Identifying the Focal Points for Strengthening Ideological-Political Course Construction in Higher Education in the New Era

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the National Education Conference that building a strong educational system is a complex systems engineering project, requiring us to closely focus on the fundamental task of fostering virtue and nurturing talent [n], and to aim at cultivating well-rounded socialist builders and successors who are developed morally, intellectually, physically, aesthetically, and labor-wise. We must unswervingly use Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to forge souls and educate people, and implement the project of fostering virtue and nurturing talent for the New Era.

习近平总书记在全国教育大会上指出，建设教育强国是一项复杂的系统工程，需要我们紧紧围绕立德树人这个根本任务，着眼于培养德智体美劳全面发展的社会主义建设者和接班人。要坚持不懈用习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想铸魂育人，实施新时代立德树人工程。

The ideological-political course is the key course for implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue and nurturing talent. In May 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued important instructions on the construction of ideological-political courses in schools, charting the course for advancing the construction of ideological-political courses on the new journey of the New Era. Higher education institutions must deeply study and implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important speech at the National Education Conference and the spirit of his important instructions on the construction of ideological-political courses in schools, identify the focal points, effectively and efficiently promote the reform and innovation of ideological-political courses to continuously open up new prospects and reach new heights, and strive to cultivate more new-era individuals who are worthy of the Party’s trust, patriotic and dedicated, and capable of shouldering the heavy responsibility of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

思政课是落实立德树人根本任务的关键课程。2024年5月，习近平总书记对学校思政课建设作出重要指示，为新时代新征程推动思政课建设指明了方向。高校要深入学习贯彻习近平总书记在全国教育大会上的重要讲话精神和对学校思政课建设作出的重要指示精神，找准着力点，有力有效推动思政课改革创新不断开创新局面、迈上新台阶，努力培养更多让党放心、爱国奉献、担当民族复兴重任的时代新人。

Grasp the Reform and Innovation of Key Course Teaching

抓好关键课程教学改革创新

Adhering to a problem-oriented approach is a fundamental stance, viewpoint, and method of Marxism, and it is a practical requirement for advancing the reform and innovation of ideological-political course teaching. Every era has its own problems; as long as we scientifically understand, accurately grasp, and correctly solve these problems, we can continuously push our society forward. Times change, and students have individual differences; ideological-political course teaching must also change with the times, adapt to circumstances, and advance with the momentum. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously strengthen and improve ideological-political education in schools in the New Era, to educate and guide young students to firmly establish their belief in Marxism, their conviction in socialism with Chinese characteristics, and their confidence in the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, to cultivate great aspirations for serving the country and strengthening the nation, and to become strivers who take on responsibilities. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the Symposium for Teachers of Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Schools: “We must adhere to a problem-oriented approach. The issues students care about and have doubts about actually fall into just a few categories. We must break these issues down, analyze them thoroughly, study and answer them in depth, and explain the facts and principles one by one clearly.” Only by accurately discovering, grasping, and analyzing problems, and solving the problems that students have doubts about, can we enhance the targetedness and appeal of ideological-political courses, making them more charismatic and persuasive.

坚持问题导向是马克思主义的基本立场、观点和方法，是推进思政课教学改革创新的实践要求。每个时代总有属于它自己的问题，只要科学认识、准确把握、正确解决这些问题，就能够把我们的社会不断推向前进。时代在变化，学生个体有差异性，思政课教学也要因时而变、随事而制、乘势而进。因此，要不断加强和改进新时代学校思想政治教育，教育引导青少年学生坚定马克思主义信仰、中国特色社会主义信念、中华民族伟大复兴信心，立报国强国大志向、做挺膺担当奋斗者。习近平总书记在学校思想政治理论课教师座谈会上指出：“要坚持问题导向，学生关注的、有疑惑的问题其实也就几大类，要把这些问题掰开了、揉碎了，深入研究解答，把事实和道理一条条讲清楚。”只有准确发现问题、把握问题、分析问题，解决学生心存疑惑的问题，才能提升思政课的针对性和吸引力，让思政课更有魅力和说服力。

The construction of ideological-political courses in higher education must seek vitality from reform and innovation, grasp the reform and innovation of ideological-political course teaching, and promote high-quality connotative development. From the perspective of teaching philosophy, greater emphasis should be placed on student participation, shifting towards a student-centered, multi-subject teaching model, and transitioning from learning political theory knowledge to focusing on improving ideological and political literacy, effectively ensuring that the latest achievements of the Party’s innovative theories enter the mind and heart. From the perspective of teaching content, we must insist on synchronously advancing the construction of ideological-political courses with the theoretical arming of the Party’s innovations, focus on using successful cases of great changes in the New Era, take the world-renowned achievements of socialism with Chinese characteristics as content support, enrich the teaching content of ideological-political courses, tell the stories of the New Era well, integrate theory into the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics, resolve doubts and confusions, thereby achieving the effect of “breaking things down and analyzing them thoroughly.” From the perspective of teaching methods, we must follow the laws of student growth and cognition, identify individual and common problems, and on this basis actively innovate teaching methods and forms, integrate diverse teaching forms into classroom teaching links, make students the “masters” of the classroom, and help students achieve mastery of the knowledge they have learned. Make good use of methods and discourse that students find easy to accept, and explain the reasoning, academic principles, and philosophy of ideological-political courses deeply, thoroughly, and vividly.

高校思政课建设须向改革创新要活力，抓好思政课教学改革创新，推动高质量内涵式发展。从教学理念看，要更注重学生参与，要向以学生为中心的教学多元主体转变，由学习政治理论知识向重点提高思想政治素养转变，切实推动党的创新理论最新成果入脑入心。从教学内容看，要坚持思政课建设与党的创新理论武装同步推进，注重运用新时代伟大变革成功案例，以中国特色社会主义取得的举世瞩目成就为内容支撑，丰富思政课教学内容，讲好新时代故事，将理论融入中国特色社会主义伟大实践之中，解疑释惑，从而达到“掰开了、揉碎了”的效果。从教学方法看，要遵循学生成长规律和认知规律，寻找个性问题和共性问题，在此基础上积极创新教学方式方法、丰富教学形式样态，将多样化的教学形式融入课堂教学环节，让学生成为课堂的“主人”，帮助学生将所学知识融会贯通。善用学生易于接受的方式和话语，把思政课的道理、学理、哲理讲深、讲透、讲活。

Persist in Planning the Grand Ideological-Political Course with Systematic Thinking

坚持用系统思维谋划大思政课

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that we must have a systematic concept, improve political judgment, political understanding, and political execution, actively recognize, seek, and respond to changes, strengthen overall vision and systematic thinking, strengthen the coordination of reform policies, progress, and effects, and leverage the overall effect of reform. As the key course for fostering virtue and nurturing talent, the ideological-political course is not a study confined to the study, nor a “fantasy in the ivory tower,” but a discipline widely applied to national governance, social development, and daily life. It is the main front for touching students’ hearts and building a powerful ideological guiding force, the main channel for forging souls and educating people, and an important guarantee for cultivating generations of socialist builders and successors. “Ideological-political courses should not only be taught in the classroom but also in social life,” and “We must make good use of the ‘grand ideological-political course’ and must integrate it with reality.” We must persist in systematically planning the “grand ideological-political course,” strengthen “forward-looking thinking, overall planning, and holistic advancement,” leverage synergistic effects, enhance the cohesion and integrity of ideological-political course construction, and promote the high-quality construction and connotative development of ideological-political courses in the New Era.

习近平总书记指出，要有系统观念，提高政治判断力、政治领悟力、政治执行力，主动识变求变应变，强化全局视野和系统思维，加强改革政策统筹、进度统筹、效果统筹，发挥改革整体效应。作为立德树人的关键课程，思政课不是书斋里的学问，不是“象牙塔中的玄想”，而是广泛应用于国家治理、社会发展、日常生活的学科，是触动学生心灵、打造强大思想引领力的主阵地，是铸魂育人的主渠道，是培养一代又一代社会主义建设者和接班人的重要保障。“思政课不仅应该在课堂上讲，也应该在社会生活中来讲”，“‘大思政课’我们要善用之，一定要跟现实结合起来”。要坚持系统谋划“大思政课”，加强“前瞻性思考、全局性谋划、整体性推进”，发挥协同效应，提升思政课建设的聚合力和整体性，推进新时代思政课高质量建设和内涵式发展。

Strengthen overall design, making the construction of ideological-political courses a top priority in the Party’s leadership over educational work. Higher education institutions must continuously expand the space and positions for practical education and online education, promote close cooperation among multiple subjects and coordinated efforts from multiple forces, achieve interconnection and interoperability of educational and teaching resources, mutual learning of experiences and methods, and linkage between online and offline, so that ideological-political courses are closely integrated with reality, fully interactive with practice, and resonate with the times. We must establish and improve a collaborative innovation mechanism for the construction of the grand ideological-political course, improve the funding input and equipment supply guarantee mechanisms for multiple subjects inside and outside higher education institutions, improve management systems, and strengthen the synergistic educational effect of ideological-political courses and curriculum-based ideological-political education. We must fully leverage the educational function of red resources [n], combine the small classroom of ideological-political education with the big classroom of society, make good use of various red resources in the regions where higher education institutions are located, take the excellent traditional Chinese culture, revolutionary culture, and advanced socialist culture as the foundation of strength, guide students to appreciate the practical power of the Party’s innovative theories, and promote the connotative development of ideological-political course construction. We must strengthen the integrated construction of ideological-political courses across universities, middle schools, and primary schools, strive to build a comprehensive and systematic integrated education system for ideological-political education across all school stages, and promote “co-learning, co-research, and co-teaching” of ideological-political courses at all stages.

强化整体设计，把思政课建设作为党领导教育工作的重中之重。高校要不断拓展实践育人和网络育人的空间和阵地，推动多元主体密切合作、多方力量协同发力，实现教育教学资源互联互通、经验方法互学互鉴、线上线下链接贯通，让思政课与现实紧密结合、与实践充分互动、与时代同频共振。要建立健全大思政课建设协同创新机制，完善高校内外多元主体的经费投入和设备设施供给保障机制，健全管理制度，强化思政课程与课程思政协同育人效应。要充分发挥红色资源育人功能，把思政小课堂和社会大课堂结合起来，用好高校所在地域的各类红色资源，以中华优秀传统文化、革命文化、社会主义先进文化为力量根基，引导学生感悟党的创新理论的实践伟力，推动思政课建设内涵式发展。要强化大中小学思政课一体化建设，着力构建全面系统的大中小学思想政治教育一体化教育体系，推动各学段思政课“共学、共研、共教”。

Expand the Field of Ideological-Political Courses with Digital Technology

以数字技术拓展思政课场域

Currently, digital technologies represented by big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence have entered all fields of social development, driving changes in people’s ways of thinking and living. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Many schools have actively adopted case-based teaching, inquiry-based teaching, experiential teaching, interactive teaching, thematic teaching, and differentiated teaching in ideological-political courses, using modern information technology to build smart classrooms, etc., and have achieved positive results. These are all worthy of affirmation and encouragement.” Ideological-political courses must embrace new technologies, seize the new opportunities brought by digital transformation, expand the field of ideological-political courses with digital technology, use language and narrative methods that students like to make ideological-political courses lively, dynamic, and resonant, both “eye-catching” and “soul-touching,” continuously enhancing the affinity and guiding power of ideological-political courses.

当前，以大数据、云计算、人工智能为代表的数字化技术进入社会发展的全领域，推动人们思维方式与生活方式发生转变。习近平总书记指出：“很多学校在思政课上积极采用案例式教学、探究式教学、体验式教学、互动式教学、专题式教学、分众式教学等，运用现代信息技术等手段建设智慧课堂等，取得了积极成效。这些都值得肯定和鼓励。”思政课要拥抱新技术，把握数字化变革的新机遇，以数字技术拓展思政课场域，以学生喜爱的语言和叙事方式使思政课活起来、动起来、响起来，既“抓眼球”又“触灵魂”，不断提升思政课的亲和力和引领力。

Higher education institutions must rely on digital technology to promote the deep integration of the traditional advantages of ideological and political work with information technology, use new technologies to empower ideological and political education, promote the coordinated linkage of online and offline education platforms, and make the content and form of ideological and political education more three-dimensional and vivid. We must build a curriculum and textbook system with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the core content, expand teaching content, optimize the supply of online ideological and political education content, and achieve precise delivery of high-quality ideological and political education content. We must create cross-temporal and spatial teaching platforms, use generative artificial intelligence and other digital technologies, as well as XR, VR, and other virtual simulation technologies, to transcend the boundaries of time and space and create immersive experience classrooms. We must innovate methods of ideological and political education, rely on information technology to create “golden courses” [n] of ideological-political education, increase students’ interest, curiosity, and intrinsic motivation for learning ideological-political courses, and achieve the effect of “moistening things silently.”

高校要依托数字技术，推动思想政治工作传统优势同信息技术深度融合，用新技术赋能思想政治教育，推进线上线下育人平台协同联动，使思想政治教育内容和形式更为立体、鲜活。要构建以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想为核心内容的课程教材体系，扩展教学内容，优化网络思想政治教育内容供给，实现优质思想政治教育内容的精准化投放。要打造跨时空教学平台，运用生成式人工智能等数字技术和XR、VR等虚拟仿真技术，跨越时间与空间的界限，打造沉浸式体验课堂。要创新思想政治教育方法，依托信息技术打造思政“金课”，提高对思政课学习的兴趣点、求知欲、内驱力，达到“润物细无声”的效果。

Enhance the Professional Level of Ideological-Political Course Teachers

提升思政课教师业务水平

Teachers are the foundation of education and the source of its flourishing. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the key to running ideological and political theory courses well lies in the teachers, and the key lies in giving full play to the teachers’ enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity. Higher education institutions must, in the construction of the ideological-political course teacher team, adhere to the principle of taking establishment as the foundation and simultaneously establishing and breaking down, further improve and perfect the long-term mechanism for the construction of the ideological-political course teacher team, and strive to build a high-level ideological-political course teacher team that is politically strong, deeply affectionate, innovative in thinking, broad in vision, strict in self-discipline, and upright in character.

教师是立教之本、兴教之源。习近平总书记强调，办好思想政治理论课关键在教师，关键在发挥教师的积极性、主动性、创造性。高校要在思政课教师队伍建设上坚持以立为本、立破并举的原则，进一步健全完善思政课教师队伍建设的长效机制，着力建设一支政治强、情怀深、思维新、视野广、自律严、人格正的高水平思政课教师队伍。

On the one hand, the professional identity, sense of honor, and sense of responsibility of ideological-political course teachers must be “established.” Higher education institutions should both uphold and promote the spirit of the educator, using the educator spirit to forge the soul and strengthen the teaching force, and enhance the construction of teacher ethics and conduct, impelling the broad ranks of teachers to aspire to become “great masters,” [4]4 “Great masters” (大先生) is a traditional Chinese term of respect for a person of great learning and moral stature, here applied to university teachers. to devote themselves to “great scholarship,” to master professional knowledge and become “masters of the classics,” [5]5 “Masters of the classics” (经师) refers to teachers who impart canonical knowledge, originally the Confucian classics. to cultivate virtue and become “masters of humanity,” [6]6 “Masters of humanity” (人师) refers to teachers who cultivate moral character and serve as role models. and to become those who unify the “master of the classics” and the “master of humanity” who are skilled in “transmitting the Way, imparting knowledge, and resolving doubts”; [7]7 “Transmitting the Way, imparting knowledge, and resolving doubts” (传道授业解惑) is a phrase from Han Yu’s (768–824) essay “On the Teacher” (师说), defining the teacher’s threefold role. at the same time, they must break down the traditional model of evaluating the ideological-political course teaching force, continuously improve the professional title evaluation system and mechanisms, perfect the evaluation system that prioritizes teaching, improve the mechanisms for guaranteeing teachers’ status and remuneration, and stimulate the initiative, proactivity, and creativity of ideological-political course teachers.

一方面，要把思政课教师的职业认同感、荣誉感、责任感“立”起来。高校既要坚持弘扬教育家精神，以教育家精神铸魂强师，加强师德师风建设，促使广大教师立志做“大先生”、潜心做“大学问”，精通专业知识、做好“经师”，涵养德行、成为“人师”，做精于“传道授业解惑”的“经师”和“人师”的统一者；又要破除对思政课教师队伍的传统评教模式，不断完善职称评审体制机制，健全突出教学优先的评价体系，完善教师地位和待遇保障机制，激发思政课教师的积极性、主动性、创造性。

On the other hand, the ideals and convictions, theoretical cultivation, and teaching level of ideological-political course teachers must be “established.” Ideological-political course teachers must always firmly uphold their faith in Marxism, letting those who have faith speak about faith. They must respond to students with thorough theoretical analysis, convince students with complete ideological theory, and guide students with the powerful force of truth. Higher education institutions must continuously strengthen the recruitment, training, incentivization, and assessment of ideological-political course teachers, persistently improve the professional development system for ideological-political course teachers, enhance the teaching skills and competition abilities of young teachers, give full play to the exemplary and leading role of teaching competitions, use competitions to promote teaching, use competitions to promote learning, use competitions to promote research, strengthen the basic teaching skills of ideological-political course teachers, continuously improve the professional capabilities and educational level of ideological-political course teachers, and cultivate and forge a high-level teaching force for the New Era.

另一方面，要把思政课教师的理想信念、理论修为、教学水平“立”起来。思政课教师要始终坚定对马克思主义的信仰，让有信仰的人讲信仰。要以透彻的学理分析回应学生，以彻底的思想理论说服学生，用真理的强大力量引导学生。高校要不断加强对思政课教师的引进、培养、激励、考核等，持续健全思政课教师专业发展体系，提升青年教师的教学技能和竞赛能力，发挥教学竞赛的示范引领作用，以赛促教、以赛促学、以赛促研，加强思政课教师教学基本功，不断提升思政课教师的业务能力与育人水平，培养造就新时代高水平教师队伍。

(The author is a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Director of the Propaganda Department of Guangdong University of Technology, and a specially appointed researcher of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era Research Center of Guangdong Province.)

（作者系广东工业大学党委常委、宣传部部长，广东省习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想研究中心特约研究员）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧