We are now facing a society that is eager for quick success and instant benefit. The value orientation of short-term utilitarianism prevails, which is very harmful to creative thinking.
Tsing Hua Professor Qian Yingyi: Artificial intelligence will make China's educational advantages disappear
Wen/Qian Yingyi
(Born in April 1956 in Beijing, ancestral home of Zhejiang, non party person, postgraduate degree, doctorate in economics, professor. In 2012, he was elected as a member of the World Econometric Society, in 2018, he was elected as one of the first senior professors of liberal arts in Tsinghua University, and won the Sun Yefang Economic Science Award in 2009, and the first China Economics Award in 2016.) Source/Network
China's education has its own characteristics, which imply our strengths.
First of all, individuals, families, governments and society have invested a lot in education. This investment is not only money and resources, but also students' and teachers' time. This is determined by our cultural tradition and the importance we attach to education. Secondly, the teaching of knowledge points by teachers and the mastery of knowledge points by students are not only numerous but also extensive, so the mastery of basic knowledge by Chinese students is characterized by "high average".
I think it may be more meaningful to reflect on the problems in education on the basis of understanding the strengths of China's education.
In my opinion, the biggest problem of Chinese education is that we have a systematic deviation from cognition to practice of education. This deviation is that we equate education with knowledge and limit it to knowledge. Teachers' job is to impart knowledge, students' learning knowledge is their responsibility, and college entrance examination is also to test knowledge, so knowledge has almost become the whole content of education.
The saying that "knowledge is power" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but can the education of innovative talents only rely on the accumulation of knowledge? My answer is no, education must surpass knowledge. This is my core idea for innovative talent education, and also the starting point for us to propose educational reform proposals.
Einstein's sentence left a deep impression on me. When he visited the United States for the first time after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, a reporter asked him how fast his voice was. Einstein refused to answer, saying that you can find the answer in any physics book. Then he said the famous words: "The value of college education is not to remember many facts, but to train the brain to think."
Today, a lot of knowledge can be found on the Internet. In the future, there may be more knowledge machines to help you find out. Therefore, Einstein's words are more worthy of our deep consideration at present and in the future.
As we know, artificial intelligence is to work through deep learning by machines, and this learning process is to identify and remember a large number of existing knowledge accumulation. In this way, it can replace or even surpass the brain of those who master knowledge by rote and doing a lot of exercises. However, rote learning and a large number of questions are the usual ways to train students at present. So, It is very likely that the future AI will eliminate the advantage of cultivating students under our education system.
Not long ago, the artificial intelligence robot took part in the math exam of the college entrance examination. It is reported that there are two robots with scores of 134 and 105 respectively (out of 150). This is just the beginning. It is said that the goal of AI robots is to participate in all college entrance examinations by 2020. Therefore, economic development needs to be "innovation driven", and AI has a strong momentum of development, which makes us realize the urgency of reforming the existing education system and methods.
The more knowledge, the stronger creativity
In my teaching practice, I strongly feel that one of the sources of creative thinking is curiosity and imagination.
Creativity really needs the accumulation of knowledge, but what else is needed besides knowledge? Einstein said, "I have no special talent, I'm just extremely curious" "Imagination is more important than knowledge". I think what he said about curiosity and imagination was ignored by us in the past.
Inspired by this, I put forward a simple hypothesis: "Creative thinking=knowledge × curiosity and imagination". This simple formula tells us that more knowledge is not necessarily more creative. Because the more education people receive, the more knowledge they accumulate, but curiosity and imagination may decrease, so creativity does not increase with the increase of education time. Curiosity and imagination are particularly strong in childhood, but with the increase of education, curiosity and imagination usually gradually decline.
Why? Because the knowledge we learned later is framed and set, no matter what the knowledge is. When learning these knowledge, your curiosity and imagination will often challenge these knowledge frameworks, but in most cases, your challenge is wrong. Because you are often beaten and denied, it objectively suppresses your curiosity and imagination. Even Einstein once sighed that it was a miracle that curiosity and imagination could survive in formal education.
This has formed a paradox in the education of innovative talents: on the one hand, more education helps to increase knowledge and improve creativity, and on the other hand, it reduces creativity because curiosity and imagination are suppressed. So the combined efforts of the two make it difficult for us to judge the role of education in innovative talents, but it can partly explain why some students who drop out of school are very creative.
Therefore, it is not that our school cannot cultivate outstanding talents, but that our school has intentionally or unintentionally reduced other elements necessary for creativity while increasing students' knowledge.
Utilitarianism stifles creative thinking
The second source of creative thinking is the value orientation of higher pursuit.
Creative thinking depends not only on curiosity and imagination, but also on value orientation. So when we discuss the education of innovative talents, it is not only a question of knowledge and ability, but also a question of values.
What we are facing now is a society that is eager for quick success and instant benefit. The value orientation of short-term utilitarianism prevails, which is very harmful to creative thinking. Zuckerberg's speech at Harvard University's 2017 Graduation Ceremony not long ago, the theme was that people should have a pursuit, a higher pursuit, which is to transcend the value orientation of short-term utilitarianism.
I divide the motivation of innovation into three levels, representing three value orientations: first, short-term utilitarianism; 2、 Long-term utilitarianism; 3、 Non utilitarianism of intrinsic value. The latter have higher pursuit than the former.
For short-term utilitarians, innovation is to publish papers, apply for patents, and list companies; For long-term utilitarians, innovation has a higher pursuit, in order to fill the gap, strive for domestic first-class, and create world-class; For non utilitarians with intrinsic value, innovation has a higher pursuit: pursuing truth, changing the world, and making people happier.
Our reality is that there are many people with the first type of motivation, and there are also people with the second type of motivation, but there are fewer people with the third type of motivation, or even very few. Therefore, the reason why we lack innovative talents, in addition to the lack of curiosity and imagination, is that we are too eager for quick success and utilitarianism in value orientation. The eagerness for success and the values of winning and losing lead to more plagiarism and copying, less real innovation, and less disruptive and revolutionary innovation.
Reform is not easy, but changes are encouraging
Based on the above reflections, I believe that the education of innovative talents needs innovative educational models.
I put forward three suggestions: first, education should create a more relaxed space and time conducive to the development of students' personality; Second, we should better protect students' curiosity and stimulate their imagination in education; Third, in education, we should guide students to pursue higher values and avoid short-term utilitarianism.
This puts forward higher requirements for educational reform. Because the current design of student training programs is based on the depth and breadth of students' knowledge as the starting point and assessment point, it is always felt that students are not learning enough, not deep enough, not practical enough, not cutting-edge. However, if we pay more attention to students' curiosity and imagination and their value orientation, our educational model should be greatly changed.
In practice, I also realized that reform is not easy. Traditional ideas, market pressure and social environment are all constraints. However, the attention to students' curiosity and imagination has gained more and more resonance in the society; Students' personality development has also been raised to a higher and higher level. These are encouraging changes.
Therefore, I believe that with the further development of China's economy and the increasing demand of the society for innovative talents, the education of innovative talents will undergo profound changes.
Source: Records of an era
