President Huang Xin Writes an Article in China Education Daily Focusing on Strengthening the Building of Grassroots Teaching Organizations in Colleges

2023-03-25

The teaching department is the most typical grass-roots teaching organization in colleges and universities, an important part of the education system in colleges and universities, the "first mile" to implement the fundamental task of cultivating people by virtue, and the "last mile" to finally implement all the work in the university. With the reform and development of China's higher education, the functions of teaching departments are constantly expanding. In the new era, teaching departments of colleges and universities undertake a series of important functions such as drafting and implementing personnel training plans, carrying out teaching management, organizing teaching and research activities, promoting teaching reform, advancing teachers' development, providing social services and conducting foreign cooperation. Therefore, we should further shift the focus downwards and vigorously strengthen the building of grass-roots teaching organizations such as teaching departments.

To adhere to the building of departments by political education and improve the ability of cultivating people by virtue, first we should strengthen the political development, guide all teachers to continuously improve their political level and always keep a high degree of consistency with the CPC Central Committee in thought and action. Second, we should make great efforts to curriculum ideological and political building, insist on arming the minds of teachers and students with Xi Jinping's socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, and integrate the cultivation and practice of socialist core values into the whole process of teaching and educating people. Third, we should adhere to the principle of "all-round education". Teachers should not only impart knowledge to students, but also shape students' personality and become the life tutors of students. Fourth, we should strengthen the building of teachers' morality and style, guide teachers to follow the example of typical morality model and strive to be good teachers with ideals and beliefs, moral sentiments, solid knowledge and benevolence.

To adhere to the establishment of departments by teaching and improve the quality of talent training, first, we should implement the new development concept, transform the new development concept into the mechanism, method and action for the building reform of teaching departments, and make great efforts in specialty orientation, curriculum system rebuilding, talent training mode and assessment method, so as to achieve "output orientation, student center and continuous improvement". It is necessary to attach great importance to and scientifically compile the high-quality talent training programs that are full of reform and innovation spirit and conform to the characteristics of the times. Second, we should promote the characteristic development of specialty transformation, actively break down the barriers of traditional specialties and form a digitalized, intelligent and systematized specialty cluster based on scene and platform, and concise the specialty characteristics, take the road of differentiated development, and realize interdisciplinary integration and transformation. Third, we should continue to create high-quality courses, strive to create "golden courses", introduce new courses, select massive open online course, set up cross-courses, eliminate "poor courses", and build a number of national and provincial first-class courses. Fourth, we should organize and carry out good teaching research, incorporate curriculum ideological and political education, teaching and building of new specialties, and high-quality development of education into the teaching research category of grass-roots teaching organizations, and promote grass-roots teaching organizations to further enhance the standardized and scientific degree of teaching management.

To adhere to the reinforcement of departments by scientific research and improve the building level of discipline, first, we should build a high-level scientific research team, carry out organized scientific research and take serving the national strategy as the highest pursuit; organize interdisciplinary teams and strive to continuously achieve specialty original innovation breakthroughs. Second we should promote the transformation of scientific research achievements, actively meet the specialty needs of regional economic and social development, deepen the reform of the combination mode of industry, university, institute and user, and accelerate the transformation of S&T achievements into real productivity. Third, we should promote the effective integration of science and education, establish the idea that teaching is also academic, realize the common improvement of teaching academics and scientific research academics through knowledge sharing, and realize that teaching promotes scientific research and scientific research feeds back teaching, so as to transform the advantages in discipline, scientific research and resources into teaching advantages and improve the quality of talent training. Fourth, we should improve the quality of postgraduate training, make discipline building and postgraduate education complement and support each other.

To adhere to the development of departments with talents and build a high-level faculty, first, we should establish the concept that talents are the first resource, provide the warmest, most intimate and most direct service for talents, and continuously improve the level of faculty by sharing and flexibly introducing teachers, and tapping the potential of existing teachers. Second, we should strengthen the building of young teachers, improve the mechanism of "passing on experiences" and give full play to the leading role of outstanding teachers, establish the systems of collective lesson preparation, classroom observation, teaching reflection, etc., and take teaching discussions, mutual lectures, competitions, etc. to improve the ability of young teachers. In addition, we should provide opportunities for the growth of young teachers, and provide help in the training of "double-certification" teachers, the study abroad of young teachers, and the declaration of study abroad funds. Third, we should build a team of high-quality department heads. CPC and government leaders of the university and schools should further strengthen the management and guidance of department heads, strengthen the training, investigation and recommendation of department heads, and truly build the department heads into the backbone and mainstay for the university development. Fourth, we should pay attention to team building, give full play to the demonstration and leading role of national and provincial excellent teaching teams and famous teachers, national and provincial first-class specialties and first-class curriculum leaders.

To adhere to the governance of departments by innovation and take the initiative to solve the development barrier, first, we should innovate organizational setup,  closely link the elements of discipline development and specialty construction, keep up with the needs of talent training based on the national strategic needs and economic and social development, innovate the grass-roots teaching organization form, encourage the flow and co-construction of teachers between disciplines and departments, and set up a new grass-roots teaching organization across disciplines and departments. Second, we should innovate the operation mode, rely on modern information technology, carry out online and offline teaching research activities and classroom teaching practice by using information and intelligent teaching means. Third, we should innovate the system construction, formulate and improve various work systems, such as collective lesson preparation system, lecture attendance system, assessment system and teaching quality evaluation system. Fourth, we should innovate the incentive mechanism, reasonably define the rights, responsibilities and benefits of grass-roots teaching organizations, and gradually shift the discourse power of professional title promotion, performance appraisal, project conclusion, talent evaluation and other related aspects to grass-roots teaching organizations, so that grass-roots teaching organizations can give full play to their governance autonomy and reshape the resource allocation and responsibility sharing among the university, departments and teachers.