Introduction

Yangming College was established in July 2014. As a new college, it strives to improve the quality of undergraduate education in Guizhou University, to realize the adaptation to transformation from professional education to general education in Guizhou University, to innovate the organization and management of general education for university undergraduates, and to spread the excellent Chinese traditional culture and distinctive regional culture (including Yangming culture).

Yangming College is an institution responsible for general education and its research and management in Guizhou University. The college carries out general education for freshmen in three categories and six sections. The three categories include the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. The six sections comprise classics of literature, history and cultural inheritance; philosophical wisdom and critical thinking; dialogue among civilizations and global perspectives; scientific and technological progress and scientific spirit; ecological environmental and life care; and artistic creation and aesthetic experience.

Yangming College consists of the Party and Administration Office, the Office of Academic Affairs, the Office of Student Affairs, the Office of the Youth League Committee, and the Department of General Education. There are seven teaching sections including the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, agronomy, and three engineering sections. Currently, the college has 32 faculty members and more than 7,000 students enrolled in 2017.

Since its establishment, Yangming College has put forward the mission, vision, values, and motto of the college, and has formulated the educational concepts in its undergraduate general education. The mission of the college is to build an education system that integrates value shaping, ability development, and acquisition of human core knowledge. The effective first-year general education will serve to cultivate every student to become a modern civilized person with good qualities. The school’s vision is to become the forerunner of China’s general education for undergraduates, to become paradise of the free and cradle of the new, and to establish a provincially leading and nationally advanced college of undergraduate general education with international standards. The College’s values include achieving people-oriented education, integration of ancient and modern, harmony between Chinese and Western, mastery of liberal arts and sciences, and the unity of knowledge and action. The college’s motto is to treat Yangming as a “bosom friend” and to realize self-cultivation and the unity of knowledge and action.

Yangming College actively carries out practices in general education and strives to construct an undergraduate general education system that integrates general education with Wang Yangming's Thought. In exploration of curriculum reform in general education, the College has started more than a hundred core courses in three categories (the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences) and six sections (literary  and historical classics and cultural inheritance, philosophical wisdom and critical thinking, dialogue among civilizations and global perspectives, scientific and technological progress and scientific spirit, ecological environmental and life care, and artistic creation and aesthetic experience). It has been exploring the reform of the teaching contents and methodology in general education. More than ten courses have shifted from the 'teacher centered' mode to the 'student centered' mode. It has provided students with a series of lectures entitled “Yangming Forum' on general education, an annual event at which about 20 famous teachers in the fields of the humanities and social sciences and natural sciences are invited. It has established the Youth Society of Learning Marxism and Yangming Study, and has carried out a variety of ideological, cultural and physical activities with distinct themes and diverse forms: the Sinology Read-aloud Competition, the speech contest on integrity, the Competition in Constitutional Knowledge, the Psychological Sitcom Competition, the Most Beautiful Notes Exhibition, 'Good Morning to Yangming' Reading Campaign and so on. It tries to integrate the education of student development with safety education, Guizhou University history education and belief education. It has set out to build an all-round, multilevel and comprehensive 'navigation system' of student guidance. It is exploring the extension of general education and education of Yangming culture to students' dormitories by trying out the dormitory management system. In addition, the college also attaches significant importance to strengthening the development of the teaching staff of general education, promoting research in general education, and enhancing exchanges and cooperation in general education.

The general education work of Yangming College has achieved initial success. In the one-year general education, students at Yangming College usually goes through a process of forgetting knowledge learned in primary and secondary education, being confused about what to learn, to finding their new orientations. In doing so they have been basically freed from the limitations in curiosity, imagination and independent thinking, which are all results of the rigid learning method in primary and secondary schools. They can then adapt well to the university life. The college’s initial construction and practice of a “three-in-one” general education system that integrates value shaping, ability development, and acquisition of human core knowledge has helped students develop good habits in study and life. Students have generally made remarkable progress in interpersonal communication and studying. To a certain extent, this has overcome shortcomings of current university education: the professional education in is too early, too specialized, too narrow, and too strong. These have traditionally led to a narrow mindset of students.

In 2014, as one of the five examples of fostering and practicing Core Socialist Values in Guizhou Province, Yangming College was selected and reported to the Publicity Department of CPC by the Publicity Department of Guizhou Provincial Party Committee. In 2015, Guizhou University’s reform in general education won the Fourth National Award for Excellent Educational Reform and Innovation, which was jointly sponsored by China Education Daily and China Education News Web. In 2016, the general education of Yangming College was recognized by the experts from the Ministry of Education as a special project on quality assessment of undergraduate education in Guizhou University. In 2017, Yangming College introduced the educational concepts and practices in undergraduate general education of Guizhou University at the third annual conference of the Alliance of University General Education held at Peking University. In 2018, the 'Formation of Undergraduate General Education System Integrating General Education with Wang Yangming's Thought' declared by Yangming College won the second prize of the 9th Higher Education Teaching Achievements Award in Guizhou Province.

Contact us

Yangming College
Guizhou University
Guiyang , Guizhou 550025
CHINA

Tel: +86 (851) 88297961
Fax: +86 (851) 88297961
Email: ymc@gzu.edu.cn