A Practical Exploration of “Ideological and Political Course” in Film and Television Art Education—Take the “Project Training of 2D Animation Creation” as an Example ()
1. The Necessity of the Construction of the “Ideological and Political Course” in the Film and Television Art Education
On June 1, 2020, the Ministry of Education issued the “Guidelines for the Construction of Ideological and Political Courses in Colleges and Universities”, requiring that the ideological and political education should run through the talent training system. In addition, it is necessary to comprehensively promote the construction of ideological and political courses in colleges and universities, give full play to the educational function of each course, and improve the quality of talent training in colleges and universities. Moreover, the content of the ideological and political construction of art courses is specifically defined—guiding students to not only base themselves on the times, take root in the people, and go deeper into their lives, but also establish correct artistic and creative outlook, actively carry forward the spirit of Chinese aesthetic education, comprehensively improve their aesthetic and humanistic qualities, and enhance their cultural confidence (The CPC Central Committee and the State Council, 2020). Therefore, it can be seen that higher education of arts plays an important role in the “ideological and political courses” (Fu, 2016).
Students majoring in Film and Television belong to the category of art students. They are not good at learning cultural basic courses and they are also not enthusiastic about learning them. On the contrary, such students have great enthusiasm for creative courses and always actively participate in them. In order to create and innovate, they will also fully arouse their initiative to learn. However, as a generation growing up in the network era, their favorite information source platform is the Internet. As for the personal qualities of art students, they are not only relatively weak in ideological and political concepts, but also lack of self-discipline. When facing different kinds of information on the Internet, both good and bad, such students will lack judgment and accept everything, which, in the long run, will fundamentally change their ideas. Under this circumstance, the teacher’s good guidance appears to be of great importance. Proper intervention can help students establish correct value judgment, lead them to create works in line with socialist values, and then help them form a sound and independent personality.
2. Practice Foundation of “Ideological and Political Courses” in the Major Courses of Film and Television Art
1) Film and Television Teaching Advancing with the Times
In the latest issued guidelines, it is particularly emphasized that the art teaching should be based on the times. Indeed, due to the scientific characteristics of the courses of Film and Television Art, and the fast-changing development of contemporary science and technology day by day, it is of great importance to pay attention to the times. In the practical teaching application, the film and television art major takes advantage of the latest information technology means to integrate online teaching and offline teaching, making use of online platforms such as BB, Super Star Erya, Xueyin and so on. In addition, the WeChat group, course group, course APP and other new-media paths have been established to integrate happy teaching into the traditional classroom, thus promote the further communication and development after class by means of the movies and animation works which are popular among students. Moreover, the Film and Television Training Center not only has been equipped with virtual studio, film and television shooting, lighting training, Convergence Media teaching and other equipment and facilities, but also has set up a considerable number of courses related with VR film and television production, so that students can master the latest film and television technology as soon as possible and always keep up with the times.
2) Teaching contents with the spirit of Chinese aesthetic education
The film and television Art also has the characteristics of nationality, which is closely related to the spirit of Chinese aesthetic education and cultural confidence advocated by “ideological and political courses” (Zhao & Chen, 2018). In addition, as the Chinese nation has a long history, in order to create excellent literary and artistic works in the future, students majoring in arts must have not only a strong spirit of patriotism but also a profound understanding and view about the cultural accumulation of China. Therefore, it is particularly meaningful to integrate the “ideological and political” education with Film and Television Art. The Film and Television Art Department of Shanghai Publishing and Printing College is also constantly exploring and practicing the teaching mode suitable for art students.
In addition to the teaching of the daily courses, students will also be organized to watch classic film and television works after class, and at the same time, make profound and in-depth analyses on these films. Furthermore, these films are also carefully selected, fixing on the elements of the ideological and political education. In this way, the students can not only grasp the aesthetic characteristics of the works, but also reach a consensus with these excellent works in aspect of ideology. Moreover, the students are also gradually cultivated to form their own profound aesthetic system, thus lay the foundation for further creation in the future. Besides, the teachers will, on one hand, sort out art works which are in accordance with the core values, on the other hand, list books and films closely related to the “ideological and political courses”, such as The Rise of the Great Nations, which not only reflects the characteristics of the new times, but also promote the positive energy in the whole society. In this way, students’ art development after class will be guided in the correct way, which is one of the effective ways to practice “ideological and political courses”.
The theory constructs the thought, while the practice guides the action, and these two aspects can bring out the best in each other. In order to make the students grasp correct aesthetic and creative ideas, we should not only impart the theoretical knowledge of literature and art but also spread the positive energy of society. In the actual creation of shooting practice, we should guide students to choose the right starting point, and select the essence in the vast information network. Moreover, we should not only make the students set up striving spirit and but also encourage them to take part in the competition related with the courses, which greatly improves their self-confidence when the students win the second place in the World Skills Competition and become the reserve players.
3. The Flexible Adoption of the Innovative Mode “Course Combination” to the “Ideological and Political” Teaching of Film and Television Art
Except the teaching practices in accordance with the Guidelines for the Construction of Ideological and Political Courses in Colleges and Universities, Shanghai Publishing and Printing College has formed its own teaching plan for the ideological and political course. The teaching plan is also called as “course combination”, which refers to the combination of specialized courses and ideological and political course. In this teaching model through invisibly involving ideological and political teaching into the professional courses, students can not only study and master the professional skills, but also be able to improve their ideological and moral level, which realizes the dual goals of the college. The adoption of “course combination” contributes to a more innovative, practical and efficient ideological and political teaching of the college. In this way, under the guidance of the college policies, teachers of the Department of Film and Art also made active response and have explored and developed a “course combination” teaching mode which is suitable for art-related majors.
1) The Full Adoption of “Three Integrations and Three Methods”
“Three Integrations and Three Methods” is one of the innovative reform modes for ideological and political teaching. Different from the previous didactic and mechanical way of ideological and political education, this mode promotes the vivid and interesting teaching in an invisible way and with diverse forms, which is more suitable for students of art-related majors, who have active thoughts but are lack of concentration. In addition, the major Film and Television Art itself is interdisciplinary and comprehensive, which covers a wide range of disciplines, such as philosophy, aesthetics, art, science, anthropology, sociology, and so on (Zhang, 2012). For this reason, the major offers a large expendable space for the practical application of the “Three Integrations and Three Methods”.
“Three integrations” indicates that “integrating moral education into teaching, integrating virtue education into teaching, integrating a pleasant environment into teaching”. In other words, it means to infiltrate the objective laws of the world and the moral standards of the society into the daily teaching. In addition, in a way of happy teaching, the teacher can turn the students from the traditional passive acceptance into active acceptance. For instance, in an animation design class, the teacher Zhang Bo played the video of how her 21-month-old son was learning to walk to show to the students, and the class became active because of the cute kid. When the kid fell down and stood up again by himself in the video, Zhang Bo said something, which smoothly promoted the common thing about how children learn to walk to the ideological and political level. She mentioned that, she never taught her son to stand up after falling down, but his son did it, which indicated that it is the instinct of human being to stand up after falling down. From this instance, she tried to encourage her students that never give up when confronted with difficulties. From watching video to learn how to make animation design of walking, to having fun from the video, to transferring the pleasure into philosophy. This whole teaching progress, as an entirety, shows how to invisibly integrate the ideological and political teaching into professional courses.
“Three Methods” refers to “finishing-touch method, thematic-embodied method, element-integrated method”. According to different features of the knowledge, and through the three methods with distinguishing characteristics, teachers can apply ideological and political teaching into their classes from different points of views. With diverse teaching forms and appropriate contents, they can help students understand the knowledge point easier, and help them achieve knowledge sublimation and the formation of three-dimensional thinking, which makes their study more efficient.
“Finishing-touch method” indicates that on the basis of teaching the professional knowledge, teachers should make a “finishing-touch” of the ideological and political factors such as professionalism in the class (Teng et al., 2018). For instance, in the class of shooting design, the teacher is teaching the application of film shooting technology through taking the movie “Peacock” as an example. The selected excerpts of the movie for teaching is the progress of how the young girl chasing her dream. In this way, the teacher makes a “finishing-touch” by emphasizing the importance of chasing dream and never give up, which can encourage students to think more deeply about their life, and gradually get more positive energy. In conclusion, “Finishing-touch method” is made up of two steps. The first step is the reasonable selection of teaching cases, which is the basis of the next step of the “finishing touch”. If during the first step, the chosen teaching case is not good enough, the “finishing touch” will be too imposed for the students to accept.
“Thematic-embodied method” refers to that, on the basis of the original teaching structure, the teacher appropriately adds a certain ideological and political theme to improve students’ ideological and political cognition and deepen their understanding of the professional knowledge (Teng et al., 2020). For example, in the course of teaching Graphic Creativity and Association, the teacher makes use of an interesting photo took casually in daily life. On the picture is a stranger’s creative transformation of his bicycle. We can see from the picture that he installed a water bucket with a lid in front of the old bicycle as the bicycle basket. The transformation offers the old bicycle with a better function with a waterproof bicycle basket. From this example, the teacher guides the students that, in daily life, observation is important; but what’s more important is the creativity through observation. “Thematic-embodied method” helps to realize the supplement and extension of the original teaching contents. Though it expends the volume of knowledge, it is still easy for students to master because the new knowledge points are connected with the original ones.
“Element-integrated method” indicates that, on the basis of the original syllabus, the teacher embodies a certain ideological and political element into the relevant teaching module, which aims to cultivate the professionalism of the students (Li & Teng, 2020). In the course of motion design of people walking, the teacher applies the Mold Teaching through adding golf, pebbles, sand and coffee into the bottle and making this as analogy to introduce the important components for 2D animation making, which helps students to fast remember the knowledge points of 2D animation design. In addition, the teacher takes a further step to metaphor these teaching tools to the events in daily life in a sequence of their importance, which assists students to understand the truth of life. For the students to know that, it is important to put things in a right sequence. Otherwise, with a wrong order like filling the bottle with sand first, other things like golf, pebbles, and coffee with have no more space. Till now, the teaching is still in process. Furthermore, the teacher compares coffee to friends to tell students the importance of friendship in their lives. Like leaving space for coffee in the bottle, they also need to leave enough space in their life for friendship. From this point of view, even the teaching tools are all connected with life wisdoms. This is the advantages of the “Element-integrated method”, which can connect students’ mind with all aspects and areas of thoughts (Table 1).
2) Practice the “ideological and political courses” by means of the “second classroom”
The second classroom, relative to the classroom teaching, is a magic weapon to implement the ideological and political teaching, referring to a variety of after-class activities, which are organized by the school, led by teachers, and participated by students (Huang, 2016). On one hand, from the perspective of its teaching contents, the “second classroom” originates from, but is not limited to, the textbooks. It is of much more practical significance to carry out ideological and political education in the “second classroom”, which expands and extends the space and time for the ideological and political teaching. On the other hand, in terms of form, the second classroom is much more lively and colorful. Introducing the “second classroom” into the classroom teaching, such as letting students visit relevant exhibitions, watch relevant movies and performances, and so on, so that the students can not only enjoy themselves in the artistic atmosphere,
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Table 1. The course construction plan of “Project Training of 2D Animation Creation”.
but also improve their artistic quality. At the same time, the students can also strive to strengthen their ideals and beliefs, improve their moral qualities and critical consciousness, and establish both national pride and cultural self-confidence.
In the “second classroom” of the “Project Training of 2D Animation Creation”, we have a relatively more successful experience in the “Ideological and political” teaching practice. The teachers and students of the Film and Television Art Department one participated in the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Navy in Shanghai, and successfully completed the design of mascots and various souvenirs for the Shanghai base, which was highly recognized by the leaders from the navy force. It can be seen from this that, the students will have a deeper impression about what they think and feel when they experience the native land emotion in the process of practice. The exploration of patriotism education carried out in the “second classroom” is of great significance, which not only consolidates the “ideological and political” part in the courses, but also produces and excellent educational effect (Qin & Chen, 2012).
4. Summary and Reflection
As the Film and Television Art itself has the characteristics of both humanities and science, it is composed with a variety of ideological and political elements, such as patriotism, ideals and beliefs, moral quality, striving spirit and the comprehensive quality, which gives the “ideological and political courses” more space to expand. At the same time, it also brings new challenges to the “ideological and political” education of Film and Television Art. Therefore, how to integrate various elements in the best way, and how to form a set of “ ideological and political” teaching mode unique to the teaching of Film and Television Art, will be the subject of continuous exploration in the future.
Fund Project
This paper belongs to Application and promotion project of the “Course Combination” National Teaching Achievement Award (Project Number: zk-2020-020).