In order to further deepen teaching reform, improve the quality of talent training, implement the fundamental task of morality cultivation, promote the teaching reform of education majors, and promote system exchanges, on 18 November 2021, the Open University of China (OUC) held a teaching work conference on Education majors.
Gu Xiaohua, deputy director of the Academic Affairs Department of the OUC, Zhang Xia, vice dean of the OUC Faculty of Education, attended the conference. Heads of Education majors and representative teachers from the OUC headquarters attended the on-site conference. A total of 246 relevant personnel from Education majors, including full-time teachers from the OUC headquarters and leaders, course coordinators, and tutors from each branch, participated in the conference via video link.
Gu Xiaohua pointed out that the high-quality development of Education majors should adhere to two key points: fostering virtue through education and creating excellence and improving quality. The ideological and political education construction for courses relate to Education majors should be “more complete, more detailed, and more practical,” and should be promoted in terms of discipline construction, curriculum construction, education and teaching across the whole process, taking ideological and political idea as the key for implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education. The development of education majors should create excellence via quality enhancement and successfully reform “teachers, teaching, and teaching materials”; integrate knowledge and practice; create a complete and systematic teaching model; and promote the high-quality development of education majors.
Zhang Xia introduced the general situation of the construction of Education majors at the OUC, including its offerings, enrolment, curriculum construction, teaching faculty and teaching team construction, and teaching reform concepts and goals.
The conference invited Professor Li Saiqiang from Shandong University to give a special lecture entitled “Thoughts on and Methods of Teaching Design for Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education”. Teachers from education majors in the OUC system participated in the lecture via remote learning. Professor Li elaborated on the topic from four aspects — common problems and significance, direction and key points, teaching design, and the learning effectiveness evaluation of curriculum-based ideological and political education construction, — providing detailed guidance for ideological and political education construction in courses related to Education majors.
The Primary school Education major held a discipline and curriculum construction seminar on the afternoon of 18 November. At the seminar, head of the major Jia Yuchao introduced the adjustment of the 2020 Primary school Education training programme and the possible impact of the adjustment on the implementation of the teaching plan. Zhang Dai from the Jiangsu Branch, Wu Yuxian from the Tianjin Branch, and Li Chunyan from the Xinjiang Branch were invited to introduce their practices and experiences of implementing the ideological and political tasks of the course. Li Chunyan from the Xinjiang branch, Mei Lin from the Hubei branch, and Fang Hongchang from the Hunan Branch were invited to introduce the implementation of their teaching plans, as well as their experiences and the problems they encountered during resource construction. The participants held a heated discussion on the experience and practices shared by the above-mentioned speakers and praised their achievements. Finally, the participants discussed the current problems facing discipline construction and curriculum resources, and proposed solutions to deal with the specified problems.
The Preschool Education major also held a teaching work seminar on the afternoon of 18 November. At the seminar, head of the major Zhang Feng introduced specific measures for the teaching reform of the Preschool Education major in terms of training objectives, curriculum resources, discipline rules, and curriculum-based ideological and political education. Ye Shan from the Chengdu Branch, Deng Honghong from the Heilongjiang Branch, and Li Cizhang from the Hunan Branch were invited to share their experiences in carrying out curriculum-based ideological and political education construction for the Preschool Education major. Zeng Yangxuan from the OUC, Chen Junxian from the Zhejiang Branch, and Chen Shengbing from the Xi’an Branch discussed how to build better Preschool Education curriculum resources from the perspective of course resource construction, teaching resource application, and learning evaluation design. During the free discussion session, the heads of the major from each branch enthusiastically voiced their opinions on the two topics. The atmosphere of the meeting was enthusiastic.
On the afternoon of 18 November, the Education Management major held a seminar on curriculum resource construction and teaching design of curriculum-based ideological and political education. During the seminar, head of the major Lin Xiuqin introduced the Education Management major’s curriculum system and introduced some of the major’s featured courses and excellent cases of online course design. The seminar invited the OUC’s Zhang Xia, Yang Yongbo, and Ma Tengfei to introduce learning resource construction, online course construction, teaching resource application, and teaching organisation for family education courses and mental health education courses. Shan Yumei from the Hebei Branch was invited to share the branch’s development of the Education Management major. Wang Hui from the Inner Mongolia Branch, Yang Leijing from the Xi'an Branch, and Zhou Xun from the Liaoning Branch were invited to share their own practical experiences of the resource construction of Education Management courses and teaching design for curriculum-based ideological and political education. During the discussion and exchange session, the participants conducted in-depth exchanges on the development prospects of the Education Management major, the construction of unique courses, and how to succeed in curriculum-based ideological and political education construction.
By Liu Jinglu, OUC