Zhongm ing SHEN
Department of Business and Trade,Southwest University Rongchang Campus,Chongqing 402460,China
The study on the undergraduate teaching quality assurance system and practice in agriculture-related colleges and universities is an important subject for the current agriculture-related higher education,and also one of the important factors for promoting China's agricultural economic development.Effectively improving the undergraduate teaching quality is one of the importantgoals for colleges and universities.It is necessary to establish the undergraduate teaching quality assurance system which adapts to its own development.Under the guidance of educational goals,undergraduate teaching quality assurance system in agriculture-related colleges and universities refers to the combination of various factor inputs and system security policies around the undergraduate teaching quality assurance and enhancement.The colleges and universities must strengthen mechanisms for organizational learning to adapt to changes in the environment.The teaching quality assurance in colleges and universities is an open way of thinking,and it does not exclude anymethod that could lead to advances in quality;the only specification is continuous improvement and constant enhancement[1].
Mechanism refers to the structure,workingmethods and interrelationships of all subsystems in a complex working system,and it is also a general term of operational system of an organization[2].From the 76 years of teaching experience of Southwest University Rongchang Campus,it has formed a set of systems and long-term operatingmechanism managed by campus leading authorities for ensuring the undergraduate teaching quality,involving many units,platforms and employers,with the undergraduate teaching quality assurance as center.The long-term operating mechanism abstracted from the undergraduate teaching quality assurance process over the years in Rongchang Campus can be shown in Fig.1.The operation of thismechanism indicates that it isnecessary to give priority to ensuring the hardware facilities for undergraduate talent training center and increase funding for the teaching staff building system.
System determines the structure,and the structure leads to different behaviors and functions,thereby affecting the performance of the organization.The Chinese agriculture-related collegesand universities should further improve the building system for the undergraduate teaching quality monitoring and management system to meet the requirementof the times.For example,through nearly80 years of teaching and research practice,Southwest University Rongchang Campus has formed a sound building assurance system for teaching qualitymonitoring and management system which involves personnel training programs,teaching element control,supervision and controlof the teaching process,supervision and control of teaching effectiveness,teaching assurance policy and system,teaching funding system,teaching technical support guarantee,and teaching environment building guarantee(Fig.2).
4.1 Carrying out the"six-step trainingmode"w ith tutorial system as the core for young teachersThe advance of building system of teaching team provides guarantee for the undergraduate teaching quality,and especially the"six-step trainingmode"with tutorial system as the core for young teachers(Fig.3)solidifies the teaching team building assurance system.Through nearly 20 years of teaching team building,ithas formed progressive"sixstep trainingmode"(introduction of young teachers;tutor training;first class training;teaching race;young teacher training;becoming distinguished teachers).The teaching race for many years has become one of the platforms for promoting the growth of the young teachers.In thisway,many teachershave grown to distinguished teachers and industry experts,and are promoted to associate professor and professor.
4.2 Fully and rationally using the modern management techniques and toolsIt has attached great importance to teaching management modernization and information-based construction,and has independently developed the educational management system consisting of teaching plan and teaching taskmanagement,teaching material management,course selection,course scheduling,test management,and online performance management.Itachievesonline course selection,studentachievementonline entry,management and query,and online teaching evaluation.The teaching management departments,teaching staff and students can take advantage of the educationalmanagement information platform based on the campus network,to complete the input and query of teachingmanagement and scheduling,thereby effectively improving the level of educationalmanagement.
4.3 Strengthening the quality standards for major teaching linksIn recent years,around the undergraduate talent training objectives and cultivation of practical ability and innovation ability,it has proposed the principled advice on revising the undergraduate training program and made some provisions on personnel training guidelines,training objectives,curriculum setting and practice teaching.In addition,it has improved and developed the teaching quality standard and support documents in line with the actual level of college and undergraduate teaching features formajor building,personnel training programs,curriculum development,syllabus,textbook selection,classroom teaching,graduating thesis,experimental teaching and professional internships,so that thewhole process of teaching and teaching link have quality basis and assessment criteria.To ensure that the quality standards of all main teaching links are strictly implemented,the campus has adopted strictmeasures.Meanwhile,ithas implemented strict management standards of school roll in accordance with Undergraduate Student Management Methods of Southwest University(Trial).The campus also strictly implements the incentives and disincentives for teachingmanagement staff based on their duties in order to fullymobilize the enthusiasm of teaching personnel for participating in the teaching management.These measures complement each other,forming a perfect teaching quality standard assurance mechanism.The quality standards are strictly implemented for themajor teaching links to ensure the quality of personnel training.
4.4 Strengthening the strict teaching monitoring process managementImproving the qualitymonitoring system can guarantee the teaching quality.The campus attaches great importance to the building of teaching quality monitoring system(Fig.2).After years of exploration and practice,it has built the teaching quality monitoring mechanism with campus teaching guidance committee,department teaching guidance group,undergraduate teaching supervision and guidance committee,teaching management departments,teaching information center and student affairs office as the core.It builds the complete undergraduate teaching quality dynamic monitoring system with the teaching objective,process and effectmonitoring as the core,the teaching information monitoring as the link,and routine management monitoring,teaching supervision and monitoring and evaluation and incentive monitoring as themeans.Ithasmade the teaching qualitymonitoring system more complete and teaching quality regulatorymechanism more effective.The teaching quality monitoring institutions'responsibilities are clearly defined to effectively ensure the normal operation of qualitymonitoring system.In the evaluation of professional titles,the single-vote veto system is implemented for teaching assessment.The teacherswhose teaching quality can not reach the requirementsmustnotbe promoted to higher level technical title within two years.It has increased rewards to the outstanding undergraduate teachers,and increased the share of classroom teaching evaluation and teaching reform achievement in the assessment of teachers'professional titles.
4.5 Building appropriate high-level college students'employment and entrepreneurship cultivation system in the campusUnder fiercely competitive employment environment,the college studentswill face problems in the future employment.Employment and entrepreneurship are throughout the entire process of four years of college study.The campus always focuses on the college students'entrepreneurship and employment theory and strengthens the experiment,practice,skills and other links,thereby building and implementing a suitable high-level employment and entrepreneurship cultivation system(Fig.4).At the same time,it introduces Extracurricular Scientific and Technological Activities Regulations for College Students and Entrepreneurship Regulations for College Students,and builds forestry practice base,college students'entrepreneurship park,"8+1"Business Association and other employmentand entrepreneurship platforms,thereby achieving higher rate of employment and entrepreneurship than the same type of colleges and universities.Over the years,the initial employment rate formanymajors has reachedmore than 90%,and for some traditional predominant disciplines ormajors,the supply of graduates falls short ofmarket demand.
Improving the teaching quality is the most important and urgent task for the Chinese universities and colleges at present,and China's Long-term Education Reform and Development Plan(2010-2020)also requires all colleges and universities to give priority to improving the educationaland teaching quality.China isa large agricultural country with a large population,and agriculture is the foundation of the national economy,so the educational quality and effectiveness of agriculture-related colleges and universities is directly related to the sustained and stable development of China's agricultural economy.Taking Southwest University Rongchang Campus for example,this paper analyzes the connotation of the undergraduate teaching quality assurance system in agriculture-related colleges and universities,and probes into the long-term operating mechanism ofmultidimensional integrated quality assurance system aswell as the sound teaching qualitymonitoring and management system building assurance system and operational practice effect involving personnel training programs,teaching element control,supervision and control of the teaching process,supervision and control of teaching effectiveness,teaching assurance policy and system,teaching funding system,teaching technical support guarantee,and teaching environmentbuilding guarantee,with the purpose of providing a reference for the Chinese universities and colleges to improve the teaching quality.
[1]ZHANG B.Some problems in constructing the teaching quality assurance system of higher education institutions[J].Higher Education Development and Evaluation,2009,25(1):6-10.(in Chinese).
[2]SHEN ZM,ZHANG CJ.Study on professionalmanagermechanism of three-dimensional interlocking in agricultural family business[J].Journal of Anhui Agricultural Sciences,2010,38(11):5908-5910.(in Chinese).
Asian Agricultural Research2015年5期