Breaking through the 'Five Unifications', educational evaluation needs to achieve triple transcendence
2025-07-01
Evaluation reform is the "baton" of education reform, as well as the "bull's nose" that can move the whole body. As a chronic problem that has plagued education for a long time, the "five only" problem of "only scores, only enrollment, only diplomas, only papers, and only hats" has gradually formed in the process of educational development. This means that the reform of "breaking the five only" will inevitably undergo a gradual deconstruction of the "five only". In this process, educational evaluation needs to achieve triple transcendence. Introverted Transcendence: Suppressing the Arrogant Transcendence of the "Five Unifications" Introverted Transcendence points to a deep problem in the evaluation reform, that is, the evaluation dimensions that originally had rationality continue to expand under external conditions and internal interests, ultimately becoming exclusive and singular "Five Unifications" indicators. This evolution from rationality to "objectification" simplifies the originally diverse and comprehensive evaluation scale into utilitarian and mechanical indicator tools in practice, solidifying it as an absolute basis for individual participation in resource allocation, identity recognition, and ability determination. From a historical perspective, the various evaluation dimensions corresponding to the "Five Weis" have all served as important criteria for knowledge output, talent incentives, or evaluation of educational quality. A paper is an important form of presenting academic achievements and a fundamental carrier of knowledge output in scientific research work; Various reasonable and compliant titles and titles can effectively motivate and gather outstanding talents. The establishment of these evaluation dimensions is essentially an institutionalized response made in a specific historical context to regulate the quality of scientific research and improve the level of education. However, with the passage of time and the intensification of policy inertia, they gradually deviate from their initial purpose, become standardized, rigid, and absolute, resulting in the alienation of educational evaluation. Introverted transcendence aims to suppress the usurpation of the "Five Ones". This does not mean a complete negation of the existing indicator system, but rather a reconstruction of the functional boundaries of evaluation based on an understanding of the rationality of each dimension. Breaking away from the tendency of "only focusing on papers" is not about not looking at papers when evaluating, but about not simply using papers as "heroes", especially not simply using the number of papers or the level of publications as rigid evaluation criteria. Another example is to eliminate the tendency of "hat only", which means to break the simple and crude practice of directly linking "hat" with economic treatment and resource allocation, reiterating the honorary nature and exemplary guiding value of "hat", and promoting various talents to truly play a leading role in team building and talent cultivation. Introverted transcendence is not only related to the operation of the evaluation system, but also involves the underlying institutional logic. When the number of papers is linked to funding, and when the "hat" is closely linked to resource allocation, the problem of the "five only" is no longer a problem of a single standard scale being dominant, but rather a problem of the standard itself being bound to the resource allocation mechanism. The solution to this structural problem cannot rely solely on targeted breakthroughs, but also requires a systematic design to de bureaucratize and de utilitarian evaluation criteria, so as to moderately detach them from the central zone of reward and punishment system and resource allocation, and return to the original mission of education as "cultivating morality and educating people" and academic as "public tools of the world". Introverted transcendence is not only an adjustment of educational evaluation methods, but also a reconstruction of evaluation concepts and introspection of evaluation systems: no evaluation dimension can replace a profound understanding of the essence of education. The key to "breaking the five dimensions" is not to eliminate the original five evaluation dimensions, but to clarify the reasonable boundaries of each evaluation dimension from the perspective of returning to the origin and original intention of educational evaluation, and to suppress its institutional expansion and functional overstepping. Parallel Transcendence: Expanding the Reasonable Dimensions of Evaluation The imbalance of the evaluation system is not only due to the expansion of individual dimensions, but more importantly, the overall structure lacks sufficient openness and scalability, which leads to the long-term closure of educational evaluation in a limited number of easily identifiable and operable indicators, resulting in a tendency towards internal order solidification and hindering the intervention of other reasonable evaluation standards and dimensions. Parallel transcendence aims to broaden other reasonable dimensions of evaluation and build a more open evaluation space. It does not negate or simply replace the original reasonable evaluation indicators, but injects new evaluation dimensions that have not been fully expressed but are equally important into the existing evaluation system through structural expansion, preventing the old dimensions from being simplified into the entirety of evaluation, and thus enhancing the overall inclusiveness of the evaluation system. With the deepening of educational evaluation reform, value dimensions such as cultural inheritance, social services, student experience, public responsibility, educational quality, organizational governance, and academic ecology have been highlighted. The introduction of these dimensions not only helps to reconstruct the inherent tension of the evaluation system, but also promotes the return of education to a complete, three-dimensional, and diverse form. If the new evaluation dimension of "cultivating virtue and nurturing talents" is established, it can promote universities to focus on education orientation and mechanism construction, strengthen teachers' attention to student development and ability enhancement, and reaffirm the education oriented nature of schools. For example, emphasizing the "innovation index" and "contribution index" as new dimensions of academic evaluation can help measure the ability of universities to innovate in cutting-edge fields, set global standards, and govern internationally, highlighting their potential to propose "Chinese solutions" and breaking the inertia of educational evaluation under the "five only" logic. Parallel transcendence is not only a structural expansion of evaluation dimensions, but also an opportunity to re understand the essence of education and clarify the value of educational evaluation. It promotes the transformation of educational evaluation from "closed control" to "open generation". The former regards evaluation as a boundary tool to distinguish advantages and disadvantages and allocate resources, while the latter understands it as an open system with dynamic generativity rather than a static set of discrimination criteria. This logical shift aims to promote the education evaluation system to break free from the tool role of power concentration and resource monopoly, and gradually evolve into a platform that supports individual development, responds to social concerns, and maintains educational ecological diversity. Extraverted Transcendence: Seeking Higher Educational Value Compared to Introverted Transcendence's reflection on indicator inflation and parallel Transcendence's structural response to dimension expansion, Extraverted Transcendence involves more fundamental reflection: What is the fundamental purpose of educational evaluation? What educational philosophy does its existence serve? What educational vision does it lead to? In the context of the evaluation reform aimed at breaking the "five criteria", without a re examination and establishment of the original mission of education, any operational adjustments may fall into an ineffective cycle of "old wine in new bottles". Therefore, outward transcendence aims to move from "correction of evaluation indicators" to "transcendence of evaluation logic", that is, to return to the intrinsic value of education, and to surpass the "five only" stubborn diseases with higher mission and vision. The deep-rooted problem of the "Five Unifications" is superficially due to path dependence in the specific operation of evaluation, but fundamentally due to the logic of performativity and utilitarianism. This logic regards "efficiency," "results," and "visible output" as core values, leading educational evaluation towards quantifiability, comparability, and orderability, gradually weakening its significance as a process of educating people, a continuation of civilization, and a carrier of social responsibility. The more hidden harm lies in the fact that this logic is often accompanied by a short-sighted tendency in educational governance, which pursues immediate results and stage outcomes unilaterally, ignoring the long-term, deep, and generative characteristics of education itself. Under the leadership of shortsightedness, educational evaluation often places more emphasis on immediate quantitative indicators, lacking sufficient care and patience for far-reaching goals such as knowledge accumulation, personality development, and social responsibility cultivation. This can lead to educational activities being forced to cater to short-term goals, and may also cause universities and teachers to lose their transcendent pursuit, sacrificing the long-term care that education should have. Outgoing transcendence attempts to provide directional responses in the context of value misalignment and institutional dilemmas. It attributes the emergence of the problem to the ontological proposition of education, advocating a shift from "how to manage education more efficiently" to a fundamental questioning of "why education exists". This question is not only a philosophical proposition, but also deeply related to whether educational evaluation has the ability and consciousness to effectively respond to the common destiny of humanity, national strategic goals, and the overall growth of individuals. From what kind of talents universities should cultivate to what kind of evaluation logic the system should support, outward transcendence aims to find higher educational value, calling for a comprehensive shift in educational evaluation concepts. The reform of educational evaluation should not stop at "doing faster" or "calculating more accurately", but should also answer the question of whether it is loyal to the original mission of education. If the evaluation reform continues to revolve around the performance logic, it will not only be difficult to break the "old only", but also pose a risk of creating a "new only". Only by addressing the fundamental questions of "why education exists" and "why evaluation exists" can educational evaluation maintain its original intention of educating people, illuminate individual growth, and safeguard public values in the competition of indicators. To break through the "five criteria" in educational evaluation, we should adhere to a two-way communication reform from top to bottom and from bottom to top. At the grassroots level, more reform space should be released, encouraging schools and local education administrative systems to carry out independent exploration and institutional innovation, supporting diverse reform practices, and promoting effective expansion on a larger scale by discovering and cultivating exemplary experiences. At the top level, it is necessary to restrain the governance concept dominated by indicators, minimize evaluative interventions on universities and disciplines, compress unnecessary evaluation levels, reduce the risk of ineffective competition and institutional competition, and create a more relaxed, rational, and trusting educational environment. Through a positive interaction between grassroots innovation and top-level guidance, we aim to return to the educational original intention of "cultivating talents for the Party and the country". (New Society)
Edit:Momo Responsible editor:Chen zhaozhao
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