Cultivation of Core Competencies of History in Middle Schools: Taking the Lesson of Primitive Farming Life as an Example

Ling YANG

School of History, Geography and Tourism, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu 611130, China

Abstract The cultivation of history teaching in middle schools involves many aspects and multi-level teaching factors such as classroom teaching objectives, teaching methods and teaching means.Taking the Lesson of Primitive Farming Life in the seventh grade volume 1 of People’s Education Press as an example, this paper discussed the cultivation of core competencies of history in middle schools, to improve the implementation process of history courses and promote the cultivation of students’ discipline competencies.

Key words History in middle schools, Core competencies, Farming culture

1 Introduction

History teaching must strictly follow the core competencies of the history discipline as its fundamental objective and task, so as to implement the goal of educating people by virtue and cultivation.The cultivation of core competencies is not only related to the teaching content, but also directly related to teachers’ understanding of the concept and connotation of core competencies in history.Therefore, implementing the three links of pre-class self-study, in-class lectures, and after-class development, and making teaching design that points to the core competencies of the history discipline is the most critical factor in the cultivation of core competencies.The seventh-grade students have just come into contact with the history discipline, and they have not yet understood the learning requirements and characteristics of the subject of history.The Lesson of Primitive Farming Life is the content of the second lesson of the seventh grade volume 1 of People’s Education Press.It belongs to the content category of ancient Chinese history.Because of the long history, the content of this section is very different from the current life.As a result, students have certain difficulties in learning and understanding, and it is also challenging for teachers to implement the core competencies tasks of the history discipline.

2 Self-study before class to lay a solid foundation and initially build a knowledge framework

Preview before class refers to the learning that students read and think about the knowledge they are about to learn through pre-class materials before the teacher formally gives lectures.The Lesson of Primitive Farming Life mainly explains the process of human evolution and its production and living conditions.Before the classroom teaching of this lesson, the teacher conducts a certain amount of self-study guidance according to the course content, help students get familiar with the knowledge through preview and thinking, and then combine the knowledge students have learned in the classroom, so as to achieve the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort.

2.1 Stressing the self-study before class and cultivating students’ core competencies of "space-time concept"The Lesson of Primitive Farming Life mainly explains the agriculture, animal husbandry, and handicraft industry more than 10 000 years ago, which is a very long time ago, and the geographical distribution is relatively scattered.For the seventh grade students, the distribution of time and space is the difficulty of learning this lesson.The requirement of Lesson of Primitive Farming Life is "image how primitive people spend a day according to the pictures of teaching".When teachers arrange self-study tasks before class, students are required to study in combination with historical chronology and maps of China, and arrange preview homework closely combined with the content of the syllabus, such as "a day of primitive people", "comparison of primitive people and my time in a day" timeline, mind map and other pre-class preview tasks, which can not only help students self-study more intuitively, but also consolidate the knowledge of historical chronology and Chinese map distribution, remove the time and space barriers for the mastery of classroom knowledge, and help students improve the efficiency of learning lectures.

2.2 Highlighting the main role of students in the classroom, and cultivating students’ core competencies of "historical materialism" and "historical interpretation"In traditional classrooms, teachers often play the main role.Teachers give lectures in the whole class, but ignore the acceptance of students.In the teaching process, teachers are active and authoritative, while students are passive and subordinate.The content of Lesson of Primitive Farming Life tells events of a long history, and the content mainly relies on unearthed cultural relics and historical relics.Students who live in a modern and convenient life cannot understand the importance of primitive farming life.It is very necessary to use a large number of pictures to guide content learning, or let students discuss roles in small groups.Therefore, if the teacher gives some guidance during the self-study before class, the classroom can return more time to the students.When teachers arrange pre-class self-study tasks, they can give students the following tasks(Table 1).

Table 1 Example of pre-class self-study task form

During self-study before class, students use network resources and combine textbook knowledge to complete the form.In the lecture part of the class, the teacher can invite the students to explain, compare the similarities and differences of everyone’s explanations, and finally the teacher makes a conclusion.This can not only highlight the main role of students in the classroom, but also allow students to consolidate the knowledge they have learned, and help cultivate students’ core competencies in historical explanation.

3 Teaching students according to conditions of students during in-class teaching, to strengthen the knowledge of the syllabus

3.1 Cultivating students’ "historical evidence" core competencies based on their learning situationIn the Lesson of Primitive Farming Life, it first talks about is the development of primitive agriculture.The picture attached in the textbook is "Rice unearthed from the Yuchanyan Site".In "Related Historical Events", the selected materials are related items unearthed from the Donghulin site and the Jiahu site, all of which come from the results of archaeological excavations.When students read these materials, the most important task is to "strengthen archaeological cognition, aiming at training the awareness of evidence".The content of this lesson is the second lesson of the first volume of the seventh grade.It is the first time for students to come into contact with the subject of history.The thinking and ability of students’ history learning are not perfect enough.Therefore, when teaching in the classroom, teachers should fully consider students’ learning situation when selecting historical materials, and it is best to also consider the diversity of historical materials.For example, when talking about the emergence of primitive agriculture, it is required to choose historical materials that students are more familiar with, such asFiveThousandYearsofChineseNation.This can not only avoid the difficulty of historical materials due to the limited ability to read ancient Chinese, but also increase the information students learn about historical materials, so as to achieve the core competence of "historical data evidence".

Question design: Please select the pictures in the text that you think are the most important to primitive humans in terms of basic necessities of life, food, housing, transportation,etc.Compared with the primitive humans you have learned before, what kind of progress do you think they have made?

Design concept: The first question guides students to pay attention to all the pictures in this lesson.The second question guides students to focus on "the restoration map of the stilt-style buildings of the Hemudu people, the restoration map of the semi-crypt round houses of the Banpo residents, and the unearthed cultural relics of the site.Through comparison, students’ thinking can be fully mobilized, which is conducive to the expansion of students’ thinking.

Design purpose: Guide students to make horizontal comparisons from the first question, and look at the pictures in the class from a global perspective, so that students can understand the importance and necessity of which items are primitive farming life.The second question guides students to make longitudinal comparisons, and to think comprehensively about the similarities and differences in crop planting, living environment, and livestock breeding from multiple perspectives.It is expected to cultivate students’ core competencies of "historical data evidence", and also guide students to understand the wisdom and hard work of ancestors in the long history of the Chinese nation.

3.2 Strengthening "family and country feelings" core competencies of students based on national conditionsThe cultivation of "family and country feelings" core competencies in the history classroom directly determines the patriotism and sense of responsibility of the students.Doing a good job in learning, teaching and testing the feelings of family and country has become the key task of educating people with historical knowledge.

Question design: Why didn’t Hemudu residents build semi-crypt houses like Banpo residents?

Design concept: Through text explanation and picture reading, guide students to compare the similarities and differences between "stilted" houses and "semi-crypt" houses, and guide students to think "different houses are built to adapt to different climatic conditions".

Design purpose: To understand the wisdom of primitive humans using their own advantages to adapt to nature with different house shapes, not only can implement the classroom verification of "historical evidence", but also strengthen the training of family and country feelings.

The cultivation of family and country feelings in this lesson can also invite students to watch the cartoonCrazyPrimitivesbefore class or in class.Besides, teacher can ask students to think: If you live in a primitive society and rely on wild collection and hunting for a living, what is the inconvenience? Then guide students to understand that food in primitive society is extremely unstable and survival is quite dangerous, so as to understand the wisdom and achievements of our ancestors in the production and labor in the long history, let the students have a feeling of reverence for the ancestors, and then recognize and respect the long history of the motherland.

4 After-class development, local research, and consolidation of core competencies

(i)Excavating the cultural heritage of hometown and integrating local culture into history learning.After class, teachers can assign students after-class homework, such as "History of My Hometown" in combination with local culture, let the students go to visit the ruins and other places in their hometown.Integrating local culture into history learning can not only help students better understand and love their hometown, but also improve their awareness of the protection of local cultural heritage.In this way, the excellent local culture can be inherited and carried forward, and it can also enable students to understand Chinese multiculturalism more vividly, and empower students with the lofty ideal of "I will work hard for the development of my hometown".

(ii)Immersing into the cultural atmosphere of hometown, and helping teaching work in various forms.The historical knowledge is very abstract.Use the right time to allow students to immerse themselves in the region to experience the local history and culture, and cultivate core competencies imperceptibly.For example, in their spare time, teachers can take students to go to local museums, ancient towns,etc.to conduct on-site research, guide students to use the results of the survey papers to form research reports, and provide first-hand information for local culture and practical teaching.

In the context of teaching reform of the new curriculum reform, middle school history teaching must rely on the middle school history curriculum reform strategy centered on core competencies, adopt various forms of teaching methods, and design pre-class, in-class and after-class activities suitable for history discipline.In addition, history teachers need to use the effective design of history classrooms and use historical stories to implement the meeting points of junior high school history core competencies, and continuously promote the diversified development of students.It is necessary to pay attention to the cultivation of students’ historical thinking, humanistic quality, practical ability and core competencies.Teachers should design a student-centered course experience to stimulate learning interest.Teachers need to pay attention to teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and broaden their horizons in order to empower the teaching of history and "develop five dimensions of abilities"(namely, moral, cognitive, physical, social and aesthetic abilities).