How to strengthen the construction of teaching staff in technical colleges

Existing problems and countermeasures and suggestions in the construction of teaching staff in technical colleges

In recent years, with the economic development and adjustment and upgrading of industrial structure, Qingdao technical education has achieved leapfrog development. At present, there are 24 technical colleges in the city, with 40,000 students enrolled, and more than 10,000 skilled talents are delivered annually, providing an important guarantee of skilled talents for economic and social development. In the development of technical schools, there are many obstacles that affect the sustainable development of technical education in Qingdao. Among them, the construction of teaching staff plays an important role. The number, academic qualifications, age, professional titles, skill levels, teaching abilities, etc. of the teaching staff of Qingdao's technical education are far from the current integrated teaching reform requirements and the development level of the country's first-class technical colleges. The requirements for the pace of development are quite different. 1. Prominent issues in the structure of the teaching staff of technical schools. As of 2011, there were 1,672 teachers in the city’s 24 technical schools. There were about 1,400 full-time teachers actually engaged in teaching positions and 185 external part-time teachers. There are the following shortcomings in the construction of the teaching team: First, the professional title structure is unbalanced. The professional title structure of the teaching staff reflects the overall academic level and work ability of teachers. In recent years, schools have changed the proportion of teachers with intermediate and senior professional titles through open recruitment, specialized introduction, and strengthened training. However, the overall situation in the city is not optimistic. Teachers, technicians, and senior technicians with intermediate and senior professional titles account for 10% of full-time teachers. The proportion of teachers is less than 40%. At the same time, there is an imbalance in distribution among schools. Some schools have a lower proportion, and some private schools have more prominent problems. In the teacher title structure, junior titles account for the majority. In addition, the distribution of majors is also uneven. Most teachers with intermediate and senior professional titles are teachers of public courses or professional basic courses, and the proportion of professional course teachers is too low. Second, the age structure and professional structure are unreasonable. At present, the school's overall teaching staff is getting younger, with an average age of less than 34 years old, and young and middle-aged teachers accounting for 80.35%. Although they have strong vitality, new knowledge structures, and strong plasticity, young teachers lack the tempering of corporate practice, and there are problems with daily teaching and The integration of production and practice is not close, teaching and internship experience are insufficient, and teaching methods, skills and scientific research capabilities need to be improved. Currently, there are 704 integrated teachers in the city, accounting for only 42% of the total number, which cannot fully meet the teaching needs. Third, the teachers' salary is low and their sources are single. The remuneration in technical schools is generally low, they are not attractive to high-quality talents, and it is difficult to introduce talents. At present, the main sources of teachers in technical colleges include: direct recruitment from college graduates; transfer from other schools; transfer from enterprises; students staying in school or others. Among them, the proportion of teachers directly taught by college graduates is the highest, while the proportion of teachers transferred from enterprises is the lowest, accounting for only 10% of the total. This is in line with the need for technical colleges to have both theoretical basic knowledge and There is a large gap in the requirements for integrated teachers with rich practical work experience

. Some schools have opened new majors that lack professional teachers and can only be replaced by teachers with similar majors, seriously affecting the quality of teaching. In addition, some technical schools have experienced serious shortages of teachers due to their expansion and development, and have largely adopted the external recruitment model. In some schools, the number of externally hired teachers exceeds the number of officially employed teachers, and the teaching staff is seriously unstable. Fourth, there is a lack of high-level academic leaders and the construction of characteristic majors is slowly advancing. The majors in the city's technical colleges are mostly concentrated in electrical and electronics, machinery, marine, chemical engineering and economics and trade. There are few national-level key majors and provincial famous majors, few subject leaders and famous teachers, and the professional scope is narrow. Due to the lack of high-end talents, technical schools do not have obvious characteristics in professional teaching planning, top-notch talents in teaching capabilities, insufficient stamina in teaching material development, and lack of core figures in team building.

Fifth, teachers' teaching tasks are too heavy, which affects the improvement of the quality of the teaching team. At present, the ratio of students to teachers in technical colleges in our city is 1:26, which is still far from the reasonable ratio of 1:16 to 1:20. This number includes the number of teachers in some schools that have no enrollment all year round and teachers who are engaged in school leadership and support work. The actual teaching teacher-student ratio exceeds 1:30. At present, the workload of teachers is relatively heavy, and most teachers have a weekly workload of more than 20 class hours. Many teachers not only undertake teaching, but also undertake enrollment and student management tasks. Nearly half of the teachers serve as class teachers. Therefore, it is difficult for teachers in technical schools to have the energy to supplement their knowledge. In the long run, this affects the overall improvement of the quality of the teaching staff. 2. Countermeasures and suggestions for the construction of teaching staff in technical colleges The construction of teaching staff is the foundation for the development of technical colleges, an important guarantee for the implementation of technical education and teaching reforms, and the main factor affecting the quality of teaching. From the analysis of the current situation, there is a gap between the current teacher ability and level of the city's technical schools and the actual needs, and multiple approaches must be taken to solve this problem. First, formulate a plan for teaching staff construction. Teacher training is a systematic project, and schools must make plans based on professional settings and teachers’ actual conditions. During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, in accordance with the requirements of professional teaching, practical teaching, industry-university-research cooperative education, and innovative talent training models, we must strive to achieve a proportion of the teaching staff structure that is compatible with the size of the school's students. In accordance with the requirement of a teacher-student ratio of 1:20 in technical colleges, at least 150 new teachers should be recruited every year during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period. Newly introduced professional teacher graduate students should account for a certain proportion, and the introduced internship instructors should have senior technical titles or technicians and senior technicians with rich production practical experience. By the end of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", the proportion of "double-qualified" teachers in technical colleges should reach 85%, and the majority should be young and middle-aged teachers. Attention should be paid to the introduction of a group of teachers with rich practical experience in production and certain professional theories. Knowledge-based teachers, and establish a team of technical college teachers with “low age, high education, high quality and large number”.

Second, further improve regulations and incentive mechanisms. At present, the salary of teachers in technical colleges is generally lower than that of secondary vocational schools, except for schools with fully funded public institutions. In order to change the situation where technical colleges are unable to attract and retain talents, we should explore the establishment of a salary system for technical colleges based on the nature of the undertaking and the salary levels of equivalent professional titles in secondary and higher vocational schools. Funding sources can be through technical colleges to improve teachers' salaries, appropriately increase the proportion of teachers' salaries in fund expenditures, and rely on the government to establish a salary subsidy system for teachers in technical colleges. It is necessary to establish an incentive mechanism for teachers in technical colleges: on the one hand, increase the evaluation ratio of professors, senior lecturers, and famous teachers in technical schools, and give preferential treatment in terms of professional titles and appointment policies; on the other hand, establish reward funds for innovation in teaching, research, and research results to encourage in-service teachers Engage in teaching research, implement teaching innovation, and improve teaching standards. Third, adopt multiple channels for training. In addition to introduction, the key to teacher team building lies in training. First, with the goal of comprehensively improving the overall quality of the teaching staff, formulate a long-term target plan for teacher training, establish an effective teacher training mechanism, and train teachers in an organized and planned manner. Establish a teacher training and assessment mechanism to provide supervision, inspection and guidance. The second is to adopt a variety of training models that combine regular and irregular, short-term and long-term, on-campus and off-campus, strengthen exchanges and cooperation between schools and enterprises, inter-schools, and teachers, and encourage teachers to go to enterprises for production and management.

Online internships, off-the-job or semi-off-the-job positions in enterprises, closely integrate teaching and production, the promotion, grafting and application of new technologies and new processes, and improve teachers' teaching, scientific research and innovation capabilities.

The third is to increase investment in teacher training, encourage technical colleges to organize teacher training, encourage in-service teachers to improve their academic qualifications, develop skills and learn teaching methods, so as to improve the overall quality of the teaching team. Focus on strengthening the training of high-end talents, establishing skill master studios, doctoral studios, etc., to promote the training of subject leaders and teaching and research backbones. The fourth is to create a diligent learning atmosphere in technical colleges and universities and advocate the concept of lifelong learning.