Analysis of the Phenomenon of Chinese Educational Involution and Recommendations

Abstract

At the end of 2020, the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, a word suddenly became particularly popular, called "involution". Originally, this is a sociological term that refers to a social phenomenon in which the competition for social resources increases when resources are limited and there are no incremental resources. But as soon as the word appeared, it was almost immediately associated with the field of education. More and more people are trying to improve themselves by taking extracurricular classes, studying abroad, and so on, in order to get more educational and social resources, which is undoubtedly a kind of "involution". Under the current situation of educational involution, this paper will study the phenomenon of educational involution in depth, which will help to understand the concept of educational involution, its causes, solutions, and future development trends. This paper examines the causes of educational involution from three perspectives, including historical, economic, and social causes. Then, it provides two suggestions. The first suggestion is that students need to have a clear understanding of their preferences and goals and make themselves as a reference for academic progress rather than other peers; the second suggestion is to expand educational resources to reduce educational involution. Finally, it is speculated that the trend of education after involution is that the criteria for evaluating students will become diversified, and scores will no longer be the only evaluation criterion.