From 13 to 15 November 2019, the Open University of China (OUC) 2019 Teacher Development Workshop which was jointly sponsored by the OUC Department of Student Affairs and Teacher Development and the Education Research Institute and organised by Hebei Radio and TV University (Hebei RTVU), was held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province in China.
Liu Chen, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the OUC; Professor Pang Haishao from Beijing Institute of Technology, a special expert at the OUC Teacher Development Research Centre; Professor Zhou Huali from Beijing Union University; 12 experts from the headquarters of the OUC and the Shanxi, Liaoning, Anhui, Fujian, and Chengdu branches and the Xiangxi branch school of OUC Hunan Branch; Ji Xianping, secretary of the Party Committee of Hebei RTVU; president Duan Runbao; and vice presidents Guo Lizhi and Wang Qin attended the meeting.
Duan Runbao, president of the OUC Hebei Branch, and Wang Ying, dean of the Education Research Institute of the OUC headquarters, delivered speeches. Liu Chen, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the OUC, gave a speech and awarded honorary appointment letters to distinguished experts of the Teacher Development Research Centre. Zhang Luanqiao, director of the OUC Department of Student Affairs and Teacher Development, presided over the meeting.
Liu Chen pointed out that under the guidance of the spirit of the 4th Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening the Reform of the Construction of Teaching Teams in the New Era of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China Education Modernisation 2035, and 40 Items of Higher Education in the New Era (Opinions on Speeding up the Construction of High-Level Undergraduate Education and Improving the Ability of Personnel Training in an All-Round Way) by the Ministry of Education, the construction of the OUC teaching team should be combined with the strategic development goals of the OUC and the requirements of the 1233 project. Based on the three aspects of "new challenges created by the new era and situation", "new requirements created by new policies and systems", and "new missions created by the new journey and transformation", we should strengthen in-depth research into the professional development of open university teachers, including position classifications, allocation of teachers, ability standards, and growth paths, accelerate the transformation of research results and realise the mutual promotion of research and practical work, so as to successfully build teaching teams to promote the work of "creating excellence and improving quality.”
Zhou Huali and Pang Haishao gave reports entitled "Academic Development and Promotion Strategies for Teachers and Teaching in Colleges in the Era of Intelligent Education" and "Teacher and Teaching Development Methods: A Perspective of the Construction of Education Development Centre” respectively, providing good ideas and suggestions for the development and research of teachers in the OUC. The participating experts also exchanged views on and discussed the OUC Teachers (Teaching Series) Ability Standards, the Basic Requirements of Teachers Allocation of the OUC (Draft for Comments), and the OUC’s Dynamic Teacher Management System Construction Plan, and put forward constructive opinions and suggestions for the development of ability training and education in the OUC school running system.
The meeting required that the spirit of the National Education Conference and a series of documents from the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on "Strengthening the Construction of Teachers" should be thoroughly implemented, a linkage mechanism for the construction and management of teachers in the OUC school running system should be explored, the construction of teachers' moral integrity and the cultivation of teachers’ ideological and political abilities should be strengthened, and the construction of teaching teams should be made a foundational aspect of system construction, so as to provide a guarantee for teaching teams to improve the quality of education at the OUC.
By Liu Ying,OUC