Exploration on the Teaching of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” under the Horizon of IPTTIAC ()
1. Introduction
The course of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” should have a thinking mode of IPTTIAC and implement the idea in teaching. The new era has put forward new requirements for strengthening the ideological and political education in colleges and universities, and IPTTIAC as a new curriculum concept has become an important idea and way to improve and promote the ideological and political education. IPTTIAC “is not to add a course, nor to add an activity, but to integrate college ideological and political education into every link and every aspect of the curriculum teaching and reforming, to achieve the goal of fosters virtues smoothly and silently.” (Gao & Zong, 2017) “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education”, one of the professional courses of ideological and political education, is itself based on the theme of comparative study of ideological and political education. The teaching should also have the curriculum view of IPTTIAC. Compared with other courses that focus on value guidance, this course can explain more ideological and political theories in teaching.
2. Grasping the Teaching Objectives of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” and Students’ Learning Situation
Curriculum teaching is a kind of teaching activity which is carried out by taking corresponding teaching methods according to certain curriculum objectives. It is neither carried out blindly according to teachers’ wishes nor only follows students’ learning intention. Therefore, it is a prerequisite to clarify the teaching requirements of the course and students’ learning conditions.
1) Three teaching objectives of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” course
The course “Comparative Ideological and Political Education” is set up in many colleges and universities for undergraduates majoring in ideological and political education, which is not only the basic requirement of professional knowledge and thinking training of ideological and political education, but also the need of cultivating international talents facing the world. Based on the requirements of curriculum setting, we should make clear the three teaching objectives of the course and find the right direction for the course teaching. The First one is the knowledge objective. The basic requirement is that students can understand and remember the meaning of comparative ideological and political education, can clarify the necessity and the scope of time and space of comparative study of ideological and political education; can summarize the various methods of comparative study; can sort out and summarize the goal, content, method and main characteristics of every country’s ideological and political education. The second one is the capability goal. The basic requirement is that students can analyze the existing problems and development trend according to the basic situation of ideological and political education in various countries; Students can compare and analyze the similarities and differences between countries or between other countries and China’s ideological and political education. The students can provide countermeasures for improving the effectiveness of ideological and political education in China by evaluating and summarizing the situation of ideological and political education in other countries. The third one is the goal of ideological and political education. The requirement is that students should make it clear that ideological and political education is not unique in China, but universal in countries around the world due to the needs of the ruling class to maintain their rule, and even some countries spare no effort to carry out ideological penetration to other countries. Learning from other countries’ experience and drawing lessons, striving to carry out our country’s ideological and political education is not only a necessary requirement for building socialist spiritual civilization, but also an important task for resisting ideological penetration.
2) Students have the knowledge base and the willingness to learn
From the perspective of knowledge foundation, students have a certain professional knowledge foundation. “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” course is generally offered in higher grades. Students have learned many specialized courses and public courses of ideological and political education, such as “Principles of Ideological and Political Education”, “History of Ideological and Political Education of the Communist Party of China”, “Introduction to the Basic Principles of Marxism”, and have a certain understanding of the basic knowledge related to Marxist theory and ideological and political education. In particular, students already had a systematic grasp of ideological and political education in our country. This is very important for the study of the course “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education”. Comparison of ideological and political education is to understand the goal, mode, content, carrier and other knowledge of ideological and political education in the world through systematically sorting out the ideological education, political education and ethical education of the major countries in the world. In this process, we can better study the significance and effective form of Chinese ideological and political education through comparison, absorption and reference. There are many dimensions in comparison: for example, the comparison between countries. It can be between China and other countries, or between other countries; For example, the comparison of a certain educational element. The educational content, objectives, methods and other aspects can be compared; Such as vertical comparison, the current ideological and political education compared with the ideological and political education in history. No matter what kind of comparison is inseparable from the overall and detailed grasp of Chinese ideological and political education, so the preparation of basic knowledge and logic is very necessary.
From the students’ ideological situation, it is necessary to strengthen ideological and political education. Knowledge and ideas are full exchanging in globalization and information age. The ideological competition has already become apparent. In terms of economic development and cultural dissemination, China has a great disadvantage compared with western capitalist countries as a latecomer country. So its ideology and values are more susceptible to be influenced by the extreme capitalist individualism and egoism. Thanks to technological progress, college students can easily receive information from all over the world through the Internet, which is conducive to broaden their horizons and pursue innovation. But at the same time, they are more vulnerable to ideological impact. “Some Western countries use economic, political and cultural means to confuse public opinion and seize territory of the ideological field. The key is to confuse the minds of young people.” (Feng, 2011) In this context, students tend to have a lot of confusion and hesitation in value conflict and value choice, and even make wrong value judgment and choice. This calls for further emphasis on ideas and value guidance in the curriculum.
From the perspective of learning expectation, students have a strong thirst for knowledge about this course. In the era of globalization, people are full of desire to explore the outside world. Although they can obtain massive information from the accessible Internet, it is still difficult for students to find systematic information about the content of foreign ideological and political education. The course of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” involves much foreign professional knowledge that students are rarely exposed to. Out of curiosity, students will have a strong willingness to learn.
In summary, the teaching objectives of the “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” course and some students’ misunderstandings about the situation of ideological and political education in China and abroad require that the “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” course must implement the IPTTIAC concept in teaching, guiding students to correctly understand the basic spirit and reality of ideological and political education in China and abroad.
3. The Teaching of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” Should Adhere to the Idea of IPTTIAC
The course of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” is a specialized course of ideological and political education major, which is usually regarded as naturally containing ideological and political theory knowledge, without any more consideration of IPTTIAC. In fact, no matter the ideological and political theory courses or other specialized courses, they should have and implement the idea of IPTTIAC. “IPTTIAC is implemented through all courses including the ideological and political theory courses, and it should be implemented into all kinds of courses in colleges and universities. We should not unilaterally understand the IPTTIAC as ideological and political education without the ideological and political theory courses.” (Shi, 2018) Therefore, in the teaching of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education”, it is also necessary to adhere to the idea of IPTTIAC, to spread the ideological and political theoretical knowledge and guide the ideological value of students.
1) To emphasize the necessity of ideological and political education and avoid dilution of ideology
The course of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” contains a unique ideological and political education resource, which can make students understand that there is ideological and political education in all countries in the world. This understanding can solve the doubts of many students. For example, some students believe that China is the only country who has ideological and political education, so they may doubt that whether China attaches so much importance to ideological and political education is necessary or not, whether it is scientific or not, whether we should pay attention to ideological education or not etc. On the basis of these doubts, some people advocate the dilution of ideology and advocate that college students should pay attention to the study of professional knowledge such as economy, finance, law and technology, as well as some general courses such as logical thinking, moral cultivation, culture and art, while downplaying political education. This will easily affect the judgment of college students and prompt them to give up the political content of ideological and political education which is the core content. When students learn the course of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education”, they will observe the ideological and political education in different countries, and these problems will be solved.
It is not the truth that other countries do not have the ideological and political education, just because the appellation of this education activity is different in various countries, even many countries attach more importance to the ideological and political education than China. Capitalist countries have been sparing no effort to carry out ideological and political education, and always emphasize the class and ideology. They not only carry out the propaganda of capitalist ideology and values to their own people, but also spread the bourgeois ideology to other countries in a clear and explicit way, and encouraging the youth of other countries to dilute politics and ideology is only one of their strategies for ideological infiltration. To this, course teachers should have clear understanding and clarify to the students about the necessity and political nature of our country’s ideological and political education.
2) Fully recognize the comparative superiority of our ideological and political education
Comparison has its unique function, for example, you can identify, learn from and absorb in the comparison. In this process we should pay attention to analyze the comparative advantage of ideological and political education of our country, avoid losing myself or disparaging myself in comparison. In the course of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education”, students will be exposed to the ideological and political education in different countries and regions. Based on different national conditions, there are great differences in ideological and political education ideas, contents, ways and methods among countries. There is no lack of some effective ways and methods of ideological and political education, especially in some western developed capitalist countries. Some students may have the question why our ideological and political education could not be done in this way.
As we all know, the education of any country has its historical context, which includes historical development, cultural foundation, national character and other factors. The content of ideological and political education is also oriented by educational goals, and the current education system is finally formed by integrating all factors. Therefore, it is not appropriate to advocate copying a country’s practice just because it has good education results, just as even the scientific truth of Marxist theory needs to be combined with a certain country’s reality. So the current mode of ideological and political education of our country originated from the reasons of history, culture and educational goal. During the teaching process, we can introduce the good education methods of other countries and regions, at the same time, we should pay attention to the analysis of their internal mechanism, avoid students blindly see their advantages and ignore their defects, and make students fully realize the comparative advantages of our ideological and political education.
3) To guide students thinking about how to improve the effectiveness of our ideological and political education from comparison
The reason for the comparison is its efficacy and significance. The study of comparative ideological and political education has many meanings: first, it can explore the general law of ideological and political education through comparison, so as to make ideological and political education scientific. Second, we can better understand the nature of ideological and political education and get good educational methods through comparison, so as to use a more scientific and comprehensive perspective to examine the ideological and political education in the new era. Third, by comparing with other countries and regions, we can get many beneficial experiences, which can help us to review and perfect our ideological and political education, and then reform and improve the methods of the ideological and political education, and finally improve the effectiveness of the education. From these aspects, one of the important purposes for our comparative study of ideological and political education is to improve the level of ideological and political education in our country. In teaching, we should pay attention to guide students to think about how to perfect our ideological and political education in comparison.
4. The Innovative Exploration of the Teaching Strategy of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education”
The new era is a new historical direction, and online teaching has developed into an important form of curriculum teaching. IPTTIAC concept has also put forward new requirements for various professional courses. Based on this, the teaching of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” can make some new attempts from the following aspects, in order to achieve better teaching effect.
1) Explain a country’s ideological and political education in combination with its history, culture and system
The work which can be used as a textbook of the course “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” generally lacks discussion on the background knowledge of a certain country, which is not something that should be discussed in the work. However, in teaching, it is necessary to combine a country’s ideological and political education with its history, culture, and system. Ideological and political education has common essence and general law. In the era of globalization, the ideological and political education in the world shows more and more common. But the special law of ideological and political education exists at the same time, which is prominently reflected in the natural inheritance and spare no effort to show and maintain their national characteristics. As far as national characteristics are concerned, it can be said that Chinese ideological and political education has Chinese characteristics, American ideological and political education has American characteristics, and Japanese ideological and political education also has Japanese characteristics. The analysis of these characteristics is the exploration of the special law of ideological and political education, but also the key to understand the status quo of ideological and political education in a country.
If a country’s historical and cultural characteristics and social system are completely ignored, we just compare the objectives, methods and content of the ideological and political education between countries, it is easy to get some superficial results but not the essence. These conclusions, which make people know the nature but do not know the reason, are of little significance to the study of ideological and political education. It is more difficult to improve the effectiveness of ideological and political education in China by summarizing experience, which loses the significance of comparison and learning to some extent. Therefore, the explanation of ideological and political education in a country must be placed in the corresponding historical and cultural background and its specific social system, so as to find out the causes and consequences, and then explore the logic of ideological and political education. Finally we can understand its ideological and political education form.
2) Adopt the method of online and offline mixed teaching
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many courses to adopt online teaching mode, but the advantages of online teaching are being shown. For example, online education can break the limitations of space and time, various forms of “online courses” can give students opportunities to learn anytime and anywhere. Online resources are rich and diverse, and students can devote themselves to learning more conveniently and efficiently in some content suitable for online learning. Based on this, the Ministry of Education has issued a clear document requiring both online and offline teaching to ensure the quality of teaching. In recent years, the Ministry of Education has made great efforts to promote the establishment of a set of online teaching quality assurance system, which provides favorable conditions for the development of online and offline mixed teaching.
In the post-epidemic era, “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education”, based on its curriculum characteristics, can explore the method of combining online and offline teaching. For example, the background information related to the history, culture and political system of a certain country can be learned through online teaching. These contents are more complex, it has not enough teaching time to cover all contents just rely on teachers’ explanation in classroom and it is difficult to have a better teaching effect. On the other hand, there are a large number of online resources with rich content and various forms, such as books, short videos, documentaries and so on, which can better attract students’ attention and complete this part of teaching content with less time and high quality. As for the following part of knowledge, such as the development history of ideological and political education in the country, its objectives, contents, methods, characteristics, evaluation and comparative analysis with China, etc., we need to carefully interpret and explain in detail. So we mainly use the teaching form of offline classroom teaching, but some tools and contents of online teaching can also be used to assist. This model of online and offline mixed teaching is more attractive to young students, and is conducive to the enrichment of course teaching content and the realization of course teaching objectives.
3) Select appropriate content to carry out thematic teaching
At the same time of system learning, we can choose some appropriate contents for thematic teaching. Thematic teaching mainly carries on a more in-depth and comprehensive analysis of a certain teaching module, which can be an important supplement to the daily teaching of the course. In the thematic teaching, the selection of topic is very important. We should choose the content that is less involved in the curriculum system but necessary for learning, or the content that is closely related to real life and conducive to stimulating students’ interest in learning. For example, it can analyze how ideological and political education is carried out and its effect in various countries under the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the content of ideological and political education of the United States is spread globally through numerous films, TV dramas, mass media and other carriers.
4) Guide students to study independently
The course of “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” involves ideological and political education of countries all over the world. It needs to collect a large amount of data in teaching, which can provide rich teaching resources for the course. Students can be invited to participate in this part. On one hand, the current young students have good ability to collect information through the network, and some students are even better than teachers in the channel and speed of searching resources. Guiding students to learn and explore independently can realize teaching benefits teachers as well as students. On the other hand, guiding students to self-study ideological and political education knowledge of relevant countries can improve their participation and enthusiasm in learning. At the same time, students can improve their self-study ability and enhance their confidence in learning through independent search, exploration and analysis of materials. In the process, there may be questions and self-responses to some problems.
5. Conclusion
“Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” which is the professional course of ideological and political education should have the IPTTIAC concept. In course teaching, the goals of ideological and political education in the course and the learning needs of students should be clearly defined, and the requirements of IPTTIAC should be implemented, enabling students to learn about the ideological and political education situation in various countries and regions, and also clarify the universality of ideological and political education and the comparative advantages of China’s ideological and political education, encouraging students to obtain beneficial experiences and lessons from comparison. This article analyzes the ideological and political education goals that should be set for the “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” course, proposes several IPTTIAC elements that should be paid attention to in course teaching, and innovatively explores the effectiveness of the “Comparison of Ideological and Political Education” course teaching.