At present, there are many different meanings of course clusters, but the core is a collection or cluster of courses established according to different purposes, and the construction of course clusters is used to realize new teaching concepts, improve teaching quality and carry out teaching reform. At present, most of the studies on curriculum clusters are about building professional course clusters, core course clusters, professional foundation platform courses, etc. from the perspective of a certain major (e.g. logistics management, accounting, information and computing science, etc.), a certain type of courses of a certain major (e.g. geography pedagogy, network communication technology, university mathematics, etc.), or from the perspective of a certain type of college (e.g. independent colleges, higher vocational colleges, universities, etc.). The curriculum clusters such as core courses and professional foundation platform courses. There is basically no research conducted from the perspective of undergraduate majors in economics and trade or the transformation of applied technology in colleges and universities.
This paper is based on the requirements of applied technology transformation of colleges and universities for undergraduate majors in economics and trade that need to be transformed, with the help of national standards of teaching quality of undergraduate majors in economics and trade, and combined with the author’s many years of teaching experience in international economics and trade majors in Xi’an Peihua College, as well as school and industry experts such as Hu Yibo of Xi’an Foreign Affairs College, Fan Zhongbao of Guangdong Finance College and Dong Xingyou of National Institute of Human Resources for Service Outsourcing. The report of economics and trade majors, from the perspective of curriculum clusters, explains how to reform the curriculum system and gives suggestions for the transformation of such majors.
The current curriculum construction of undergraduate majors in economics and trade still needs many transformations
As economic development enters a new normal, the relationship between talent supply and demand has changed profoundly, structural contradictions in higher education have become more prominent, the tendency of homogenization is serious, the problem of difficult employment and low employment quality of graduates has not yet been effectively alleviated, the mechanism of training applied, compound and innovative talents in short supply at the front line of production and service has not yet been fully established, and the structure and quality of talent training cannot yet adapt to economic restructuring and industrial The structure and quality of talent training cannot meet the requirements of economic restructuring and industrial upgrading.
We should closely focus on national major strategies such as innovation-driven development, Made in China 2025, Internet+, mass entrepreneurship and innovation, “One Belt and One Road”, find the focus and breakthrough point for transformation and development, and truly enhance the ability of local universities to serve regional economic and social development, serve the technological progress of industrial enterprises and create value for learners. The ability of creating value for learners.
Based on the above problems faced by higher education and the future direction of higher education development, the curriculum construction of undergraduate majors in economics and trade that need to be transformed needs to be changed in the following three aspects.
1. Curriculum development mechanism
At present, all the courses of undergraduate majors in economics and trade are basically divided into four categories: general courses, professional foundation courses, professional courses and practical training courses, and around these four types of courses, the hours and semesters of these courses are set according to the existing personnel training program of Xi’an Peihua College, and teachers choose courses according to the courses offered in each semester. This kind of course classification is based on a single standard, and it only strictly enforces the total class hours stipulated in the talent training program and the class hour requirements for each type of course, which does not reflect the soul and essence of the talent training program. Every school’s talent cultivation program is based on certain aspects of competence for talent cultivation, and how much can be reflected in the existing curriculum division standards? How much ability can students feel from it after learning? In order to expand the scale of cultivation of applied, compound and skill-oriented talents, a new mechanism of course offering must be redefined.
2. Practical teaching application links
At present, the practical teaching of undergraduate majors in economics and trade is mostly limited to two aspects, namely, practical teaching attached to some courses and centralized practice. Among them, the centralized practice includes two aspects: general education and professional practice, and the general practice is usually military training, entrance education and graduation education. Some schools also include the various types of competitions and examinations that college students participate in into the practical teaching. Practical teaching is also more limited to extensive lectures by teachers and limited hands-on work by students, not to mention the fact that such practical teaching can improve students’ professionalism in certain aspects and thus directly benefit their employment. Students are not interested in these types of practical courses, and the effect can be imagined. According to the “Guidance” schools should increase the experimental, practical training, internship links, so that the proportion of practical training and internship hours of the total professional teaching hours to more than 30%, so the current practical teaching content must be directly reformed.
3.Course cluster function
Students of current undergraduate majors in economics and trade basically study general courses, then study professional foundation courses, then study professional courses, and finally carry out intensive practical teaching. The courses are offered in the order of general studies – professional foundation courses – professional courses – practical courses, which leads students to learn before and forget after, and the learning of knowledge is not coherent and systematic. At the same time, the scope of students’ course selection is very limited, and most of the courses are compulsory, not to mention that students can choose courses to improve their ability in certain aspects. Therefore, how to link the existing majors and course contents with vocational standards and link the aspects of talent training program and teaching process in the context of applied technology transformation in universities for economics and trade majors, so as to realize the real transformation of such majors.
Reconstruction and optimization of curriculum cluster system
1. Talent training system of economics and trade majors
The talent training system of transformed economics and trade majors should be based on the technical layer of cloud technology, network technology, database technology and modern education technology. The current curriculum clusters of general courses, professional courses and practical training courses should be adjusted to realize the language expression ability, professional upgrading ability and career-oriented ability of economics and trade students. Among them, language expression ability and professional upgrading ability are all aimed at realizing career-oriented ability. In order to realize the above three aspects of competence, the three subjects involved in this talent training system-students, teachers and collaborating enterprises-should participate or share the teaching resources in them according to their roles and functions in online lectures, teacher-student interaction, curriculum construction and teaching resource management, and finally enhance students’ career-oriented competence As shown in Figure 1.
2. Career-oriented competence module
Career-oriented competence plays a pivotal role in the construction of curriculum clusters of economics and trade majors, and at the same time, it is complex. Therefore, the article introduces the career-oriented competence module in detail to illustrate how to carry out the operation of career-oriented competence enhancement. Based on the contents of the career-oriented curriculum library, the career-oriented competence module establishes a knowledge base for economics and trade majors that require career orientation, as students, teachers and collaborative education bases involved in career-oriented competence enhancement operations enter the career-oriented curriculum system or knowledge management system according to their needs and complete their respective tasks
3. Curriculum cluster system for economics and trade majors
In order to improve the language expression ability, professional upgrading ability and career-oriented ability of undergraduate economics and trade majors who need to be transformed, a three-tier curriculum cluster of basic courses, main courses and directional courses has been established according to the general framework of the curriculum system in the national standards of teaching quality for undergraduate economics and trade majors. The main feature of this curriculum cluster is that based on the competencies of these three areas, the directional course cluster is established first, and based on the directional course cluster, the main course cluster and the basic course cluster are then established. Students can choose which basic and main courses to take according to their ability to improve in a certain area. Meanwhile, the courses are divided into three course clusters in each level according to the interrelationship between course contents. The first course cluster is for each ? young foment? s courses that support the other course clusters in that tier. The courses in each cluster of the foundation course tier are related to the course content in each cluster of the main course tier. All courses are centered on the third module in the directional course – virtual simulation training course, innovation and entrepreneurship training program and school-enterprise collaborative education system. At the same time, this course cluster is mandatory, as shown in Figure 3.
Suggestions for undergraduate majors in economics and trade that need to be transformed
1. Give play to the clustering and diffusion of course clusters
In Figure 1, the user layer of the talent training system can enter the system at any time and any place as long as they can, and the orientation courses of the course cluster are linked through the competence layer, so that all the resources in the talent training system are clustered around any user who enters, and the participants are like stepping into a teaching resource supermarket specially established for themselves, and can choose independently. One-third of the courses of undergraduate majors in economics and trade are built into school-level, provincial-level and national-level high-quality courses, and the polarizing effect of high-quality courses in the course cluster is brought into play. There is a great correlation between the course contents of the undergraduate course group of economics and trade, and the proliferation role is played through the knowledge connection between the courses.
2. Improve the allocation of practical teaching resources
According to the requirements of combining engineering and knowledge with practice, the knowledge education system, technical skills training system and experimental training practice environment are constructed according to the real technology and process of production and service. According to the advanced technology level of the industries served, the construction of experimental training practice base is accelerated by adopting various ways such as enterprise investment or donation, government purchase, school self-financing and financing lease.
Introduce enterprise research and production bases, and establish large experimental training and practice centers that are integrated with school and enterprise, and integrated with production, learning and research.
Coordinate all kinds of practical teaching resources and build a professional or inter-professional experimental teaching platform with intensive functions, shared resources, full openness and efficient operation.