Innovation on Value Education
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SISU: Innovation Brings Value Education Closer to Life
17 March 2024 | By School of Marxism Studies, University of Communications/SES translators/Vieira | SISU
Shanghai International Studies University's School of Marxism is revitalizing political education by integrating innovative flipped classrooms and bilingual teaching methods. This approach enriches the student experience, making theoretical lessons more engaging and applicable through practical activities, thereby enhancing their global communicative competence.
“Flipped Classroom”: Bringing New Vigor into Political Education
The School of Marxism Studies at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) has launched an innovative “Flipped Classroom Model” as part of its “From Theory to Practice” activity. This approach, which blends theoretical learning with practical experiences, aims to rejuvenate political education courses by making them more engaging and relevant.
This initiative helps students to grasp the charm of the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s new theories through both theoretical and practical teaching and improves political education by fully galvanizing students’ active participation and teachers’ leading function.
Teachers provide grade-tailored full guidance from traditional teaching and group tutoring to insightful discussions and fruitful presentations. Under their instructions, students self-direct theoretical learning and social practice around chosen themes, such as exploring the stories of revolutionary heroes, delving into Shanghai-style culture, and experiencing the youth pop culture. This “flipped classroom” innovates a two-pronged system by integrating formative and summative assessments and conducting modular evaluations.
Student group leader Xu Yichen commented after the class presentation, “Through extracurricular practices, we have truly understood the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind ‘what’ we have learnt from textbooks. Moreover, topics of students’ interest genuinely ‘liven’ the traditional political education.” For her and her classmates, everyone was instructed by a full-time accompanying “coach” rather than merely an in-class teacher.
In response to President Xi’s call to reform political education, the School of Marxism Studies has made headway, namely the innovative practice of “Integrated Political Education” which integrates practical instructions with classroom teaching, thus forming an evaluation system distinct from traditional case study and thematic teaching.
On March 18, 2019, President Xi emphasized during a seminar that teachers should improve political education through reform and innovation and urged them to liven in-class education by timely updating content and diversifying methods, and formalism and should be avoided. Over the past five years, based on SISU’s goal of cultivating talents with “Linguistic Mastery, Cross-culture Capacity, and Specialized Proficiency”, the School of Marxism Studies has focused on cultivating politically determined students who excel in language proficiency, academic skills, and the capacity to lead the discourse. The “flipped classroom” marks its fruitful results in driving systemic reforms in political education.
Bilingual Political Education: Telling China’s Story to the World
SISU has been working to revamp its political education by combining language teaching with political education courses, which aims to equip students with the capabilities to engage in international communication. In 2021, SISU launched a series of English lectures on the CPC history, covering a wide range of topics, including politics, economics, culture, and ecology. Highlighting an international and comparative perspective, these lectures involved over 3,000 students in discerning the misinterpretations and distortions by foreign media. By adopting this teaching model, SISU aims to prepare the students to tell China’s story well and contribute to building up the discourse system of the Chinese nation on the world stage.
To achieve this goal, the School of Marxism Studies also began to use English as a teaching language in its “Co-Coaching Model”, and offered two political education courses taught in English. Moreover, a new WeChat Official Account named ‘CPC Review’ was also launched to share intriguing stories about the CPC history in English. Through these practices, SISU managed to improve the way how the Party’s new theories and great spirits are conveyed to the public and to facilitate the overseas dissemination of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism With Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.
“I’ve gained a lot from the bilingual political education course.” said Qi Yuan, a first-year graduate student from the School of Marxism Studies, “By reading the English version of The Communist Manifesto, I have not only mastered the English expressions of some terminologies and improved my English speaking and reading skills, but also had a deeper understanding of the original text.”
Students from SISU also translated what they have learned into real action. Members of the Graduate Party Branch at the School of Marxism Studies endeavored to make the stories of China and the CPC known to a greater number of people. They hosted more than 240 campaigns and lectures in party and government offices, schools, commercial companies, neighborhoods, and villages, reaching as many as over 400,000 people. Also, through fully leveraging their language skills, these students designed a series of courses targeted at foreign readers, in which they managed to interpret China’s story and Chinese wisdom in a way that is easier to understand for international audiences.
Institutional Reform: A Catalyst for Cultivating Virtue and Talent
Since 2019, the School of Marxism Studies at SISU has propelled a series of innovative activities and teaching institution reforms to enhance political education, strengthening students' ideological and theoretical understanding. Also, it modernizes teaching content and methods through leading discipline construction with Party-building initiatives.
Over the past five years, the School of Marxism Studies has initiated a comprehensive reform aimed at political education courses. The reform has led to the establishment of six course centers, facilitating cross-center faculty mobility and enhancing horizontal integration between in-class teaching and academic research. Moreover, the school introduced Grassroots Party Organizations into sub-disciplines, in which Party Secretaries guide both community-level Party construction and discipline development, thus promoting an integration and reciprocal enhancement of Party and discipline construction.
In the wake of reforms, the School of Marxism Studies has also actively expanded political education in terms of its contents and forms. The school organized a series of innovative activities, including academic lectures, collective lesson planning, experience sharing, research exhibitions, and open classes, all aimed at enhancing ideological, theoretical, affable, and targeted political education. Additionally, the school introduced a range of diversified new optional courses covering topics such as diplomacy, ethics and morals, international relations, the history of traditional culture and ideology, and the development of modern Shanghai.
With the progress in teaching reforms and expansion, the School of Marxism Studies has achieved significant results. Three core courses have been recognized as key municipal-level projects, with one winning the “Blue Ribbon” among Shanghai political education courses, and three other courses on the list of provincial and ministerial-level educational reform projects. Additionally, several teachers have received honors for their outstanding cases of teaching. These accomplishments showcase a new milestone in the overall course construction.
Allowing SISU to cultivate students with moral integrity, the well-integrated procedure of education has borne fruit.
Epilogue
Through continuous efforts, SISU’s School of Marxism Studies is committed to bringing new life to traditional political education and making new theories closer to life. In pursuit of the overarching goal of nurturing talents, SISU will continue to explore new ways of teaching and launch more and more effective measures in political education. This will enable political education courses to fully play their key and fundamental role in fulfilling the essential task of fostering virtue through education.
Press Contact
SISU News Center, Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Tel : +86 (21) 3537 2378
Email : news@shisu.edu.cn
Address :550 Dalian Road (W), Shanghai 200083, China