsibility and spirit of solidarity and mutual assistance; The goal of a person with strong physique, rich knowledge and energy will be far from it. Therefore, we must attach importance to the construction of soft environment in the construction of campus training places, so that students can improve their professional skills and develop professional ethics in specific training situations.

(3) At present, higher vocational colleges pay attention to the selection of specific projects in the reform of training projects, but seldom study the classification and selection of training projects in categories.

Due to the limited total class hours in higher vocational colleges, although the proportion of training class hours has increased in recent years, with the improvement of students' skill requirements, training class hours are still deeply inadequate. Therefore, the training reform of colleges involves how to set up training programs more scientifically and reasonably. What people think more about is which training programs can be removed and which training programs should be added. This way of thinking is difficult to have a satisfactory result for all parties. To solve this problem, we must think from another angle; Don't worry about which training program should be accepted and which training program should be withdrawn, but classify the training programs. It can be divided into two categories: practical training projects to train simple skills and practical training projects to train complex skills. Then divide each training project into different types, and finally choose from the categories. All practical projects that train simple skills can be explored and mastered by students in the form of self-study exercises after class through opening the training room, while practical projects with complex skills are arranged with sufficient class hours for students to master step by step under the guidance of practical teachers.

Fourthly, adjust the mode of school-enterprise cooperation, build a win-win system and mechanism for school-enterprise cooperation, and find a new breakthrough for the healthy development of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges.

In recent years, with the efforts of all parties, school-enterprise cooperation, as an important mode of practical teaching, has made great progress, but the prospect is not optimistic, and many unsustainable problems have appeared one after another, which has restricted the improvement of practical teaching quality. The urgent task is to re-understand the existing school-enterprise cooperation model and explore a brand-new win-win cooperation system and mechanism.

(A) there is a big gap between the original intention of school-enterprise cooperation and reality, which affects the development of practical teaching activities and the improvement of training quality.

At present, the practical teaching of higher vocational colleges in China has gradually developed from the original single on-campus training and off-campus training to the stage of school-enterprise cooperation mode. However, this beautiful practical teaching mode has not achieved satisfactory results in the operation process. The performance is that school-enterprise cooperation is not in place, schools and enterprises have not reached a consistent educational goal and joint efforts, and school-enterprise cooperation is often hot for schools and cold for enterprises. At present, school-enterprise cooperation is mostly carried out by private small enterprises, and the relevant systems are not perfect. Many of them are maintained by personal emotional relationships. Many enterprises that carry out school-enterprise cooperation are aimed at students, who are cheap labor. Although some professional guidance will be arranged for teachers during the internship, most of them are single-skill guidance, and there are few comprehensive guidance. The main reason is that the system of school-enterprise cooperation is incomplete and the mechanism is invalid. We know that enterprises are economic entities that pursue economic benefits. Although the biggest beneficiary of vocational education is enterprises, when indirect interests conflict with immediate production and operation interests, the choice and abandonment of enterprises is self-evident. Therefore, before establishing a win-win cooperation system and mechanism, all our efforts on the original school-enterprise cooperation path can only solve temporary problems.

(B) the difficulties in school-enterprise cooperation, summed up, the system is fundamental and the mechanism is the key.

Exploring the establishment of a win-win school-enterprise cooperation system and mechanism is the only way out of the predicament. First of all, when designing and selecting systems and mechanisms, we should take "win-win cooperation" as the starting point. Scientific school-enterprise cooperation system and mechanism should not only make schools and enterprises achieve a win-win situation, but also not forget the interests of students, because students are the real subject in teaching activities. Only by establishing a win-win cooperation system and mechanism can the training mode of school-enterprise cooperation run smoothly. Secondly, when designing and selecting systems and mechanisms, we should consider the big environmental conditions.

(3) Run the school into an enterprise and create a "factory lieutenant colonel"; Run enterprises into schools and run "factories in schools" to realize the new situation of building higher vocational education by schools and enterprises.

The so-called "factory lieutenant colonel" refers to the * * * status of higher vocational education and enterprise training. Enterprises lead higher vocational colleges to enter enterprises, higher vocational colleges recruit students for enterprises, and carry out teaching in enterprises, thus realizing a new mode of school-enterprise cooperation of "students study without leaving their posts, combining work with study, and learning while doing". This new model allows students to get the opportunity of systematic learning, improve their comprehensive quality, enhance their innovation ability, and reserve follow-up talents for enterprises without affecting their normal production. For the school, it solves the problem of insufficient training teachers and equipment, and can also alleviate the plight of shrinking students in higher vocational colleges to some extent. For students, they can work and study without leaving their posts and without pay. This model has truly achieved a win-win situation for enterprises, schools and students. "Factory in school" and "factory lieutenant colonel" have the same effect. In a word, the vocational education mode of "factory in school" and "factory lieutenant colonel" is a practical and good mode to improve the quality of practical teaching in higher vocational colleges, which is worth further improving and popularizing.

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