Reflections on some problems in the construction of teaching staff in colleges and universities at present

Abstract:The reform and development of higher education can not be separated from the high-level, professional and innovative teachers. At present, the outstanding problem of college teachers is mainly the problem of "inadaptability". In the process of teachers’ team construction, the renewal of ideas is fundamental, the increase of investment is the guarantee, and the system and mechanism are the key. Only by promoting the reform and innovation of the system and mechanism can we achieve sustainable development.

Key words:Higher education; Teachers; Development; reform

A century-long plan, education-oriented; Teachers are the foundation of education. The Chinese nation has a fine tradition of respecting teachers and attaching importance to education since ancient times. The dignity of being a teacher and being a teacher are important genes rooted in national culture. In the name of Beijing Normal University, there is "teacher training", and "learning to be a teacher and behave in the world" is not only the motto of every teacher, but also the historical responsibility of the school. Guided by Socialism with Chinese characteristics Thought of the Supreme Leader in the New Era, Beijing Normal University has fully implemented the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the important speech of "Four Haves" by the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader, fully implemented the Party’s educational policy, adhered to the socialist orientation of running schools, and persisted in the initial intention of running education for national rejuvenation, building the cornerstone for the prosperity of the country, cultivating talents, building the happiness of the people, and benefiting the development of teachers and students, striving to create a new situation of building a world-class university with China characteristics that is comprehensive, research-oriented and leading in teacher education. In this process, we deeply realize the importance of teaching staff, the key role and core value of teaching staff construction in the construction of first-class universities, and the problems, difficulties and contradictions that need to be solved urgently in the construction of teaching staff in colleges and universities at present.

Teachers are the key factor for the connotation development and quality improvement of higher education.

After the contradiction between the people’s growing need for a better life and the unbalanced development became the main contradiction in society, the people put forward new requirements for the development of education. Trees are inseparable from gardeners, and tree people are inseparable from teachers. The people’s demands for improving the quality of education are also inseparable from teachers; Training socialist builders and successors is inseparable from teachers; Moral education, teaching and educating people, and forming a clean and upright educational environment are inseparable from teachers. We need a team of teachers who are both red and professional. Teachers should not only put morality first and set an example first, but also have the ability, ability, willingness and success. In September, 2014, on the eve of Teachers’ Day, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited Beijing Normal University, and deeply encouraged teachers and students to be "four haves" good teachers with ideals and beliefs, moral sentiments, solid knowledge and kindness, which provided basic guidance for colleges and universities to strengthen and promote the construction of teaching staff and build a high-level professional and innovative teaching staff in the new era.

At present, the outstanding problem of college teachers is mainly the problem of "inadaptability"

According to the standard of "four haves" good teachers, the leading role of teachers’ morality needs to be improved, and its role in some fields, especially in the ideological field, needs to be strengthened; The professional level of teachers needs to be constantly improved, and there is a gap with international counterparts in many fields, even a big gap; The social status of the teaching staff needs to be improved. In some places, the atmosphere of respecting teachers and attaching importance to teaching has not yet formed. From time to time, there are public opinions in the society that denigrate the image of teachers and belittle the teaching profession, resulting in bad or even bad influence. Teachers’ career development is unclear, inadequate, unbalanced and unsustainable, which causes some teachers to be depressed and lack of motivation and fail to play their due role. In a word, the current problems of the teaching staff are still not adapted to the needs of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s construction in the new era, the development of higher education in the new era, and the international education competition and talent competition.

There are many reasons for these problems in the teaching staff. From the environmental point of view, the financial investment has the problem of "seeing things but not people" in some aspects, and the investment in education is increasing, but the investment in the construction of teachers is far from enough; The investment of public funds has increased significantly, but the improvement of personnel treatment is far from enough; The total investment of funds is increasing, but there are unreasonable restrictions on the use of funds, resulting in inefficient and wasteful use of funds. From the perspective of colleges and universities, management and service are not humanized enough, and even there is a lack of respect for teachers in some aspects; In school governance, teachers’ rights of participation, information, expression and supervision are not fully implemented, and teachers’ role in democratic management is not enough; The problem of rigid system and mechanism exists to some extent, the problem of "big pot rice" is still serious, and there is no atmosphere to encourage teachers and officers to start businesses.

Therefore, among the teachers in colleges and universities, the problems of insufficient level, pressure and motivation intersect and influence each other. To improve the overall level of teachers, it is necessary to improve both the stock and the increment; It is necessary not only to increase assessment and incentives, but also to improve the motivation of teachers’ team officers to start businesses. Only by taking a multi-pronged approach can we solve the problem of "inadaptability" of college teachers and guide the majority of teachers to take teaching as their profession, be proud of teaching and take teaching as their pleasure.

To solve the problem of "inadaptability" of teachers, resource guarantee is essential.

To solve the maladjustment of teachers, resource guarantee is essential. The allocation of resources in colleges and universities is both a matter for colleges and universities and a matter for the government. The surface is the internal work of an organization, but in fact it is the result of the constant interweaving and joint decision of the internal and external environment of the organization. We must examine, consider and arrange the allocation of resources under the national strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, strengthening the country with talents and giving priority to the development of education, under the general trend of national higher education development and under the background of international education competition and talent competition, especially to ensure continuous and sufficient investment in the construction, development and utilization of teachers.

Education plays an important role in the continuous enhancement of China’s comprehensive national strength and international influence. China’s higher education faces international competition, which includes international competition of production factors and even competition at international prices. The competition for talents around the world has become fierce, and western countries have begun to restrict the flow of talents. In this context, to win the battle for talents and improve the level of teachers in colleges and universities, we must make great efforts to invest in talents. This kind of investment should not only introduce investment to talents, but also invest in talent training; We should not only invest in improving teachers’ quality, but also in ensuring treatment; We should not only improve the working conditions of college teachers, but also solve their worries; We should not only give them funds for their careers, but also fully trust them and give them the right to make good use of their funds. In short, in the process of investing resources in the construction of teachers, it is necessary to continuously increase investment and continuously improve efficiency.

To improve the status and treatment of teachers, the mechanism reform should be real, practical and effective.

In the construction and development of teachers, the reform of system and mechanism should be real, practical and effective. The allocation of resources in colleges and universities is inclined to team building, so it is necessary to establish and improve the income distribution mechanism oriented to increasing knowledge value and the resource allocation mechanism oriented to improving performance. On this issue, we should pay attention to solving the following pairs of relationships:

First, the relationship between career attraction and treatment guarantee.As a group of intellectuals, teachers in colleges and universities should not only rely on "money" but also consider teachers’ rights and powers. To motivate people with career means to respect teachers’ dominant position, encourage teachers to participate in democratic management, and have institutional arrangements in the school governance system; Academic issues are more decided by teachers, who are professionals. Involving the vital interests of the majority of teachers, listen to the opinions of teachers; Schools should care about teachers, get rid of worries, and let them concentrate on teaching, educating people and scientific research. It is necessary to avoid "only paying attention to money" and "only talking about lofty ideals". Teachers should not be constantly worried about money, and we should give college teachers an environment and conditions for decent work, comfortable work and entrepreneurship.

Second, the relationship between benefiting the general and rewarding the excellent.When colleges and universities introduce treatment policies, they must clarify the guarantee factors and incentive factors. Some treatment is to solve the safety needs of teachers, while others are to solve the needs of teachers’ self-realization. The treatment policy should not only ensure that the overall situation is reasonable and the gap is acceptable, but also overcome job burnout and stimulate work enthusiasm. Because many treatments are rigid, they are often "able to go up but not down". In the policy that teachers generally benefit, new "big pots" and "iron rice bowls" should be avoided; Since rewarding excellence is beneficial to a few people, the policy of benefiting a few people should be open, with high standards, transparent procedures and convincing.

Third, the relationship between horizontal orientation and performance orientation.In recent years, there have been various talent plans and titles at all levels in the field of higher education. "Titles" often represent the level of officers. Usually, teachers with talent titles are paid much more than teachers without talent titles. Most of the winners of these talent programs have real talents and practical learning, but there are also some scholars who are not worthy of the name. Some scholars who have the title of talents are sitting on their laurels and do not make progress, and their output is not high or even no output. This requires colleges and universities to reform the system and mechanism, solve the problem of inconsistency between ability and actual performance, ability and willingness, consider the ability factor, performance factor and contribution factor in the incentive mechanism, design a compound incentive policy system, and overcome the tendency of "four talents".

Fourth, the relationship between equal treatment and classified assessment.Because different disciplines have different laws, different posts have different requirements, and different industries have different characteristics; Therefore, when designing the evaluation system, colleges and universities must avoid "one size fits all" and "cutting a knife". Incentive policies should not only consider the commonness of educational and scientific research laws, but also consider the particularity of different disciplines, different positions and different levels in the selection of indicators. According to different groups, we should select different assessment indicators and set different assessment standards, such as engineering teachers and liberal arts teachers, teaching series and scientific research series, practical tutors and theoretical teachers, and so on. On the other hand, the classification assessment should adhere to high standards and strict requirements. It cannot be said that the classification evaluation overemphasizes "relativity" and relaxes itself and lowers the standards. The classification standards should also listen to opinions and evaluations from outside the specialty, discipline and industry.

Fifth, the relationship between comprehensive evaluation and highlighting key points.The overall quality of college teachers includes many factors and requirements, such as morality, knowledge, ability, performance and contribution. In daily work, explicit indicators are often linked to teaching workload, the quantity and importance of scientific research funds, the number of various awards, the quantity and quality of published papers, etc. These indicators are easy to quantify or be taken seriously. There are also some hidden indicators, such as teachers’ morality and academic integrity. These questions are basic requirements for every teacher, but they are difficult to quantify at ordinary times. Explicit indicators are not equal to hard indicators, and implicit indicators are not equal to soft indicators. Colleges and universities should not only pay attention to explicit indicators, but also pay attention to implicit indicators. Teachers should be rewarded or punished for their achievements or accidents in respect of teachers’ morality and style; Teachers’ problems in academic integrity should also be dealt with seriously.

The mechanism innovation of teachers’ team construction is based on the renewal of ideas.

The construction of teachers in colleges and universities is an important responsibility of the school party Committee. In colleges and universities, the party should firmly grasp the leading role in the construction of school teachers. The leading bodies of colleges and universities need to constantly improve their understanding, unify their thinking, make concerted efforts and implement their responsibilities. First, schools should do a good job of positive guidance and education, establish healthy atmosphere in schools, constantly form a good environment for entrepreneurs, and form an atmosphere of love for education and dedication to their posts. Second, for the construction of teachers, schools should dare to reform the system and mechanism, dare to touch the real thing, dare to overcome difficulties, dare to break the "iron rice bowl" and dare to demand the majority of teachers with the standard of "four haves", so as to achieve a balance at a higher level. Third, colleges and departments of colleges and universities, as grass-roots organizations, undertake the specific organization and implementation tasks of personnel training and scientific research, and are the "front line" and "field" of teaching and scientific research. Schools should encourage and support departments to carry out peer evaluation and peer supervision, and encourage departments to carry out exploration and reform in line with their own actual conditions. When these reforms encounter setbacks, schools should be tolerant, support departments to strengthen management and "support" reformers, and also help departments to properly handle contradictions in reform, so that the set reform ideas will not be confused and blocked by individual cases. Fourth, schools should respect the initiative of teachers, believe that grass-roots units should make experience and policies, encourage academic autonomy of teachers’ professional groups, and encourage self-education and self-management of teachers’ groups. (Author Wang Shoujun, Vice President of Beijing Normal University)

References:

[1] the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council’s opinions on comprehensively deepening the reform of teaching staff construction in the new era [EB/OL]. (2018-01-31) [2019-07-19]. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2018-01/31/content _ 52622.

[2] Notice of the Ministry of Education and other five departments on printing and distributing the Action Plan for Revitalizing Teacher Education (2018-2022) [EB/OL]. (2018-03-28) [2019-07-19]. http://www.gov.cn/Xinwen/2018.

[3] General Offices of the General Office of the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council issued Opinions on Further Carrying Forward the Spirit of Scientists and Strengthening the Construction of Style of Study [EB/OL]. (2019-06-11) [2019-07-19]. http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2019-06/11/.

Beijing Education magazine