Professor Lei Qinglan, the vice president of School of Foreign Languages, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics with a Ph.D, is the academic and technical backbone of our university and the executive director of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association of Guizhou province.
Professor Lei is not only a backbone teacher with rich experience in English teaching, but also an expert professor who has been committed to the exploration of college education reform and innovation for a long time. When speaking of “innovative teaching”, Professor Lei pointed out: “Innovative teaching is more than a great change in teaching form, we should pay more attention to the change of educational concept and the cultivation of innovative consciousness.”
As she is responsible for the teaching of both undergraduate and graduate students, Professor Lei first distinguished the essential characteristics of the two, and made it clear that the focus of undergraduate training should be placed on the consolidation of professional basic knowledge and professional skills training. College teachers should consciously foster the awareness of autonomous learning of undergraduates and help them establish the thinking mode of independent thinking and problem-solving. For undergraduate students, teachers should focus on the cultivation of subject awareness and scientific research ability, the mastery of research methods and the improvement of practical ability so as to combine academic and practical abilities closely, and cultivate high-quality practical talents for the society.
In terms of innovative teaching, Professor Lei’s macro requirement for teachers is to “teach students according to their aptitude”, so that college students can really learn something in the classes and apply what they have learned. The traditional mode of teaching has been unable to meet the demand of contemporary young people. Therefore, college teachers should keep pace with the times, be good at using modern education platforms to provide students with multi-channel and diversified knowledge acquisition methods, and use new media to trigger innovative inspiration. During teaching, teachers should put forward guiding questions to inspire students to think independently and to maintain an active state of thinking in the classes, Moreover, teachers should help students master the key information and break through the difficulties by putting forward targeted questions.
Finally, Professor Lei stressed that college teachers are the main force in the front line of education, which has a decisive impact on the quality and effect of teaching and education. Therefore, college teachers should always keep introspection, make accurate judgments on students’ reflection and feedback in the classes, timely adjust the deficiencies in teaching work, and always maintain the sense of educational responsibility and teaching innovation. Furthermore, teachers should be bold in teaching mode innovation, update educational concepts, adjust educational perspectives, and keep pace with students and the times.
