Discussion on Ideological and Political Theories Teaching in Traditional Chinese Medicine Courses Based on National Standard for Teaching Quality

Anda WEI, Hua ZHU, Fengfeng XIE, Li LI, Miao ZHANG

1. Graduate College, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning 530004, China; 2. Science Experimental Center, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning 530299, China; 3. College of Pharmacy, Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine, Nanning 530200, China

Abstract This paper analyzes the necessity and existing problems of ideological and political theories teaching in traditional Chinese medicine courses, and puts forward some suggestions, such as improving the ideological and political ability of professional teachers, perfecting the evaluation mechanism, and exploring ideological and political elements based on the characteristics of courses, so as to provide the basis for ideological and political theories teaching in traditional Chinese medicine courses under the National Standard for Teaching Quality.

Key words Traditional Chinese medicine, National Standard for Teaching Quality, Ideological and political theories teaching

1 Introduction

Traditional Chinese medicine is a discipline formed by summing up the experience of clinical disease prevention and treatment in the long-term production and life practice of the Chinese nation. It is an important part of Chinese excellent traditional culture and an indispensable discipline system to ensure the prosperity of all ethnic groups in China and human health. In order to thoroughly implement the Party’s educational policy, fully promote the connotative development of traditional Chinese medicine higher education, and comprehensively improve the quality of talent training in traditional Chinese medicine higher education, the Teaching Steering Committee of Traditional Chinese Medicine Major in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education began to study and formulate theNationalStandardforTeachingQualityofTraditionalChineseMedicineMajorin 2013. This standard puts forward clear requirements for the cultivation of ideological and moral character and professional quality of traditional Chinese medicine professionals. It is necessary to cultivate honest and trustworthy professionals who have a correct world outlook, outlook on life and values, a spirit of patriotism, collectivism, and volunteer to serve human health work; to cultivate professionals who love the cause of traditional Chinese medicine, carry forward the culture of traditional Chinese medicine and are familiar with the important position of traditional Chinese medicine in the "prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, health care" integration and big health care model; to cultivate professionals who can develop the concept of working according to law, who can regulate their professional behavior with various national medical management laws and regulations and industry standards; to cultivate professionals who have the concept of lifelong learning and have the ability of independent learning; to cultivate professionals with a scientific attitude of seeking truth from facts and professionals with critical thinking, innovative spirit and entrepreneurial consciousness.

2 Necessity of ideological and political theories teaching in traditional Chinese medicine courses

Traditional Chinese medicine courses are mainly composed of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Identification of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Processing of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chemistry of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Medicinal Botany, Pharmacognosy and Natural Pharmacology. There are many interdisciplinary courses in traditional Chinese medicine, and the contents of the courses are complicated, involving basic theory, plant morphology, identification, extraction and separation, efficacy indications, pharmacological actions, chemical components, physical and chemical identification, examination and analysis, preparations, clinical application and other aspects, which makes it difficult to learn. At the same time, the professional course of traditional Chinese medicine, as an important part of China’s excellent traditional culture, also contains extensive and profound traditional Chinese medicine culture. In the classroom, the teaching of traditional Chinese medicine culture for students majoring in traditional Chinese medicine can not only stimulate students’ professional interest and cultivate students’ cultural self-confidence, but also better realize the inheritance and innovation of excellent traditional culture, which has important theoretical significance and practical guiding role for comprehensively improving the overall quality of college students[1].

General Secretary Xi Jiping emphasized at the National Conference on Ideological and Political Work in Colleges and Universities that "we must persist in taking setting high moral values and cultivating persons as the central link, carry out ideological and political work throughout the whole process of education and teaching, realize the whole process of educating persons in all directions, and strive to create a new situation in the development of China’s higher education." In 2013, the Teaching Steering Committee of Traditional Chinese Medicine Major in Colleges and Universities of the Ministry of Education began to study and formulate theNationalStandardforTeachingQualityofTraditionalChineseMedicineMajor, which put forward higher requirements for the cultivation of ideological and moral character and professional quality of traditional Chinese medicine professionals[2].

3 Difficulties in ideological and political theories teaching of traditional Chinese medicine courses

3.1 Overemphasizing skill training but neglecting moral education makes it difficult to integrate ideological and political theories teaching into coursesAt present, some professional teachers still have misunderstandings about integrating ideological and political theories teaching into professional courses. On the one hand, some professional teachers think that ideological and political theories teaching is vague and general, and integrating ideological and political theories teaching into the class has little effect and significance. It can be seen that some professional teachers are still vague about the concept of ideological and political theories teaching in professional courses. On the other hand, judging from the current vocational education, some colleges and universities overemphasize the training of skills and knowledge in the training scheme of traditional Chinese medicine professionals, while ignoring the introduction of ideological and political elements, so that students can’t understand the essence and connotation of traditional Chinese medicine culture well, and overly pursue the understanding and mastery of textbook theoretical knowledge, thus hindering the improvement of students’ overall quality.

3.2 The mechanism is not perfect and the enthusiasm of teachers and students is not highAt present, the construction mechanism of ideological and political theories teaching in some colleges and universities is not perfect. Teaching and scientific research are often taken as important indicators in the evaluation of professional teachers, such as teaching evaluation, papers and topics, and there is no reasonable evaluation system for integrating ideological and political elements into professional teaching. Therefore, some professional teachers are busy with knowledge teaching or scientific research projects, lacking "educating" and guidance to students’ world outlook, outlook on life, moral education, ideological concepts,etc., and think that ideological and political theories teaching is entirely the work of political theory teachers and counselors, while ignoring their own responsibility of educating people as front-line professional teachers, resulting in the lack of awareness of educating people in professional courses[3-4].

4 Construction of ideological and political theories teaching in traditional Chinese medicine courses

Colleges and universities shoulder the heavy responsibility of cultivating talents with both ability and political integrity. TheNationalStandardforTeachingQualityofTraditionalChineseMedicineMajorputs forward clear requirements for the cultivation of ideological and moral character and professional quality of traditional Chinese medicine professionals. Therefore, in actual teaching, we should continue to improve the advantages of traditional professional courses in educating people. At the same time, we should further dig deep into the ideological and political elements in professional courses, and constantly explore new educational ways to give full play to the educational function and exert a subtle influence on students’ character.

4.1 Improving the ideological and political ability of professional teachers and perfecting the assessment mechanismThe key to integrating ideological and political theories teaching into professional courses lies in professional teachers. Professional teachers should not only have solid and rich professional knowledge, but also have firm ideals and beliefs. They should explore the ideological and political elements in professional courses, so that educating people can be silently integrated into various activities of classroom teaching. Therefore, colleges and universities should attach importance to the training of front-line professional teachers, constantly improve the comprehensive quality of professional teachers, and make teachers truly realize the importance and necessity of ideological and political theories teaching in courses through training. It is necessary to strengthen cultural self-confidence, impart traditional Chinese medicine culture to students imperceptibly in classroom teaching, and stimulate students’ enthusiasm for professional courses, to improve students’ self-confidence, and make traditional Chinese medicine more vivid.

The promotion of ideological and political theories teaching depends on professional courses, and the formation of habits of integrating ideological and political theories teaching into professional courses is a gradual transformation process, so it is the key to build an effective assessment mechanism instead of relying solely on the initiative of professional teachers. On the one hand, it is necessary to improve the new teaching evaluation system, and promote the investigation and assessment of students’ personality and humanity in the evaluation. On the other hand, it is necessary to establish an effective student evaluation system, because the most direct feedback on professional teachers’ integration of ideological and political theories teaching into the curriculum is the student evaluation. At the same time, it is necessary to establish the relevant investigation mechanism and reward and punishment measures for ideological and political theories teaching in the first class, and it should be reflected in the aspects of performance accounting, awards and professional titles, so as to improve professional teachers’ understanding of the importance and necessity of ideological and political theories teaching and their enthusiasm for integrating ideological and political theories teaching into professional courses[5].

4.2 Exploring the ideological and political elements based on the characteristics of coursesThere is too much overlapping and fusion in traditional Chinese medicine courses, so ideological and political elements can be explored according to the characteristics of different courses, and ideological and political theories teaching can be carried out. Taking Identification of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an example, it explains the development history of this discipline, from the earliestShennongMateriaMedicaClassictotheNewlyRevisedMateriaMedicain Tang Dynasty, toCompendiumofMateriaMedicaby Li Shizhen andSupplementtoCompendiumofMateriaMedicain Qing Dynasty,etc., to fully demonstrate the long history of traditional Chinese medicine culture, which can make students understand the profoundness of traditional culture and improve the cultural confidence of the Chinese nation. An important task of Identification of Traditional Chinese Medicine is to evaluate the authenticity of Chinese herbal medicines. Through the teaching of identification of Chinese herbal medicines, students can be instilled with the awareness of honesty, eliminating falsehood and preserving truth, thus enhancing students’ sense of social responsibility.

The ideological and moral character, humanistic quality, professional quality, attitude cultivation, communication and coordination ability can be integrated into the training objectives of traditional Chinese medicine courses. Taking Traditional Chinese Medicine Resources as an example, students can be instilled with elements such as cherishing resources, developing resources, seeking truth and being pragmatic, inheriting and innovating. Chinese traditional medicine culture has a long history, and China is rich in traditional Chinese medicine resources. In the course of Traditional Chinese Medicine Resources, through the general survey of traditional Chinese medicine resources, we can find out the actual situation of traditional Chinese medicine resources in China, strengthen our determination to protect traditional Chinese medicine resources and serve human health, and at the same time, guide students to understand the contribution and advantages of traditional Chinese medicine in the field of natural medicine research in the world, and enhance national pride and cultural self-confidence[6-7].

5 Conclusions

TheNationalStandardforTeachingQualityofTraditionalChineseMedicineMajorputs forward clear requirements for the cultivation of ideological and moral character and professional quality of traditional Chinese medicine professionals, and moral education should be in a more prominent position in the cultivation of talents in colleges and universities.

It is a new moral education concept to integrate ideological and political theories teaching into the process of knowledge transfer, and it is a trend to integrate ideological and political elements into professional courses. In view of the problems such as difficult integration and poor effect, we need to constantly explore and tackle key problems. In addition to improving the ideological and political ability of professional teachers, improving the assessment and evaluation mechanism, and exploring ideological and political elements in many aspects, we also need to lead from multiple angles, such as taking the competition as the guide, inheriting culture and carrying forward the craftsman spirit; constructing the inheritance mode of traditional Chinese medicine culture with community as the carrier; integrating traditional Chinese medicine culture into social practice[8]; enriching the educational ways of traditional Chinese medicine culture with new media. The ideological and political theories teaching in colleges and universities has a long way to go, and continuous efforts are needed to cultivate traditional Chinese medicine talents with both ability and political integrity.