The Faculty of History of Nankai University held the 2023 Annual Education and Teaching Work Conference from November 17 to 18. Professor Li Xia of the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University, Jin Baijiang, an Executive Deputy Director of the Department of Academic Affairs, and Emeritus Professor Wang Xiaoxin of the Faculty of History were invited to give lectures. Members of the leading body of the Faculty and over 70 graduate tutors, teachers and management cadres attended the meeting.
The attendees summarized and analyzed the problems and situation concerning the Faculty of History’s current development in terms of teaching improvement measures, curriculum, achievements in teaching practice, talent training system, among others. In view of the requirements of current discipline development as well as its goals, the participants put forward measures to innovate and reform education and teaching practices, with a view to achieving high-standard and high-quality development of the history discipline in all respects.
On the afternoon of November 17, Professor Wang Xiaoxin first shared his experience in education and teaching work as well as talent training. He reviewed his personal experience in education and teaching, saying that the attitude of teachers is the key to education and teaching, and that devotion to work is fundamental and critical for a great class. He added that only by regarding teaching as a sacred job can we make the class academically solemn and appealing. Moreover, Prof. Wang shared his experience from the perspectives of lesson preparation, classroom presentation, and student training, stressing that teachers should not only sharpen their scientific research capabilities and combine teaching with latest research results, but also learn more about pedagogy, educational psychology and other areas, and demonstrate their distinctive and professional characteristics in the classroom, thereby enticing students and stimulating their curiosity. More diverse teaching links and methods should be adopted. Teachers should use textbooks flexibly and guide students to take an objective look at the content, and to understand and study the academic frontiers, while paying attention to the development orientation of students and respecting their research interests.
Prof. Li Xia gave a lecture on making achievements in higher education teaching and filing applications for support, saying that this is conducive to both the development of disciplines and the Faculty, and the development of universities. Prof. Li also introduced the types of achievements in higher education teaching. Prof. Li Xia gave an in-depth elaboration on how teachers can embrace new teaching ideas in the new era, how to drive the cultivation of talents in universities by improving teachers’ teaching ability, how to cultivate professional talents at the Faculty of History, how to improve teachers’ ability in teaching innovation and improve the influence and dissemination scope of teaching achievements, and how to build a teaching team.
Jin Baijiang introduced Nankai University’s Outstanding Talent Training System 3.0 and the key work. Jin Baijiang first introduced the key points of Nankai University Education and Teaching Working Conference, emphasizing that Nankai University is a century-old university and also a university famed for its history discipline, and that Nankai University students should have historical thinking. In the process of teaching, Nankai University implements a program to cultivate talents in the new era, strengthens the ideological and political courses as well as ideological and political theory teaching in all courses, increases courses on patriotic education, as well as the building of teaching materials and teaching teams, follows the Patriotism Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, and strengthens seminars and practice courses on dedication to public interests and all-round capability for new students. At the same time, the university creates the “serving learning” brand, and embraces the education model of “consistency for teachers and students in four areas”. In terms of enrollment and cultivation, the university optimizes the general enrollment mechanism for disciplines, innovates the model of training for top students in basic disciplines, and steps up the publicity of the history discipline. In terms of professional training, it offers high-level courses and runs “micro-majors” that are oriented to the job market, that sharpen the ability to pursue further studies overseas, and that pursue excellent ability in scientific research. It also strengthens scientific research education and research-based teaching. Academic integrity is taken into account throughout the process of student growth to emphasize its importance.
Yu Xinzhong, Dean of the Faculty of History, reported on the progress of the current year’s work, and made plans for improving the examination mechanism for students’ graduation eligibility, increasing representative teaching achievements, promoting academic activities for young teachers, etc., emphasizing the need to translate its faculty strength into the advantages for discipline construction. Wang Linran, deputy secretary of the university’s Party committee, circulated a notice on violations of law and discipline related to the university, and called on all teachers and cadres to hold fast to their ideals and beliefs, reinforce the foundation of Party discipline, abide by Party discipline and state law, consciously uphold integrity, and nurture a noble moral character. At the same time, he emphasized the importance of dual approval management for academic activities.
On November 18, Xia Yan and Yuan Shengwen, vice deans of the Faculty of History, reported on the teaching work of undergraduate and graduate education in 2023, respectively. Xia Yan stressed that the four priorities will be evaluation of undergraduate teaching, cultivation of teaching achievements, construction of first-class curriculum, and compilation of high-quality textbooks. Yuan Shengwen reported on the outcomes and shortcomings of this year’s graduate teaching work in terms of graduate student enrollment, cultivation and graduation, elaborated on the problems in the graduate curriculum system, and emphasized that the priorities of graduate education should be the graduation requirements for students, among others.
According to arrangements, the participating teachers, who were divided into three groups according to their majors, entered into in-depth discussions on the setting of curriculum system, teaching achievements, the goal of talent training, the layout of textbooks, etc., and reported at the plenary meeting.
In the end, Zhai Mingrui, secretary of the Faculty of History, summarized the outcomes of the meeting. Secretary Zhai gave remarks featuring the keywords of return, responsibility, expectation, and happiness, saying that education should be guided by the caliber and effect of talent training, and that the Faculty must keep to the correct socialist direction, the unity of teaching and educating people, the unity of words and deeds, the unity of research and a concern for society, and the unity of academic freedom and academic norms, and uphold virtue in self-development, learning and teaching. Teachers can better train students if they bear in mind the aspirations of education and fulfill the mission of fostering virtue in education.
(by Office of Graduate Students)
