Comprehensive Construction of Innovative Talent Cultivating Model in Colleges and Universities

Rongan CAO, Chengtai ZHANG, Yinghua LUO, Jiamiao ZHANG, Guinan SHEN, Chenghao JIN*

1. College of Food Science, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China; 2. College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China; 3. College of Life Science and Technology, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, Daqing 163319, China

Abstract Innovation is the soul of progress of a nation and the first driving force for development. Building an innovative country is the core of the national development strategy, which requires a large number of talents with innovative consciousness and ability. Colleges and universities undertake the important mission of cultivating innovative talents, while the cultivating model is related to the quality of innovative talents cultivation. From nine aspects, namely, disciplines, course systems, teaching methods, teacher staff, practical links, scientific and technological activities, innovation platforms, system guarantees, and party building, this study explained the construction of innovative talent cultivation model, so as to provide a certain reference for the cultivation of innovative talents in colleges and universities.

Key words Innovative talents, Training model, Colleges and universities, Construction

1 Introduction

Innovation is the soul of a nation’s progress and an inexhaustible driving force for the country’s prosperity. A nation with no potential for innovation can hardly stand in the forest of the world’s advanced nations. To have stronger competitive strength in the international society, China must cultivate a large number of talents with innovative consciousness and ability. Colleges and universities undertake the important mission of cultivating innovative talents, educational concepts and talent training models are in urgent need of innovation, and the construction of innovative talent training models is an epochal topic of educational research.

2 Significance of cultivating innovative talents

Innovation is the first driving force for development and the strategic support for building a modern economic system. Improving independent innovation ability and building an innovative country are the core of the national development strategy and the key to improving overall national strength. To achieve this strategic goal, the most important thing is to cultivate a large number of innovative talents. Education is a primary task that is crucial for generations to come. Education is essential to the country and the Party. The cultivation of innovative talents is inseparable from education. Talent cultivation is the fundamental task and mission of colleges and universities, and is the new requirement of the development of the times and social progress on higher education. The ability to cultivation top-notch innovative talents is also an important indicator of measuring the level of a university. The

Outline

of

China

’

s

National

Plan

for

Medium

and

Long-term

Education

Reform

and

Development

(

2010-2020

) clearly stated that we will meet the needs of national and social development and follow the regular patterns of education and the growth of talents. We will deepen education and teaching reforms, renovate education and teaching methods, and explore a variety of approaches of cultivation, so as to bring about a situation in which talents emerge in a constant stream, and top-notch innovators come forth without letup.

Innovative talents are special talents who have innovative consciousness, innovative spirit, innovative ability and can make innovative achievements. Generally, they should possess the following basic qualities: (i) profound cultural accumulation and humanistic spirit; (ii) healthy mentality, strong physique; (iii) full of exploration spirit and inquiry ability, strong thirst for knowledge, strong curiosity; (iv) clear thinking, strong judgment and agility; (v) rich and diverse practical experience and sense of teamwork; (vi) solid technological innovation and the ability to solve practical problems.

3 Construction of innovative talent cultivation model

3.1 Strengthening professional and discipline construction

A reasonable professional structure is an important support for cultivating innovative talents. Colleges and universities can properly set up and adjust their professional structure, build superior disciplines, formulate corresponding talent cultivation plans and goals, and invest funds to increase professional reform and construction in accordance with the cultivation objectives of innovative talents and their own conditions. In addition, colleges and universities can actively establish interdisciplinary professionals, construct new teaching systems, and strive to form comprehensive advantages in disciplines, so that professional school-running strengths are more powerful, discipline advantages are more obvious, school-running characteristics are more distinctive, and the cultivation quality is continuously improved, so as to provide a good discipline and professional environment for the cultivation of innovative talents.

3.2 Optimizing the course system

Innovative talents must first have innovative thinking, while the formation of innovative thinking must be based on a reasonable knowledge structure. The formation of a reasonable knowledge structure depends on a scientific curriculum system. In accordance with the discipline setting and talent cultivation plan, under the guidance of innovative talent cultivation concepts, it is necessary to construct a scientific and reasonable basic theoretical course system. For example, use a variety of methods and means to construct courses, set up compulsory courses, elective courses and a series of professional basic module course systems, so that students have a broad choice of discipline autonomy on a broad basis, give full play to the role of students as the main body, and improve student problem analysis and problem-solving ability, cultivate innovative spirit, entrepreneurial consciousness and practical ability.

3.3 Reform of teaching and learning methods

The reform of teaching methods is directly related to whether a large number of innovative talents can be cultivated and whether the goal can be realized. It is the key and difficult point in the process of cultivation of innovative talents. It is necessary to overcome the long-standing teaching and learning habits among teachers and students that are not conducive to the cultivation of innovative talents, and to achieve innovation in educational thinking and teaching models. (i) It is necessary to make corresponding changes in educational thinking and teaching concepts, teachers must understand the society’s requirements for talents, and figure out what kind of talents to cultivate and how to cultivate this fundamental issue. Teachers should shift from focusing on knowledge imparting to centering on students, to reflect students’ dominant position in teaching activities, so that students can truly become masters of learning, and fully motivate students’ learning enthusiasm, initiative and creativity, and make students change from traditional learning to innovative learning, from focusing on knowledge accumulation to focusing on comprehensive ability training, and focusing on cultivating students’ learning ability, practical ability, as well as innovative ability.(ii) It is necessary to make reform of the teaching method, change the traditional "indoctrination" teaching method and the teaching method that puts too much emphasis on lecturing in teaching, and closely combine theory and practice teaching, which can not only impart important knowledge to students, but also inspire active thinking of students, and pay attention to cultivating students’ scientific and innovative spirit. High-level teaching should center on students, and emphasize the combination of learning and thinking in teaching. It is feasible to adopt lively teaching methods such as heuristics, incentives, participatory, discussion, research, case, question,

etc.

to speed up the modernization of teaching techniques and methods. For example, teachers may design homework with no standard answers, encourage multiple answers to one question, and do not pursue standard answers. For some typical questions, teachers may organize students to discuss, so that they can express their opinions, inspire divergent thinking, and create a good environment for independent thinking and free exploration.

(iii) It is necessary to make reform of the assessment method. Students can be evaluated by examination or assessment. If the examination is conducted, the composition of the test questions should be reformed to increase analysis questions, comprehensive questions and the types of questions that students can give play to themselves. If the assessment method is adopted, reasonable assessment standards should be formulated, so as truly reflect the students’ innovative ability.

3.4 Building a high-level teaching staff

High-quality teaching staff is the most important resource for school development and the key to determining the core competitiveness of a college or university. The cultivation of innovative talents is inseparable from high-capacity and high-quality teaching staff. The construction of a high-level teaching staff is a long-term systematic project. It is necessary to focus on the demand for innovative talents in the construction of an innovative country and the development of higher education, carry out systematic design, highlight the key points, and make comprehensive promotion, concentrate superior resources to create various conditions to promote the formation and development of high-level teaching staff. (i) It is necessary to strive to gather high-level talents from all over the world to create a group of academic masters and academic leaders with international advanced levels. For example, colleges and universities may hire technical personnel with rich practical experience from the company as part-time teachers to undertake part of the teaching tasks, and to form a teaching staff who are young, innovative, practical, and competitive. (ii) Colleges and universities can carry forward the their organizational advantages, actively promote the construction of innovative teams, vigorously advocate the "master plus team" talent aggregation model, and improve their independent innovation ability through the formation of team advantages. (iii) Colleges and universities should create a good academic atmosphere and working and living environment, establish a tilting system in teachers’ annual business assessment, selection and evaluation, and promotion of professional titles, and encourage and support teachers to develop innovative talents. (iv) It is necessary to strengthen the training of teachers and improve them in a variety of ways, such as participating in training and academic conferences, visiting and exchange of universities at home and abroad, and corporate practice.

3.5 Strengthening the practice links

While strengthening the study of theoretical knowledge, it is also necessary to effectively strengthen the training of basic skills and attach importance to practical teaching. As an important link in the entire teaching activities of colleges and universities, practical teaching includes a series of practical teaching links such as experiment, practice, course design, and internship. It is highly intuitive and operable. It is a supplement and expansion to theoretical teaching and can provide students with an important place to transform book knowledge into behavior ability. Through the practice link, students can cultivate their active and innovative spirit of struggle, and improve their practical and innovative abilities.

3.5.1

Developing practical teaching plans and systems. In the first place, it is necessary to formulate a complete practical teaching plan, the plan must be hierarchical, and the corresponding practical teaching plan for different grades can be formulated. The form can be various. For example, comprehensive practice links such as cognitive internships in off-campus bases, internships in the on-campus engineering training center, field internships, confirmatory experiments, professional course experiments, course design, and graduation thesis research. In the second place, it is necessary to optimize the practical teaching management mechanism, including the establishment of a practical teaching responsibility mechanism, a practical teaching incentive mechanism, and a practical teaching quality assessment and evaluation system.

3.5.2

Attaching importance to experimental teaching. In the first place, it is necessary to reform the experimental teaching system. In the course setting, it is necessary to get rid of the traditional mode of experimental teaching attached to theoretical teaching, try to set up experimental courses independently, and count credits separately. Besides, it is necessary to update the experimental teaching content in time, keep up with the latest developments in subject research, and introduce scientific research results into experimental teaching as much as possible, and use the virtual reality (VR) experiment projects to expand modern experimental techniques. In addition, it is necessary to guide students to conduct individualized learning which is an effective way to cultivate innovative talents. Furthermore, it is necessary to reform the experimental teaching methods, reduce confirmatory experiments, but increase comprehensive, research and innovative experiments. At the same time of ensuring normal teaching, colleges and universities should make full use of existing resources, open existing laboratories to students, allow students to freely choose experimental teaching content and experimental time, and continue to give full play to students’ initiative and creativity in learning.

3.5.3

Establishing off-campus practice bases. School-enterprise cooperation is a new model for colleges and universities to cultivate innovative talents, and it is also an important measure to promote higher education reform and innovation and comprehensively improve the quality of talent cultivation. Through internship and survey, students can gain a deep understanding of the enterprise, find and solve the problems that exist in the enterprise from a professional perspective, so as to realize the real digestion and integration of the theoretical knowledge learned in the classroom. Colleges and universities can hire experts and teachers with strong practical ability from companies and enterprises to serve as students’ practical instructors to guide students’ practical activities.

3.6 Actively carrying out scientific and technological activities

Allowing students to participate in scientific and technological activities as early as possible is an important way to cultivate top-notch innovative talents. The forms of scientific and technological activities can be diverse. For example, it is feasible to implement a tutor system for undergraduates. Students follow their tutors to participate in the corresponding research work, develop their innovative thinking in project research, cultivate their ability to learn independently and acquire knowledge in practice, so as to form a good teamwork spirit. Colleges and universities can actively organize students to apply for national and provincial college students’ innovation and entrepreneurship projects, and can also set up school-level innovation and entrepreneurship projects. Besides, colleges and universities can establish science and technology associations, invite experts from inside and outside the school as association instructors, and actively organize lectures and technical training and other scientific and technological activities.

Also, they can encourage students to actively participate in the student science and technology innovation competition, so that students can apply the theoretical knowledge learned in class to their work or product development. In order to solve the problems encountered during the competition, students not only need to make comprehensive use of the knowledge they have learned, but also need to expand and extend the knowledge, and learn to correctly analyze and deal with problems. Discipline competitions can effectively cultivate students’ innovative spirit, improve their hands-on ability, and comprehensively improve their comprehensive abilities and qualities. Establishing and improving the corresponding organizational structure and incentive mechanism is an important guarantee for the smooth and effective development of discipline competitions; colleges and universities must establish policy support, system construction, funding, hardware support and other safeguards to ensure the in-depth and long-lasting development of discipline competitions; the results of subject competitions can be incorporated into the graduate selection system, which can generate greater incentives for students, attract more outstanding students to participate in the competition more devoted and persistent, and inspire the fire of innovative thinking in the competitions.

3.7 Establishing an innovation and entrepreneurship incubation platform

The forms of innovation and entrepreneurship incubation platforms for college students can be diverse. They can rely on schools and practice bases to set up innovation and entrepreneurship laboratories, fully open the laboratories, provide experimental sites for student innovation, and mobilize students to explore new knowledge through experiments. Colleges and universities can establish business parks and incubation bases to provide financial and technical support to entrepreneurial students, such as exempting the first-year rent, providing corresponding training and technical guidance, and guiding students in project implementation, company registration and operation. Universities should also actively promote the close integration with surrounding universities, industrial parks, economic development zones, and local economic construction to achieve resource sharing and coordinated development, and build a model of combining industries, universities and institutes, which is conducive to the cultivation of innovative talents.

3.8 Providing institutional guarantees for the cultivation of innovative talents

Strict, scientific, and standardized management is an important part of the construction of university innovation ability. Scientific and effective organization management is an important manifestation of independent innovation ability. The construction of independent innovation ability of university must be truly implemented in the organization and management process of teaching and scientific research. Management is also productivity. Strict, scientific and standardized management is an effective force to promote university innovation and also an important means to enhance university innovation capabilities. Without strict and standardized organization and management, there will be no high-level scientific and technological development achievements, and innovation and service will become empty talk. Therefore, centering on the two major goals of innovative talent cultivation and high-level scientific and technological innovation, colleges and universities should further strengthen teaching and research management, make strict teaching and research evaluation, and provide institutional guarantees for the cultivation of innovative talents.

3.9 Implementing good party construction to promote the cultivation of innovative talents

In the new era, the cultivation of innovative talents should be promoted through the party construction work of colleges and universities, especially the grassroots party branch construction platform, and the deficiencies of the past talent cultivation should be made up by strengthening the ideological and moral, organizational and management capabilities and work style of talents. This plays a great role in promoting the ideological quality, cohesion, and style of innovative talents: (i) Party construction can clarify the direction of the cultivation of innovative talents in colleges and universities, answer the core question of “who to cultivation and how to cultivation”, and clarify the innovative talent cultivation targets and directions. Besides, the party construction work can give full play to the main role of innovative talents, and through the standardization of grassroots party building work, it can effectively improve the self-learning and self-education awareness of innovative talents, so that innovative talents can gain more sense of identity and belonging in the society; (ii) Through the standardization of the work of the grassroots party branch, colleges and universities will provide innovative talents with learning and practice places, and carry out diverse social practice activities, give them sufficient training opportunities, and effectively solve the reform problems confronted by innovative talents. Colleges and universities should make efforts to create a clean and upright university environment, and build a good political ecology for setting up moral concept and cultivating people. (iii) The essential attributes of the standardization construction of party construction work make up for the weakness of the lack of party spirit of innovative talents, and can comprehensively improve the comprehensive quality of innovative talents, so that innovative talents can better serve the society under the premise of continuous improvement in basic literacy and party spirit, serve the people and enhance the sense of responsibility and mission of innovative talents.

4 Conclusions

Talent is the foundation of innovation and the core element of innovation. The cultivation of innovative talents is the core task of China’s talent strategy in the new era. It is an urgent need for economic and social development and an urgent need of the times. Colleges and universities should shoulder the important historical responsibility of cultivating innovative talents, follow the laws of education and the all-round development of people, and will be bound to explore a proper cultivation model for innovative talents that suits the conditions of colleges and universities.