On the evening of August 3, 2022, the 25th teaching academic seminar jointly organized by the Virtual Teaching and Research Office of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Integration of the Ministry of Education, the Foreign Language Curriculum Research Professional Committee of the China Association for Comparative Studies of English and Chinese, the Empowerment Foreign Language Teaching Team of Nankai University, and the Foreign Language Education And Teacher Development Research Center of Nankai University was held online.
There are two keynote presentations in this teaching academic seminar. The keynote speakers are Professor Liu Min of Hubei Normal University and Vice Professor Jia Fan of Southwest Jiaotong University. According to incomplete statistics, the participants of this seminar are from Nankai University, Hubei Normal University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Sichuan University, Henan University, Hebei University, Xiamen University, Harbin University of Technology (Weihai), Liaoning University, Jishou University, South-Central Minzu University, Dalian Minzu University, Guizhou University, Shanghai University, China University of Petroleum (Beijing), University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, Jiangxi Normal University, Tianjin Normal University, Leshan Normal University, Langfang Normal University, Bohai University, Zhoukou Normal University, Qujing Normal University, Wanjiang College of Anhui Normal University, Suzhou University, Handan University, Qingdao University of Science and Technology Jiangnan University, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin University of Science and Technology, Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao Agricultural University, Anhui Polytechnic University, Anhui Vocational and Technical College, Hunan University Of Technology and Business, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Jiamusi University, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, Gansu University of Political Science and Law, Southwest Forestry University, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Zhengzhou University of Light Industry, Wuhan Textile University, Jianghan University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies South China Business College, Zhengzhou Business University, Guizhou Vocational Technology Institute, Fujian Zherong No. 1 Middle School, etc.. There are more than 160 experts, scholars and doctoral students from more than 50 universities. This seminar was presided over by Dr. Wang Dongyan of the English major of the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University, and Professor Zhang Wenzhong, the doctoral supervisor of Nankai University, was the honored guest.
The seminar includes three parts: report, Q&As and comment. Professor Liu Min from Hubei Normal University firstly brought a report entitled “Construction, Application and Practice Cases of the National Course Ideological and Political Demonstration Golden Course”. Professor Liu Min systematically expounded the importance of doing a good job in the ideological and political construction of the course, and then explained in detail how to declare and build a good “golden course” in the ideological and political construction of the course by introducing the “Selected Reading of English Literature” she was responsible for. Prof Liu also showed her future plan of the “golden course” and encouraged the colleges and researchers in the same field.
The second keynote speaker is Jia Fan, Vice Professor of Southwest Jiaotong University. The topic of the report is “Practice and Exploration on the Compilation of Thinking Ability in English Textbooks”. Vice Professor Jia Fan first pointed out the difficulties and problems of the cultivating students’ critical thinking in the compilation of textbooks, then introduced the compilation framework of foreign language textbooks in the area of critical-thinking training and showed the detailed design of textbooks, including the establishment of skills, the realization of scenarios, the design of critical-thinking activities and its display in textbooks. At the end of this report, Vice Professor Jia summarized the enlightenment brought by this study.
In the Q&A session, Liu Yujun, a teacher from Qingdao University of Science and Technology, asked Professor Liu Min about the course arrangement. Professor Liu Min enthusiastically shared her own experience in time arrangement and said that although the course construction would indeed consume a lot of time and energy, people would always immerse themselves in the inner love. Professor Yang Liangxiong, a teacher of Fujian Zherong No. 1 middle school, and Prof. Jia Fan discussed the differences of the ability of critical thinking between middle school students and college students. Prof. Jia pointed out that there is a big difference in the cognitive level between junior high school students and college students. The critical thinking training of middle school students is mainly based on implicit teaching, which runs through the text and exercises, while the explicit teaching needs to be carried out in the college students.
Professor Zhang Wenzhong, as the honored guest on this seminar, first welcomed and thanked all the teachers and students who attended the seminar, and especially thanked the leaders of foreign language departments of nearly 20 universities for coming to the seminar and improving the specification of the seminar. When commenting on Professor Liu Min’s report, Prof. Zhang expressed his affirmation of Professor Liu Min’s teaching achievements. Prof. Zhang said that the four education brand activities mentioned by Prof. Liu in the report left a deep impression on the teachers and students attending the meeting, and its national level ideological and political demonstration of the golden course is well deserved. When commenting on the report of Vice Professor Jia Fan, Prof. Zhang said that it was his first time to hear a detailed analysis of the compilation process on critical thinking from the perspective of a textbook editor, and proposed that the textbook users should grasp the guiding ideology of the textbook compilation to obtain better teaching results.
The meeting lasted more than two hours, and scholars said that they have gained a lot. Finally, the participants took a group photo as a memento. The 25th academic seminar on empowerment teaching was a success.
