On the afternoon of 15th Nov, the first Teaching Reform and Innovation Forum – co-organized by Innovation Experimental College, Teaching Affair Office, and Teaching Development Center – was successfully held in Room 104 at the International Exchange Center. Participants include NWAFU vice president Ma Jianhua, leaders of Teaching Affair Office, Teaching Development Center, and Innovation Experimental College, college deans who manage teaching, teaching secretaries, teachers participating summer vacation exchange to the U.K., the members of teaching practice training team, new teachers of 2016, and teachers and students from Innovation Experimental College.

Vice president Ma Jianhua delivered the speech. He emphasized that “this forum aims to provide a communication platform for the teachers. We hope to stimulate teachers’ self-consciousness and talent cultivation positivity via this forum. Through exploration and conclusion, we hope to improve our undergraduate teaching to a new level.”

Spokespersons have been undertaking teaching tasks and working on the teaching innovation at Innovation Experimental College for many years. Zheng Lifei from College of Science delivered a report on “stimulating students’ passion for study with teaching enthusiasm” on the basis of 19 years’ teaching experience.

In the report of Wang Junru from College of Science, a talent cultivation design concerning basic discipline education and teaching reform of chemistry was raised. It took three-in-one combination as its direction and aims to fulfill the teaching content and developing talents in an all-around way.

Lin Bingyan from the College of Life Science made a speech on “reflection of microbiology and experiment teaching reform” on the basis of relative teaching experience.

Chao Shuang, student from Innovation Experimental College, made a speech of “classroom teaching in my eyes” which fully demonstrated the positive effect of teaching idea and method reform on the students’ development.

Chen Yingying from College of Science and Tong Wei from College of Agriculture, who attended NWAFU’s young teacher study program in the U.K., separately gave reports on “U.K. student-orientated higher education model and its enlightenment to us” and “course design, evaluation, and feedback”. Detailed analysis of U.K. assessment model and its enlightenment to Chinese education was provided.

Chen Yong from College of Information Science gave a report of “exploration and practice of the diversified course assessment” on the basis of years’ teaching experience in Innovation Experimental College.

At the end of the forum, Professor Chen Yuchun, director of Teaching Development Center, made a conclusion of the forum on the basis of his experience of teaching reform and faculty development. He said that whether it is to the higher education in China, or to the teaching in NWAFU, teaching is the most important; university development must rely on the enthusiasm of the teachers, and only when the teachers’ passions are raised can the teaching reform be implemented. He also emphasized that teaching reform requires a lot of input and with the guidance of clear and scientific methods, limited time and energy will produce an effective result.

This forum is significant to NWAFU’s teaching reform and innovation. It concludes our university’s teaching result and experience and discusses the theoretical and practical issues which will help promote our teaching in the new situation.

NWAFU’s first Teaching Reform and Innovation Forum
                                                                                     (Translated by: Yan Xianhui)