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PhD success for a local high school teacher.
上周，一場博士答辯在雲端舉行。寧波外國語學校高中物理老師石曉明在經歷一個半小時的答辯後，被專家組一致授予無條件通過。這是對一篇博士論文的最高評價。不出意外，今年夏天他將如期從寧波諾丁漢大學博士畢業，成為一名教育學博士。
令專家組尤為讚賞的是，石曉明在中西教育、文理學科的碰撞中找到了一種平衡。他用實驗性的課堂，帶著學生探索科學本質，並把這些經驗寫進了博士論文。答辯委員會主席，英國普利茅斯大學Linda La Velle教授評價：這篇文章向我們展示了一名中國高中老師對科學教育的勇敢探索與創新。
石曉明在英國時
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教師/奶爸/在讀博士
2015年，石曉明入選寧波市「卓越工程」中外合作學科專業博士培養項目。該項目由寧波市教育局和寧波諾丁漢大學重磅打造，旨在培養理論水平紮實、實踐能力出眾的新一代甬城名師。項目有四個「最」之稱——要求最高、挑戰最大、投入最多和學制最長。一般4-6年，學員們需完成兩個階段的學習，遠赴英國諾丁漢大學開展3個月的影子教師跟崗時間活動，並完成博士畢業論文。
當時石曉明已經教了六年高中物理，積攢了一些自己的思考。他希望開啟一個全新的視角來看待和認識教育，以期更好地引領學生。本著這樣的初心開始了在職讀博。一線教師、超級奶爸，再加上一個新的身份，在讀博士，可想而知辛苦程度。
他記得，那段時間白天要上課備課批改作業，節假日要集中學習。「時間得靠自己一點點擠出來。」暑期送女兒去興趣班，他經常會自己買瓶冰水，在沒有空調的培訓學校大廳一坐3個小時看文獻寫文章。
努力總會有收穫。石曉明說，自己是理論物理研究生畢業，驟然跨越到教育學這樣的人文學科，起初非常不適應。但越研究越發現了文理碰撞的奇妙。比如質性分析與定量分析結合，會產生不一樣的火花。這也正是他博士論文的研究方法。
生活中的石曉明酷愛越野跑，
他曾連續奔跑24小時完成100km越野挑戰
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什麼是科學？又該怎麼教？
2018年，中國教育部發布了新的高中課程方案和課程標準，重點提出以核心素養為主線的課程建設。此時是石曉明在職讀博的第三年。多年的自然科學教學生涯中，石曉明觀察到學生雖然學習了解了科學知識、實驗技能，卻並不代表形成了對科學本質的認知。他舉例說，大多數學生對什麼是科學這一命題都答不上來。
讓石曉明有觸動的還有在英國諾丁漢大學為期三個月的影子教師跟崗實踐活動，「直觀地感受到了中西方科學教育的差異」。
「
我印象特別深刻，摩擦力這個知識點，在我們的課堂，一般只花一節課介紹概念，演示實驗，做習題就結束了。但在英國的高中，老師用了四個課時。第一節課學生整節課泡在機房裡，上網查什麼是摩擦力，後面幾節課再設計實驗、討論實驗、最後再由學生呈現實驗並得出一些共性的東西。」
整個跟崗過程中，石曉明一直在思考西方這種對科學的探究精神，與我們在課堂上的高效，這兩者之間能不能做一個好的結合呢。
所有的思考讓石曉明在回國的路上，對自己的博士論文有了想法。新學期開始，他就申請開設一門選修課，教科學本質。課上的所有學生都是這堂選修課的實驗者。從「什麼是科學」進入，經歷「推理」、「現實」、「解釋」、「預測」、「因果」，到最後的角色扮演和繪畫展示。科學被放入社會、歷史、科技和文化的背景中，學生在不同學科間探究發現科學的邊界，理解什麼樣的研究及數據才是真正科學及可信的。
讓石曉明尤為感動的是，課程結束時，一位學生向他鞠躬說，「謝謝你開設這門選修課，我在這門課上看到了不一樣的科學。「
石曉明的這篇論文完整記錄了學生每節課的變化。問卷數據和訪談表明，通過這門課，學生懂得全面地理解科學，對科學本質的認識有了顯著進步，核心素養也有明顯提升。同時，這篇博士論文也用真實課堂，給出了社會上廣泛討論的關於「科學本質應該怎麼教」的參考範本。「我相信，這門課的意義是讓學生認識到真正的科學，而不是存在於書本或工具意義上的知識。」石曉明說。
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堅守為學生而教的初心
得知博士論文無條件通過，石曉明表示特別感恩他的導師英國諾丁漢大學教育學克莉絲汀 · 霍爾教授(Professor Christine Hall)給予他的巨大支持和幫助。在論文寫作過程中，他每寫完一個章節就會立刻發給她看，並著手下一個章節。等到她的修改意見發來，他已經完成了下一章節的寫作。在這樣的完美配合下，石曉明僅花了一年多時間就完成了初稿寫作，並且後期沒有進行大幅修改。
好消息也傳到了他的眾多學生耳中。學生們在敬佩之餘，有的特別向他討教做研究的方法和經驗，還有的鄭重地向自己的高中老師說出一句「向您學習」。榜樣的力量也在女兒身上悄然的變化，原來不喜歡英語學習的女兒在四年裡耳濡目染。「她好像也不那麼排斥學英語了。」
「不論作為父母還是老師，可能教育不僅是你說了什麼，而是做了什麼吧。」石曉明說。
博士畢業的話，就意味著有了成為一名研究者的資格。不過石曉明還是選擇堅持初心，打算繼續為提升年輕一代的科學素養貢獻自己的力量。
「
我覺得做一名老師和研究者是不衝突的。要成為一個好的老師，肯定需要花時間去做些研究，才能對教育有更好的認識，才能更好地去教學，去服務學生。教育的最終目標還是學生。」
相比石曉明的淡定，把這個中外博士培養項目比作自己孩子的寧波諾丁漢大學馮安偉教授反倒有些不淡定：「『卓越工程』的這批學生是各初高中教學骨幹，都在一線，日常工作非常忙碌，基本上都有家庭。他們幾乎把所有能利用的時間拿出來學習，我每每想到這裡就很感動。曉明無條件通過博士答辯，非常不易，非常鼓舞士氣。我想就此機會為所有在讀『卓越工程』的學生再鼓一鼓勁，我堅信他們的成功將為地方的教育乃至全國的教育提供更多的參考範本，並有力推動寧波乃至全國的教育改革事業。」
PhD success for a local high school teacher
Xiaoming Shi, a doctoral candidate at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, was recently awarded an unconditional offer – the highest honour of a doctoral dissertation - after successfully finishing his thesis viva presentation online last week.
What impressed experts the most was that Xiaoming’s article originated from the real classroom. An external examiner, Professor Linda La Velle from the University of Plymouth, commented that his thesis demonstrated the significant innovation of a Chinese high school teacher in science education.
In 2015, Xiaoming was selected to join the Professional Doctorate in Education programme, which aimed to provide experienced education professionals an opportunity to develop the critical knowledge and skills necessary to undertake their own research and thereby improve their educational practices and contexts, with guidance from an established team of nationally and internationally recognised scholars. This part-time programme takes four to six years during which students need to complete two stages of study and a doctoral dissertation.
At that time, Xiaoming already had six years of experience teaching physics, and hoped to develop a new perspective to understand education in order to better guide students. It was undoubtedly hard to pursue a PhD degree while teaching in high school and taking care of his family.
Professor Feng Anwei, the Programme Leader, said that Xiaoming was not outstanding in the first stage of theoretical study, but turned out to be an extraordinary student in the second stage.
Studying humanities during the first stage was difficult for Xiaoming, who graduated with a Master’s in theoretical physics. Reading and writing in English was a great challenge. However, he never thought about giving up. He recalled that during that period he had to spend all his weekends and holidays studying.
With such efforts, Xiaoming felt more confident in the second stage where he discovered the wonderful collision of arts and sciences. This is also the research method of his doctoral dissertation, in which the combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis was applied.
After teaching natural science for years, Xiaoming noticed that although students learn scientific knowledge and experimental skills in class, they do not really develop an understanding of the nature of science.
The three months Xiaoming spent at the University of Nottingham following his instructor impressed him with the difference between Chinese and Western science education. "In China, it usually takes only one lesson to introduce the concept of friction with a demonstration experiments and after-class exercises. But in high schools in the UK, students spend four classes researching online, designing the experiments, and presenting their work to come to the conclusions."
During the process, Xiaoming considered combining the spirit of scientific exploration and the efficiency of Chinese classes, which became his topic of doctoral dissertation. At the beginning of the new semester, he applied to open an optional module to teach the nature of science, with the themes of "What is science"; "reasoning"; "realism"; "explanation"; "prediction"; "causation"; "scientific evolution" using role play and drawings as the assessment. Students have the opportunity to explore sciences in different contexts of society, history and culture to understand what kind of research and data are truly scientific and credible. At the end of the course, a student even bowed to him and said, "Thank you for opening this course, in which I saw a different science."
Xiaoming’s dissertation carefully recorded the changes of students in each class with questionnaires and interviews. The results showed that students have made significant progress in understanding the nature of science. At the same time, this doctoral dissertation also referenced 「how to teach the essence of science" with a real-class example. 「I believe it is the meaning of this course – to allow students to recognise real science, not just the knowledge in books or tools in life,」 said Xiaoming.
Knowing that the doctoral dissertation was approved unconditionally, Xiaoming expressed his sincere thanks to his supervisor, Professor Christine Hall of University of Nottingham, for her great support and help. When writing the dissertation, he would send it to her immediately after completing each chapter and by the time her feedback came, he had finished writing the next chapter. With such perfect cooperation, Xiaoming completed the first draft in approximately one year.
The good news was also known by many of his students with some asking him about his research methods and experience. The four years also quietly influenced his daughter. "She doesn't seem to be so resistant to learning English," said Xiaoming. "Whether as a parent or a teacher, education is not just what you say but what you did."
Getting a PhD degree means having the qualifications to become a researcher. However, Xiaoming still chose to contribute himself to improving science education for the younger generation. "Being a teacher and a researcher does not conflict. To be a good teacher, you must take time to do some research, to have a better understanding of education, and to teach students. The ultimate goal of education still concentrates on students. "
"I am very touched by these students since they are not only senior students in our eyes but also the high school teachers in Ningbo. They all have work and family to take care of and can only spend the rest of the time studying. It is very inspiring that Xiaoming was able to get a doctorate with unconditional approval with a full-time job in only four and a half years. I believe we will provide more UNNC experience for local education and even national education," said Professor Feng.
文字來源：Lily Su，範姜，Elena Yang
圖片來源：石曉明
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