Evaluation of and Policy Measures for the Sustainable Development of National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centers in Chinese Universities and Colleges

The establishment of national experimental teaching demonstration centers (NETDCs) in China has played an important role in improving the experimental teaching level in universities and colleges, promoting scientific research, and cultivating innovative talents for national- and region-level innovations. However, how to promote the sustainable development of NETDCs in China is becoming a critical issue. This paper constructs a new theoretical model for evaluating the sustainable development of NETDCs in China. This model consists of 5 dimensions (i.e., environmental, structural, human, teaching, and output entropies), 11 primary indicators, and 34 secondary indicators. A multidimensional scale for evaluating the sustainable development of NETDCs was developed and validated based on 24,483 questionnaires from 895 NETDCs in China. The results show that the development level and overall level of NETDCs in China for all 11 primary indicators are uneven. Policy measures for promoting the sustainable development of NETDCs are proposed and discussed.

Development of the national cultural identity of students of humanitarian specialties in the learning process

Introduction. The formation and strengthening of the national cultural identity of students is an important condition for maintaining the continuity of generations, fostering personal responsibility for solving global problems of our time. The aim of the article is to present the process of teaching humanitarian students as one of the possibilities for the development of national cultural identity. Materials and methods. When interpreting the results of the experiment, characterizing the features of teaching narrative, the method of observing the process of creating narrative texts by students was used. In assessing the effectiveness of teaching the narrative, the method of qualitative (φ-Fisher's statistical test) and quantitative analysis of written works was used. A total of 167 students from the Department of Philology and Media Communications at Vyatka State University (Kirov, Russia) participated in various stages of the study. Results. Summarized the results of a theoretical and experimental study of the process of teaching students to narrative. It is substantiated that the telling of personal stories is a social practice that develops cultural identity. The psychological and pedagogical conditions, which serve as a starting point for creating their own narrative texts, reflecting the student's personal experience, have been studied. The mechanisms are revealed that contribute to the strengthening of the national code, namely: the establishment in the process of creating a narrative of close bilateral relations between the author's personal experience and its comprehension (the description of personal experience leads to the need to comprehend it, and the generation of new meanings, in turn, enriches personal experience). Fisher's angular transformation was used for statistical verification. As a result, it was revealed that after conducting special training, the number of students who do not experience difficulties in understanding the text based on the development of skills to apply methods of working with a narrative text increased (p≤ 0.01). Teaching narrative creates conditions for a deeper, more complete and detailed understanding of one's cultural identity. Conclusion. The developed scheme of experimental teaching, which describes the features of its content and structure, can be used in teaching university students. The data obtained in the course of the research can be used in the organization of psychological and pedagogical support, in the framework of individual and group work carried out within the boundaries of various academic disciplines at the university.

Selection and organization of speech material for teaching students of Linguistics foreign-language speaking. Part I

The problem for the research. Modern social contract requires linguistic departments and universities to create the most favourable conditions for teaching students oral productive foreign-language speech in order to develop their universal, general professional and professional competencies. The problem of the research is connected with the solution of the issues of selection and organization of speech material, adequate to the tasks of teaching speaking at the Linguistics Department to ensure interpersonal, intercultural and professional interaction of students. Methods of investigation. Experimental teaching students foreign-language speaking on the basis of the principles of selection and organization of speech material, proposed in the article, was carried out at the Linguistics Department of Vyatka State University (32 first-year students, speciality 44.03.05 Pedagogical Education (with two profiles), the training focus “English, German”). Quantitative and qualitative criteria for evaluating students’ monologic and dialogical speech were developed. The criteria were reflected in the subsystem of informative and analytical training exercises, as well as speech ones on the controlled use of materials of educational conversational texts, on working with model dialogues, for teaching prepared and spontaneous oral speech. The findings of the study. The results of the experimental work indicate that the proficiency in foreign-language monologic speech (cycle 1) increased in 56% of students; dialogical speech (cycle 2) – in 66 %. The calculation of G-criterion of signs revealed that at the end of the 1st cycle Gemp. ≤ Gcr. (0 ≤ 5); at the end of the 2nd one Gemp. ≤ Gcr. (0 ≤ 6). This indicates that the shift in the typical direction in our case is not accidental, and with 95 % of confidence it can be stated that it is due to the conduct of experimental work. Conclusions. The purpose of the article is achieved. It presents the typology of speech material for teaching foreign-language speaking at the Linguistics Department; the principles and products of its selection and organization. It is proved that taking into account the proposed principles improves the quality of teaching an oral productive type of foreign-language speech activity and contributes to the development of universal, general professional and professional competencies of students.

Reflections on Teaching Against White Supremacy During a Time of Social Rupture and Transformation

Social Justice and Social Work is a foundational course required for all social work students in the master’s of social work program at Portland State University. Although the course has long focused on interrupting oppressions including White supremacy, teaching the course during the fall of 2020 required a nimble dance between our familiar modes of teaching and the need for spontaneous adaptation and creativity. The unique landscape for this course included teaching the course remotely (Zoom), inside a university embattled around the arming of its security force (that killed a Black man in 2018), in a city targeted by an armed federal response to the racial uprising led by Black Lives Matter, in a state with a long history of White supremacy and Black exclusion, and under a federal administration explicitly aligned with White supremacy. This paper offers a reflection of our teaching about and against White supremacy during this unique moment in time. We position our writing at the intersections of teaching and activism, of hope and uncertainty. It is from our shared commitment to the abolishment of White supremacy that the following tenets were derived, grounding our experimental teaching in complexity, complicity, and social transformation: (1) remembering for the future, (2) attending to collective grief and rage, (3) bringing the streets (racial uprising) into the classroom, and (4) repurposing the classroom for social transformation.

Research on Hybrid Teaching in the Experimental Teaching of Principles of Computer Composition

Aiming at the issue of professional engineering certification, this article introduces the hybrid teaching method to the teaching of Principles of Computer Composition, as the core course of computer specialty in applied undergraduate colleges, as well as discusses the experimental teaching method of this course. The teaching scheme is designed in the aspects of experimental teaching platform, teaching content, and student achievement assessment. By making full use of online and offline resources, this teaching method realizes the diversification of learning materials and learning means, the three-dimensional learning space and learning time, as well as effectively improves the teaching effect and quality.

A Short History of Grading Practices at Dalhousie University (1901-2021)

Grading practices at Dalhousie University have changed considerably over the past 120 years. From 1901 until the early 1970s, Dalhousie used a variant of the British system. Initially, a grade of 65% or higher was required for distinction. In 1937, Dalhousie moved to a 2-category system (Distinction vs. Ordinary Pass) and in 1942 the distinction grade cutoff was lowered to 60%. By the late 1940s, the British system returns, “Second Division” was subdivided into Seconds and Thirds, and First Division required an 80% or higher. By the late 1960s, there were conversions between American letter grades (A, B, C, D), divisions, and percentage grades. Moreover, there was a 4pt “merit point” system that served as a prototype to Grade Point Averages (GPA). Experimental teaching and grading practices were explored in the 1970s. Officially, percentage grades were abolished and replaced with an 11-point letter grade scale from A+ to F. Unofficially, most professors and departments continued to use percentage-to-letter conversion schemes that were highly idiosyncratic, though they were eventually standardized within (but not across) departments. In the 1990s, the 4.3 GPA system was standardized university-wide largely because it was thought to give students a competitive advantage for federal scholarships. In the 2010s, Dalhousie standardized percentage conversion schemes across all departments into one unified Common Grade Scale, partially due to GPA requirements for scholarships and graduate schools. Overall, most grading changes in the past 120 years were implemented for the external communication value of grades rather than for their pedagogical value.

Two-way Evaluation and Analysis of Student-centered Pharmacy Teaching

Student-centered teaching model is a very important concept in the education sector, which will be restricted and influenced by many factors in the process of implementation. This paper focuses on investigating and studying the influence of teachers, students and supporting management of teaching reform on this teaching mode. According to undergraduates in pharmacy department of our hospital, the whole class was divided into study group and control group. Two-way evaluation method was used in the study group, and traditional experimental teaching method was used in the control group. The experimental theory, skill test scores and experimental report scores of the two groups of students were compared and analyzed, and the evaluation of teachers' teaching methods and learning effects of the students in the study group were investigated. The results show that students' evaluation of the Two-way evaluation method and teaching effect are very good. Two-way evaluation can stimulate students' interest in learning, and help to cultivate students' awareness of inquiry, practical ability, innovative ability, ability to analyze and solve problems.

Application of VR in the Experimental Teaching of Animation Art

As computer technology advanced, VR has emerged. It is a virtual environment based on high-tech computer technology that can bring people a sense of reality and sensory experience. Through specific devices or equipment, it uses unique means to interact and communicate with the target object in the virtual environment, so that the professor can get a sense of reality and immersive experience. In order to increase students’ interest in teaching content, and at the same time to develop the education industry to achieve technology, this article combines virtual reality technology with experimental teaching. The paper discusses the use of VR in animation art experimental teaching and plans to provide thoughts and instructions about the fresh way in animation experimental teaching. This paper proposes the application research methods of VR in animation experiment teaching, including literature research method, expert interview method, questionnaire survey method, VR animation art teaching based on image method, and VR animation teaching evaluation clustering algorithm, which is used for conducting research experiments on the utilization of VR in animation art experimental learning. The experimental results in this article show that 96.25% of students like animation art VR experimental teaching system, which is helpful to the development of the teaching work.

Research on Railway Engineering Experiment Teaching Principles Based on Virtual Simulation Experiment Teaching——Taking the Floating Slab Vibration Damping Track Virtual Experiment as an Example

Virtual simulation teaching is an addendum to the experimental teaching mode of railway engineering, and the two teaching methods complement each other and merge with each other. In view of the current research, there is little discussion about the integration path of the two above. Based on the connotation and design of virtual simulation teaching, this research systematically expounds the integration of the real path and path optimization problems, and puts forward the railway engineering experimental teaching principles based on virtual simulation teaching. On the basis of this research, a virtual simulation experiment platform for vibration mechanics and its application in the floating slab vibration damping track was developed to make full use of three-dimensional modeling, virtual reality, human-computer interaction and other technologies, which can realistically simulate the vibration law and vibration damping effect of the rail transit system, and in the hope that the virtual simulation teaching can be widely used in the experimental teaching mode of railway engineering in the future.

Research on Innovation of Design Education Based on Artificial Intelligence Technology

The network teaching assistance system uses the form of dialogue to discuss the teaching content with students, the course schedule arrangement, the way and technology of teaching and training, which can effectively improve the teaching quality, shorten the teaching time and increase the teaching efficiency to achieve the established optimization of teaching purposes. In this paper, a forum system for experimental teaching is proposed, which aims to establish a public communication platform to serve the experimental teaching process, and to apply it to the exchange and study between the experimental instructors and students. Through text multimedia technology, the quality of experimental teaching is improved, and students’ practical ability and innovative thinking are cultivated. The experimental teaching forum uses B/S structure to design the interactive platform of information exchange, and presents the information to the user through the browser. The transaction logic is processed by the server side, and the front-end represents the exchange of information.