[Paper Keywords] University curriculum system teaching content innovation
Abstract: The curriculum system and teaching content directly reflect the training purpose and objectives, and are the core links of training talents and improving the quality of education. In this sense, the innovation of college curriculum system and teaching content is the focus and difficulty of the whole teaching reform. To succeed in higher education reform, we must start with the curriculum system and teaching content. This paper focuses on the significance, principles, strategies and several pairs of relationships that need to be handled well in the innovation of curriculum system and teaching content in colleges and universities.
With the new development of international and domestic situation, information technology, as a lever to promote the development of knowledge economy, is playing an increasingly important role. Under the background of knowledge economy, how to objectively understand and grasp the basic trend of the development of higher education curriculum system and teaching content in China and actively seek innovative strategies for the future curriculum system and teaching content has become an important practical topic.
First, the significance of innovation in college curriculum system and teaching content
First of all, it is the need to adapt to the requirements of society, economy and continuous development and improve the quality of personnel training. The quality of talent training in colleges and universities is the embodiment of a school's comprehensive strength. If the curriculum system and teaching content of a major or school can reflect the reasonable knowledge structure, ability level and quality requirements of the talents needed in the employment field of the major or school completely and uniquely, then the quality of its graduates will be high, the competitiveness will be strong, and the school's running level and adaptability will be strong. In other words, the popularity of graduates of a major or a school depends on the degree to which the curriculum system and teaching content of the major or school meet the needs of society. Whether the curriculum system and teaching content of colleges and universities are reasonable will directly affect the quality of personnel training.
Second, the need to promote the continuous development of individuals. The curriculum system and teaching content of colleges and universities should promote the continuous development of students. Specifically, it is to provide students with a set of knowledge, skills and quality system for learning, survival and development. The curriculum system and teaching content of colleges and universities are just like the different nutrition provided by universities to students of different disciplines, majors and levels according to the different needs of society? Recipes? Each student can choose his favorite menu and taste it accordingly. Gourmet? , to? Rotten? They need knowledge, ability and quality suitable for the reality and future social and economic development in order to grow and develop continuously.
Third, the previous curriculum system and teaching content have many disadvantages and are out of date. For example, the lack of in-depth analysis of scientific and technological development makes the course content obsolete; Lack of understanding of social and economic needs leads to the disconnection between curriculum content and social needs; Lack of in-depth understanding of the content elements of the curriculum system leads to the repetition of the curriculum content; The lack of systematic research on the overall structure of the curriculum leads to the increase in the number of courses, the construction of the theory-centered curriculum implementation model, and the cultivation of applied talents are relatively ignored.
Second, the principle of innovation in curriculum system and teaching content in colleges and universities
The first is to broaden the knowledge. The innovation of curriculum system and teaching content in colleges and universities must emphasize the mastery of students' basic knowledge, broaden the professional caliber, pay attention to cultivating talents' development potential and devote themselves to cultivating talents' innovative ability. Some experts pointed out that the talents we cultivate should be broad in caliber, strong in foundation, strong in ability and high in quality in order to meet the diverse needs of society for talents. Offering courses related to basic quality and basic ability in this major can provide students with space and conditions for full self-development, which is conducive to cultivating multi-specification, multi-level and distinctive compound talents and fully meet the needs of society for talents in various fields.
The second is the frontier. The reform of curriculum system and teaching content must pay attention to absorbing the latest scientific and technological achievements and keep the forefront of the discipline. Only by keeping teachers and students at the forefront of scientific and technological development can we keep up with the rapid development of science and technology, cultivate innovative talents and nurture original scientific and technological achievements.
The third is honesty. The curriculum system and teaching content are based on disciplines, and each discipline is a complete system. Teaching content should ensure the internal integrity of basic principles, principles and knowledge. Some teaching contents only pay attention to static and scattered specific knowledge, but lack dynamic and developing overall scientific thinking methods and scientific development trends, which are conducive to cultivating students' innovative spirit. In this way, students can neither master the development law of each science itself, nor master what they have learned, let alone reach the height of innovation and development.
The fourth is practical principles. The reform of curriculum system and teaching content must strengthen practical teaching. Practice teaching is a process of combining theoretical knowledge with social production practice. Students can not only improve their practical operation ability in practice, but also make independent knowledge units in theoretical teaching in practice? Series connection? Get up and achieve an overall grasp of professional knowledge. Scientific and technological innovation itself is a practical activity, and emphasizing the practical principle can also make talents on the right track earlier. Innovation? Only with perceptual knowledge can we improve the accumulation of talents' innovative literacy.
The fifth is personalization. Individualization is embodied in two aspects. On the one hand, we should pay attention to the school's personality, make full use of the existing resources and school-running traditions of each school in the reform of curriculum system and teaching content, and break the status quo of "one thousand schools" in higher education. Features? Education to achieve diversification and multi-level personnel training. On the other hand, we should pay attention to the personality of talents, and fully consider the differences of students' learning interests, learning motivations and learning methods in the design of curriculum system and teaching content, so as to ensure that students' basic knowledge is solid and provide a broad space for the personalized development of all kinds of talents.
Thirdly, the innovation strategy of curriculum system and teaching content in colleges and universities.
(A) the curriculum system and teaching content should further reflect the characteristics of integration.
The so-called integration of curriculum system and teaching content means that the curriculum and teaching content of colleges and universities should reflect the characteristics of today's knowledge or discipline integration, break the situation that arts and sciences are not connected, make arts and sciences penetrate each other, and combine professional knowledge with general knowledge. On the one hand, the all-round development of university curriculum and teaching content is influenced by the highly comprehensive development of contemporary science and technology, on the other hand, the solution of major problems in social production and life requires multidisciplinary cooperation. The cultivation of modern senior professionals can no longer be confined to the narrow knowledge in the past, but must be replaced by a broader knowledge base and a broader cultural literacy. Only in this way can we meet the needs of scientific, technological and social development. Since? Is higher education facing the reform plan of teaching content and curriculum system in 2 1 century? Since its implementation, many colleges and universities have carried out drastic reforms in this regard and achieved certain results. The author believes that in the process of curriculum system and teaching content innovation, it is necessary to further strengthen the integration.
(1) Literature, science and engineering permeate each other in the curriculum. Whitehead said: technical education is incomplete without humanistic education, and there is no humanistic education without technical education. Students should be cultivated into people with knowledge and skills. ? From a global perspective, since 1950s, almost all universities that have carried out comprehensive curriculum reform have adopted this method, and its basic practice is to let students in a certain subject choose courses in other fields. Universities in some countries even regard this method as one of the basic requirements for graduates, aiming at giving students a broader vision and a richer foundation. In this respect, although our country started late, it is also expanding the professional caliber through the moderate introduction of different fields, different disciplines and different professional knowledge, so that the single knowledge education suitable for cultivating professional talents can be transformed into the general education suitable for cultivating comprehensive knowledge structure and intelligent structure.
(2) Set up comprehensive majors. Setting up some comprehensive new majors according to school conditions is an advanced form to realize cross-infiltration between disciplines and curriculum integration in talent training. For example, in Tsinghua University, the original majors of science (materials), metal materials and inorganic nonmetal materials are merged to set up the majors of materials science and engineering, which is conducive to cultivating compound talents with comprehensive ability of materials science and engineering. The mechatronics major offered by Huazhong University of Science and Technology breaks the situation of mechanical and electrical separation in the past, which is conducive to cultivating senior engineering and technical personnel who know both machinery, electricity and automatic control. In the construction of comprehensive majors, we should pay attention to the development and expansion of applied majors, emerging majors, characteristic majors, comprehensive majors and international majors.
In addition, an interdisciplinary, interdisciplinary and cross-curricular comprehensive research center can be established to organize teachers in different fields to conduct joint research; Implement the major and minor system; Open up a second major; Implement credit equivalent exchange; Offering double bachelor's degree courses; Strengthen comprehensive experiment and practice courses; Attach importance to the second classroom curriculum; Advocate the establishment of comprehensive research courses combining teaching and scientific research; Introducing new courses, original foreign language textbooks, high-level courses at home and abroad, and lectures by lecturers are also effective ways to implement university curriculum integration.
(B) the curriculum system and teaching content should be further diversified
(1) A large number of elective courses are offered, and the course types are diversified. Offering a large number of draft courses can not only enable students to study selectively according to different interests, knowledge base, learning ability and other powerful conditions, but also promote the better development of people's interests, hobbies and talents, and easily realize the diversified requirements of university curriculum objectives. From a global perspective, the proportion of elective courses in universities in many countries in Europe and America is very high. Elective courses in American universities account for about1/3 of the total courses; French undergraduate elective courses account for 40% of all undergraduate courses? 60%; Various departments of British universities also generally offer flexible and extensive elective courses, and there is a tendency to gradually increase the proportion of elective courses. In our country, in order to enhance students' adaptability to career and life, give them the right to study independently and develop their personality, students should also be allowed to choose courses across departments, majors and even colleges and universities, and the credits they have taken should be recognized. The proportion of elective courses in all courses should also be appropriately increased and a diversified curriculum system should be developed.
(2) Offering free research courses to diversify the forms of courses. Free research courses used to be offered only at the graduate level. Since the 1950s, with the increasingly close relationship between teaching, research and production, universities in many countries have also offered such courses at the undergraduate level, and the proportion has gradually increased. In this respect, China started late and developed slowly, so it needs to be strengthened step by step. That is to say, when improving the curriculum system and teaching content, we should consider making students experience the process of exploring knowledge and truth as much as possible, taking students' scientific research training as an important part of the curriculum, and letting students know how to obtain sufficient factual basis, how to predict possible results and conclusions, how to form a reasonable structure, how to truthfully report their research results and methods, and so on.
(C) the curriculum system and teaching content should consider practicality
Due to the development of society and the requirements of departments, it is necessary to pay attention to the practical and applied curriculum system and teaching content. Universities can no longer be closed? Ivory tower? We must meet the needs of society. Paying attention to the practicality and application of curriculum system and teaching content has become a prominent aspect of curriculum reform. Taking the west as an example, the German Science Review Committee pointed out in 1993 that the teaching objectives and curriculum arrangement of universities should face up to the fact that most students are interested in application and practicality. Therefore, the university curriculum should strive to achieve the combination of academic and applied. 1988, composed of celebrities in French education and industry representatives? Higher Committee on Education and Economy? In the report "Education and Economic Education System in 2000" submitted to the government, it is emphasized that in the future, we should focus on cultivating five popular occupations, namely, engineers, enterprise personnel and national civil servants, business personnel, doctors and teachers. In China, for some applied and technical subjects, many schools have generally strengthened the teaching content of practice and practical operation; For some theoretical and academic disciplines, colleges and universities also attach importance to the connection with practice, and use the theoretical viewpoint of this discipline to analyze and solve the current major practical problems.
(D) the curriculum system and teaching content should be flexible.
The closed and rigid curriculum system can no longer adapt to the reality of the rapid development of science and technology. Colleges and universities must establish an open teaching content and curriculum system, and try their best to make it flexible, and strive to build a full, personalized and diversified teaching content and curriculum system. Therefore, reforming and rebuilding specialized courses, strengthening the flexibility of curriculum structure, softening the edge of disciplines, strengthening the connection with real life and students' experience, and strengthening the connection between disciplines in knowledge, skills and methods have become the persistent goals of curriculum system and teaching content innovation. Looking at the reform of university curriculum structure in the world, although different countries adopt different methods according to their own national conditions and higher education traditions, on the whole, the outstanding feature is to establish modularity and credit system, that is, to divide a professional curriculum system into several small units or modules and grant credits. The curriculum system includes two parts: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal part is divided into general curriculum module, discipline specialized curriculum module, characteristic curriculum module, etc. The vertical part is divided into two series: compulsory and elective. The arrangement of this curriculum system increases students' selectivity and facilitates the flow between different majors, departments and schools, even between universities and non-university institutions and between different countries. For example, in order to promote the openness of education in Japan, short-term universities and other institutions of higher learning implement a credit exchange system to recognize the credits earned by students studying in the other institution. In China, there are also many universities that implement the system of student exchange and credit exchange with some foreign universities. The flexibility of this course breaks the local and national restrictions and creates conditions for inter-school cooperation and international cooperation among universities around the world.
Four, in the process of curriculum system and teaching content innovation, we need to deal with several pairs of relationships.
(A) the relationship between professional education and general education
Professional education is the main feature and essential embodiment of universities. As long as the foundation of social division of labor remains unchanged, as long as higher and more complex specialized fields still exist, the rationality of professional education is beyond doubt. It mainly endows students with the ability to survive in the uncertain professional world, and its unique role in university education cannot be denied. At the same time, we should realize that strengthening general education is an important means to improve the quality of higher education. Higher education should cultivate people's habit of seeking truth, reflect on critical spirit and have a far-sighted vision. Students trained in colleges and universities should be good citizens first, and should shape their spiritual realm and personality development level that match their own knowledge and intelligence level. All these can be achieved by strengthening general education. Higher education should find the best combination of general education and professional education to help students build a bridge between humanities courses and professional work.
(B) the relationship between compulsory courses and elective courses
As we all know, compulsory courses are the knowledge and skills that must be mastered to ensure the basic specifications and quality requirements of the trained talents, while elective courses allow students to choose independently to take care of their personal interests, hobbies and specialties and meet the needs of personality development. Compulsory courses and elective courses play a unique role in talent training. In China, for a long time, due to the heavy compulsory courses in colleges and universities, students can only be confined to narrow subjects, and their interest and initiative are restrained. Therefore, increasing elective courses has become everyone's knowledge. The problem is that the more elective courses, the better. The proportion of elective courses in colleges and universities with rich teachers and curriculum resources, low academic level and poor curriculum management should not be too large. The setting of elective courses in colleges and universities must master the following principles: universality, strengthening the mutual infiltration and integration of arts and sciences; Balance, realize the mutual balance between courses, basic courses, professional basic courses and professional courses, compulsory courses, limited draft courses and elective courses; Relevance, all kinds of knowledge and courses should complement each other organically to avoid giving students fragmented and fragmented knowledge; Adaptability, to meet the needs of social and economic development and students.
(C) the relationship between theory and practice
While strengthening the teaching of students' professional basic theory courses, higher education must conform to the trend of social development, scientific and technological progress and changes in production methods, or let students go deep into society and production departments to enrich social experience, learn and apply practical knowledge, or let students deepen their combination with practice through independent scientific research activities. The relationship between theory and practice has different requirements in different majors. But generally speaking, in China, practical teaching has been neglected for a long time. Whitehead put it very well: in fact, application is an integral part of knowledge. Because the meaning of known things lies in various relationships that transcend themselves. Therefore, knowledge that has not been applied is meaningless knowledge. Protecting a university carefully and making it independent of all kinds of activities in the surrounding world is the most effective way to stifle interest and hinder progress. Being single is not suitable for going to college and must be accompanied by action. ? (2) Whitehead's exposition is beyond the scope of the relationship between practice and theory, but it still inspires us to correctly understand the relationship between theoretical teaching and practical teaching.
In short, the curriculum system of colleges and universities should correctly handle the relationship between specialty and general education, individuality and individuality, practice and theory, pursue the greatest unity of students, disciplines and society, seek the integration of overall values, and strive to integrate human development, social requirements and discipline progress into the curriculum system, so that students can stay in one place. Wide specialty, thick foundation, heavy practice and strong personality? Benefit from the curriculum system.
Precautions:
Boyer. American university education. Shanghai: Fudan University Press, 1988, 129.
John 2? Brubeck. Higher education [M]. Trans. Wang, Xu Hui, etc. Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Press, 2001:113,931.
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