Why are there so few people who insist on participating in mathematics competitions in high school? There are many reasons:
The knowledge level is different in junior high school and high school.
A small number of high schools engage in competitions. The gap between junior high schools and high schools is relatively large. Most students have a large gap. A few people can still maintain this advantage. Moreover, high school competitions are basically for the college entrance examination. Extra points, there are many people participating, and each school basically has set targets, so it is difficult to get a ranking.
Because there is the college entrance examination, one is a large-scale stepping stone (award level), and the other is a sparse independent enrollment option (must be the first at the municipal level or above), with different purposes and different risks.
The country’s college entrance examination policy basically has no benefits for candidates participating in the competition, so most candidates would rather spend their time and energy on the college entrance examination.
After all, there are very few people engaged in pure mathematics research, and even fewer people work in jobs that have a lot to do with mathematics.
Someone has conducted a follow-up study on the winners of high school mathematics competitions and concluded that these people have not achieved much in their careers.
Hu Bingsheng's "A Brief Discussion on the Achievements, Dilemmas and Solutions of Chinese Mathematics Competitions"
1. Review of the History of Chinese Mathematics Competitions Since 1956, the history of China's mathematics competitions for middle school students has been transformed. 43 years have passed. Except for the period of the Cultural Revolution, these 40 years can be roughly divided into four stages:
1. The initial stage (1956-1965) my country’s middle school students’ mathematics competition (hereinafter referred to as the “mathematics competition”)
Started in 1956, it was initiated by a group of famous mathematicians headed by Hua Luogeng and organized by the Chinese Mathematical Society and provincial and municipal mathematical societies. First, middle school student mathematics competitions were held in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan, and Gradually expanded to provincial capitals and some medium-sized cities.
Although my country’s mathematics competition started relatively late (for example, 60 years later than Hungary, more than 20 years later than the Soviet Union, and there is no national competition, due to the The personal participation and enthusiastic guidance of the leaders of the Mathematics Society and the group of mathematicians led to a strong momentum and a high level of propositions. Many famous mathematicians such as Hua Luogeng, Jiang Zehan, Su Buqing, etc. have given mathematics popularization reports and tutoring lectures for middle school students, and have given lectures on mathematics to middle school students. On this basis, a number of brilliant popular mathematics readings were written, which had a profound impact on the mathematics learning and middle school mathematics education of middle school students across the country.
However, due to the impact of the "Great Leap Forward" in 1958 During this period, the mathematics competition activities in various places were intermittent, without forming a standard, without forming a national scale, and there was no connection with the IMO. After the "Cultural Revolution" began in 1966, the mathematics competitions in various places were suspended.
2. Recovery and development stage (1978-1985)
After the overthrow of the "Gang of Four", a "spring of science" appeared in China, and the Chinese Mathematical Society quickly resumed its activities. In May 1978, another Leaders and mathematicians of the Chinese Mathematical Society, headed by Hua Luogeng, initiated and organized a national-scale mathematics competition for high school students in eight provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shaanxi, Anhui, Sichuan, Liaoning and Guangdong. Before the national finals, All relevant provinces and cities organized preliminaries and semi-finals, with hundreds of thousands of participants, an unprecedented event. After the competition, Mr. Hua Luogeng personally explained the meaning of the questions, and published the solutions to the semi-finals and national finals in various places. The social response was extremely strong. .The National Mathematics Competition continued to be held in 1979, with the number of participating provinces and cities increased to 25.
Considering the actual situation of a few remote provinces and regions, the National Mathematics Competition was changed to a "League" from 1981 - —High school mathematics leagues in various provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country, with winners evaluated by each province, municipality and autonomous region. Since then, the National High School Mathematics League has been customized and continues to this day.
At the same time, junior high school student mathematics competitions have also Launched in various places. In 1985, under the joint organization of the Chinese Mathematical Society and local teaching and research departments, the first National Junior High School Mathematics League was held in April of that year.
Although this stage was a period of "recovery" ", but due to past experience and the fact that the old mathematicians are still alive, the scale and momentum of the competition from the beginning have greatly exceeded that in the 1950s. However, the mathematics competition activities at this stage are still limited to domestic, and they are accumulating strength to IMO March.
3. Towards the glorious stage (1986-1995)
After sending two middle school students to participate in the 26th IMO as a test in 1985, they officially formed a team to participate in the IMO competition in 1986. That year He won 3 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 1 bronze medal, and ranked 4th in the overall team score. In the 10 years from then to 1995, Chinese middle school student athletes won 39 gold medals, 17 silver medals, and 4 bronze medals on the IMO podium. Block, *** won the first place in the team score five times and the second place three times. This excellent result not only inspired China, but also shocked the world. Many mathematics educators came to China to learn from it, and Professor Qiu Zonghu was also recognized for organizing the China For outstanding achievements in mathematics competitions, he won the 1993 Erdos Award from the "National Mathematics Competition League (WENMC)".
During this stage, the national high school leagues and junior high school leagues have gradually been standardized, and the mathematics winter camp has been reformed. It is the "China Mathematical Olympiad"; the selection and training of IMO contestants have been institutionalized; the mathematics competition activities have been extended to the first and second grade of junior high school and the senior grade of primary school. Since 1986, the "Hua Luogeng Gold Cup" has been held nationwide "Youth Mathematics Invitational Competition, the contestants are teenagers from the second grade to the fifth grade of elementary school. In addition, there are various levels of mathematics invitational competitions such as "Wuyang Cup", "Zuchong Cup", "Jinyun Cup", "Hope Cup", etc., as well as " Chinese Primary School Mathematics Olympiad”.
4. Cooling down and reflection stage (1996 to present)
Since the beginning of 1996, the craze for Chinese mathematics competitions has dropped sharply. Many schools have withdrawn from various mathematics competitions; provincial, Municipal first-level competitions and invitational competitions have basically stopped; most Mathematics Olympiad schools in various places have suspended; the National Junior High School Mathematics League is difficult to sustain; the number of participants in the High School Mathematics League has been greatly reduced. In 1996, the Chinese team only ranked sixth in the IMO and remained in eighth place. It fell out of the top three for the first time since the championship and runner-up in 2016.
Everyone is reflecting and summarizing the mathematics competitions of the past 20 years in an attempt to find countermeasures to get the Chinese mathematics competition out of the predicament and strive to achieve success in the new century. At that time there was a new situation.
2. Achievements in Chinese mathematics competitions in the past 20 years
1. A group of mathematics elites have been created among middle school students. In the highest level international mathematics competition IMO,
In the 12 years from 1986 to 1997 (China did not participate in 1998), she won 48 gold medals and won the first place in the team score 6 times, bringing glory to the country. This brilliant achievement is comparable to Chinese table tennis and women's volleyball. The only difference is that the former is a physical competition, and the latter is an intellectual competition. In modern times, when the development of science and technology increasingly relies on the development of human intelligence, the latter is obviously more meaningful. This shows the superb wisdom of the Chinese people and heralds the Chinese brilliant prospects for future development.
2. Among young students, the widespread development of mathematics competitions has stimulated interest in learning mathematics and enthusiasm for learning scientific knowledge. "Mathematics is the gymnastics of thinking." Generally speaking, students who are interested in mathematics and learn well will have an easier time getting started in learning knowledge in other subjects, and their overall academic performance will not be bad.
3. The development of mathematics competitions in various schools has prompted mathematics teachers to continuously improve their professional skills
so that the quality of mathematics education in the entire school has been correspondingly improved. Recently In the past 20 years, middle school mathematics teachers have published a large number of teaching and research papers in dozens of middle school mathematics teaching magazines, many of which discuss issues in mathematics competitions.
4. Mathematics competitions, especially the outstanding results achieved in IMO, have publicized the significance, value and status of mathematics as a basic subject in middle schools to the general public. At the same time, it also It has greatly encouraged the enthusiasm of citizens to learn science and technology. Recalling that before and after the advent of the "Spring of Science", there were two things about mathematics that had the most social impact. One is "Goethe" written by Xu Chi Bach Conjecture" (published in "People's Daily"), the first is the 20th IMO test questions (published in "Reference News" 1978-08-19). The latter caused controversy in my country's mathematics education circles due to a printing error in the third question. A whirlwind that lasted for more than half a year has involved a large number of middle school mathematics teachers and university mathematics professors, and has naturally attracted the attention of the whole society.
3. Reasons for the Dilemma
The difficulties faced by Chinese mathematics competitions in recent years are caused by many reasons, including external factors, but the fundamental ones are internal factors. Analysis These reasons help us find targeted solutions to our difficulties.
1. Mathematics competitions lack unified national organizational leadership. For example, "invitational competitions" and "communication competitions" can be organized by certain departments (such as teaching and research institutions, certain schools, newspapers and periodicals) or even certain individuals. To organize. The organizers of the mathematics competition lack self-discipline. The mathematics "Olympiad School" is opened at will, tutoring classes are held at will, charging standards are set at will, and students' rest time is occupied at will. The participating students are getting younger and younger, and some are even in the third grade of elementary school. Training for mathematics competitions; students in some schools are overburdened and miserable. There are also a very few people who fish in troubled waters for personal gain. The consequences of this are: the reputation of mathematics competitions is ruined and some There have been many misunderstandings and criticisms from leaders and the public about this originally beneficial activity.
2. Criticisms about mathematics competitions circulated in the society
One of the criticisms: It is believed that the mathematics Olympiad gold medal is only the preliminary performance of students, and its "gold content" cannot be compared with the sports Olympic gold medal , because the gold medal in sports Olympics is the final result and brings glory to the country.
Criticism No. 2: Mathematics competitions cannot cultivate mathematicians. Many of the winners of mathematics competitions did not choose mathematics and switched to other majors. .
Criticism No. 3: Mathematics competition test questions lack creativity, which is not conducive to the cultivation of students’ creative thinking and abilities.
Most of these criticisms stem from misunderstandings about mathematics competitions. Although some mathematics circles Or people in the education sector think so, but they either have never participated in mathematics competitions and their organization, or they are biased.
3. The questions are too deep and difficult, and are divorced from the reality of middle schools
Due to the lack of unified leadership or centralized management of various mathematics competitions, the lack of dedicated research on proposition work, and the lack of dedicated people, the domestic mathematics competitions have emerged The level of test questions varies. The content of the National High School League and China Mathematics Olympiad test questions is getting deeper and more difficult year by year. Some of the questions are even based on advanced mathematics knowledge and methods. This not only discourages ordinary middle school students, but also middle school mathematics teachers. Feeling difficult and afraid to intervene.
4. Funding is not guaranteed. Mathematics competitions are not as good as any single sports competition or literary competition in China, and the funding has always been pitifully low. Because the mathematics competitions are "not good-looking" and "not fun", they have no advertising effect. Even with minimal financial support, there are The place has been completely cancelled, and must "self-fund"; and students are not allowed to charge, otherwise it will be "arbitrary charging". This makes the mathematics competition activities become a source of water. Now no matter what competition, chess, Not to mention card games and ball games, a game can easily cost hundreds of thousands, millions, or tens of millions, but math competitions cannot. I wonder where "fairness" lies?
4. Where is the way out? ?
1. First of all, we must strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of domestic mathematics competition activities.
The main leaders of the Chinese Mathematical Society and well-known domestic mathematicians should pay homage to the older generation such as Hua Luogeng Mathematicians study, clearly realize their social responsibilities, and strengthen guidance for mathematics competitions. Not only must they personally participate in the propositions, lectures, and awards of national mathematics competitions, but they must also mobilize members of the Mathematics Society to participate in this work. At the same time, they must Promote the significance of mathematics competitions to government leaders at all levels and public opinion, clarify misunderstandings and criticisms about mathematics competitions, and win their support.
Because of the leadership of the older generation of Chinese Mathematical Society leaders such as Hua Luogeng Enthusiasm and hard work are responsible for the start, development and glory of the Chinese Mathematics Competition. Similarly, with the enthusiasm and efforts of contemporary and future leaders of the Chinese Mathematical Society, the Chinese Mathematics Competition can get rid of the current predicament and move towards glory again.
2. Strengthen publicity and clarify confusing understandings
Mathematics newspapers and periodicals should be used to confidently promote the significance and correct practices of mathematics competitions, criticize all kinds of specious confusing understandings and criticisms, and present the facts. , be reasonable and clarify various misunderstandings.
For example, as mentioned above about the gold content of gold medals, it is precisely because the middle school students' mathematics (as well as physics, chemistry, etc.) Olympiad gold medal winners today are the preliminary results revealed, they are even more brilliant. Their scientific achievements are yet to come, and their gold medals are more valuable and worthy of the people of the country to be proud of.
Another example is that mathematics competitions cannot cultivate mathematicians. This is because they do not understand the purpose of mathematics competitions. Because mathematics competitions (Especially competitions at the provincial, municipal and school levels) The main purpose is not to train mathematicians, but to stimulate students' interest in learning mathematics and science. But in fact, among the winners of mathematics competitions, there are quite a few Quantity has chosen mathematics as a lifelong career, and many have become mathematicians or mathematics workers. This is unquestionable. This is true abroad, and it is also true at home. Many of the contemporary young and middle-aged mathematicians in our country are winners of mathematics competitions at all levels. Winners, such as Yang Le and Zhong Jiaqing, were the winners of mathematics competitions in the 1950s.
As for the fact that the mathematics competition test questions lack creativity and are too deep and difficult, this can be improved. The creativity of mathematics questions in the college entrance examination is not as good as that of mathematics. Aren’t competitions also improving year by year?
3. Improve the system, classify guidance, and ensure key points
In order to order and standardize the mathematics competition activities, it is necessary to conduct research on the basis of investigation and research. We should coordinate with relevant parties to improve the national mathematics competition system at all levels. In national mathematics competitions, we should focus on the proposition and organizational guidance of high school leagues, junior high school leagues and the "Hua Luogeng Gold Cup" Youth Invitational Competition, and the training and organization of middle school student contestants from all over the country. The selection work is entrusted to the leadership and management of the provincial and municipal mathematical societies. As for individual schools or small mathematics competitions between several schools, there is no need to interfere. This is like a basketball game for employees of a certain unit, or a friendly basketball match between several units. The Chinese Basketball Association will not interfere. Same.
In order to ensure that high-level Chinese players participate in IMO every year without increasing the burden on students in most schools, it is necessary to provide classified guidance for different situations.
Since 1985, two teams have been sent to the IMO on a trial basis. From the time when Chinese players participated in the 25th IMO to the time when the national team was formed in 1998 to prepare for the 39th IMO (Chinese players did not participate in this competition for some reason), a total of 80 players (including 1 person who participated twice) were selected. National team. These 80 students are distributed in 18 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country, accounting for two-thirds of the 32 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in the country (including Chongqing). According to the author's incomplete statistics, they come from 40 middle schools, including the High School Affiliated to Peking University 9 people, 8 people from Wuhan Iron and Steel No. 3 Middle School, 6 people from Huanggang Middle School, 4 people from the High School Affiliated to Hunan Normal University, 4 people from the High School Affiliated to Harbin Normal University, 3 people from the High School Affiliated to South China Normal University, and 3 people from the High School Affiliated to Fudan University.
These seven people There are 37 students in this school***, accounting for almost half of the total. In addition, among the other 43 students, 8 are from the science experimental class of Peking University and 3 are from the science experimental class of Tsinghua University. These students together account for about 60% of the total. .
In addition to these seven middle schools, there are also Shanghai Xiangming Middle School, Qingdao No. 2 Middle School, Jinan Shandong Experimental Middle School, Fujian Fu'an No. 1 Middle School and Shenyang Yucai Middle School that have trained two IMO players.
Of course, these 80 junior high school students may not necessarily have studied in these 40 middle schools. But judging from the above statistics, the source of IMO players is still quite concentrated.
In this way As soon as it comes, it provides us with a basis for classification guidance. For qualified schools, we can select a number of schools and establish a number of national-level mathematics Olympiad training bases. In particular, the two science experimental classes of Peking University and Tsinghua University must persist. Done.
4. Strive to establish a mathematics competition fund
Similar to various sports and literary competitions, if you want to persist for a long time and win international gold medals, you must have funds guaranteed. Competition funds will come from Originally, it was nothing more than government funding, fees paid by participating units and social sponsorship; in the past, it mainly relied on government funding. With the changes in social economy, government funding has become less and less, and the fees are suspected of "arbitrary charging". Social sponsorship has not opened up, so there is an urgent need to solve the problem of financial support for mathematics competitions. One alternative is to establish a China Mathematics Competition Fund. The funds are divided into national, provincial and municipal levels, and are raised and managed by the Chinese Mathematical Society and local mathematical societies. Use. The "Hua Luogeng Gold Cup" Youth Invitational Competition has fund support, and the National High and Junior High School Mathematics League, China Olympics and China IMO training team training and selection should have special fund support.
The source of the fund, in addition to In addition to government funding, it mainly raises funds from relevant universities (those who admit students from the IMO training team), relevant scholarship foundations and the general public. Sponsors can be given "naming rights" for competitions, "naming rights" for fund trophies, etc.
< p>As long as our publicity work is done well, the wish to establish the China Mathematics Competition Fund will surely come true.5. Integration with quality education in primary and secondary schools
Mathematics competitions are originally an auxiliary part of school mathematics education, a supplement to school classroom teaching, and are in the "second classroom" status. For most schools, tutoring and training activities for mathematics competitions can only be carried out among a small number of mathematics enthusiasts, and must strictly follow the principle of student voluntariness.
The content of mathematics competition activities must be consistent with the classroom The teaching content should be coordinated. The mathematics competition test questions should be of moderate difficulty, full of "new, novel, clever and interesting" creativity, and pay attention to the connection between mathematics and life. The test questions of national competitions and China Mathematical Olympiads should of course have a certain depth. and difficulty, but we should mainly work on the penetration of modern mathematical ideas and methods, rather than blindly making advanced mathematics more complicated. In this regard, we can get inspiration from the design of Canadian and American mathematics competition questions.
In order to ensure that mathematics competition activities at all levels are consistent with quality education, the organizing department must study and formulate mathematics competition regulations and self-discipline guidelines for organizers; experts must organize the collection and research of mathematics competition test questions, and award and evaluate outstanding test questions. In addition, It is necessary to establish a feasible incentive mechanism to reward Olympiad gold medal winners and relevant coaches. In short, as long as everyone works hard, the future of China’s mathematics competition is bright and promising. The above is only a personal review of my country’s mathematics in the past 20 years. Regarding the review and reflection of the competition, I would like to discuss it with the majority of Mathematics Society members and middle school mathematics teachers. I hope everyone will criticize if it is inappropriate.