"Current teacher education practices emphasize undergraduate-level training, with only a handful of '985' universities and ministry-affiliated normal universities offering a very limited number of Master's in Education programs, far from meeting the demand," said Yangzhou University President Ding Jianning, highlighting the insufficient scale of Master's in Education programs and their inability to meet the needs of basic education.
He believes that graduates from current teacher education programs are struggling to keep pace with evolving education trends, and there is an urgent need to grant "direct admission from undergraduate to graduate programs" to universities with ample experience in Master's and Doctorate in Education programs, while gradually increasing enrollment quotas and expanding enrollment scope.
Changing Master's in Education Student Demographics
Master's in Education programs primarily aim to cultivate outstanding secondary school teachers. Since the inception of pilot enrollment in 1997, these programs have existed in China for nearly 30 years.
"Secondary school teachers constitute a large professional group, and the importance of enhancing their educational attainment for improving the quality of basic education is self-evident and serves as the impetus for program expansion," said Li Dongfeng, professor at the School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, and an inaugural supervisor of Master's in Education programs. He observed that student demographics have undergone significant shifts, evolving from "in-service, non-full-time training" initially to solely enrolling recent undergraduate graduates.
Li explained that early Master's in Education students were primarily experienced, senior teachers from secondary schools nationwide who sought to transform their educational philosophies, enhance their educational cognition, and improve their academic qualifications. As these students brought real-world experience and clear objectives to their studies, "the quality of early Master's in Education programs was relatively high."
However, around 2010, the demographics of Master's in Education students changed fundamentally, with in-service secondary school teachers gradually withdrawing, and recent graduates from teacher education programs and a small number of graduates from non-teacher education programs becoming the majority.
Nevertheless, Li emphasized that Master's in Education is a type of professional master's degree, and compared with academic master's degrees, its history is short, and "universities, supervisors, and students are still feeling their way."
According to Ding Jianning, current university graduate enrollment methods are not effective in selecting and cultivating high-quality teachers for future basic education, and there is an urgent need for system innovation and policy incentives in terms of university cultivation of future basic education teachers.
Cultivating Master's and Doctorate in Education Candidates: Top-level Planning
At the national level, there have been guiding documents regarding the enhancement of Master's and Doctorate in Education programs.
In January 2018, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the New Era Teachers' Team" were released, proposing to "support high-level comprehensive universities in implementing teacher education" and emphasizing "innovating teacher training models, highlighting teacher education characteristics, focusing on cultivating Master's in Education candidates, and appropriately cultivating Doctorate in Education candidates, producing high-quality, well-rounded teachers with solid subject knowledge, exceptional professional capabilities, and deep educational sentiments."
The aforementioned document also proposed to comprehensively improve the quality of primary and secondary school teachers and establish a high-quality, professional teaching workforce. Specific requirements include "promoting structural reforms on the supply side of teacher training, focusing on cultivating well-rounded, highly competent undergraduate-level teachers for compulsory education schools, and cultivating graduate-level teachers with outstanding expertise and profound knowledge for secondary education schools. Vigorously promoting graduate-level teacher training, increasing Master's in Education enrollment quotas, and prioritizing western and rural areas."
Ding Jianning informed China Science Daily that the Ministry of Education has taken concrete actions following the aforementioned guiding documents.
On July 25, 2023, the "Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Implementing the National Excellent Primary and Secondary School Teacher Training Plan" were released, initiating the implementation of the National Excellent Primary and Secondary School Teacher Training Plan (referred to as the "National Excellence Plan"). The plan supports "Double First-Class" universities in cultivating outstanding graduate-level teachers for primary and secondary schools, and initially supports Beijing University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and other universities, together with 6 ministry-affiliated normal universities, a total of 30 "Double First-Class" universities, to undertake the training tasks. Starting from 2023, each university will select no less than 30 outstanding recent undergraduate graduates in science and engineering through recommendation and selection to pursue academic or professional master's or Master's in Education degrees in relevant disciplines and fields of science and engineering, while simultaneously conducting a secondary selection among science and engineering graduate students, with a focus on cultivating a group of high-quality science subject teachers at the graduate level for primary and secondary schools.
According to data released by the Ministry of Education, in 2023, ministry-affiliated normal universities planned to enroll 8300 publicly funded teacher education students and 12420 high-quality teacher education students.
Ding believes that the data indicate that current training practices heavily emphasize the cultivation of undergraduate-level teacher education, and the number of Master's in Education candidates is extremely limited, far from meeting societal demand.
Citing Jiangsu, a province with a strong education system, as an example, he pointed out that as of 2022, the proportion of teachers with master's degrees in primary, junior high, and high schools in the province were 4.8%, 8.3%, and 24.6%, respectively. He believes that these educational attainment levels and structures cannot adapt to the requirements of an educationally strong province or a strong nation, and they fall short of the requirements set out in related documents.
Proposals for Increasing the Number of Cultivating Universities and Removing Restrictions on Teacher Education Majors
According to Ding, reforming the enrollment and cultivation of Master's and Doctorate in Education candidates is imperative.
First is expanding enrollment. "It is recommended that more qualified universities be granted 'direct admission from undergraduate to graduate programs,' gradually increase enrollment quotas, strengthen the recommendation system, and remove restrictions on teacher education majors." Ding proposed that in addition to the aforementioned 30 "Double First-Class" universities, many other universities have a solid foundation in teacher education and are qualified to cultivate Master's and Doctorate in Education candidates, and these universities should be given corresponding enrollment quotas based on assessment and recognition. Teacher Education Enrollment
Professor Ding Jianning suggests that teacher education programs should not be limited to students with undergraduate degrees in education.
"We can select candidates from all undergraduate majors who aspire to become teachers," he said. "The selection process should focus on their subject knowledge, capacity for continuous growth, and commitment to lifelong teaching."
Ding also recommends opening up master's and doctoral programs in education to front-line K-12 teachers. He proposes specific measures, such as allowing outstanding teachers to directly pursue master's or doctoral degrees through an "application-assessment" process.
For these teachers, Ding emphasizes the importance of assessing their practical teaching experience and research abilities. Recognizing the challenges they face in balancing work and study, he advocates for flexible credit systems and dual mentorship models to support their professional development.
China Science Daily (March 20, 2024, Section 3)
