At 2:30 p.m. on June 30, 2025, Professor Gao Yang—Deputy Director of the Center for Teaching Development and doctoral supervisor at Xi’an Jiaotong University—visited our college at the invitation of Dean Li Yan to provide targeted guidance to the three faculty teams participating in the 2025 “FLTRP·Guocai Cup” Understanding Contemporary China Shaanxi Province Foreign Language Proficiency Competition (Teacher Division). The event was chaired by Dr. Wang Yinghui, Head of the English Department, and attended by key faculty members from the Departments of English, Translation, General English, and Business English. The on-site atmosphere was warm, engaging, and pragmatic.
At the beginning of the event, Dr. Wang Yinghui extended a sincere welcome to Professor Gao and the participating teams on behalf of the college. She also put forward specific expectations regarding the instructional demonstrations of the three teams.
The three teams then delivered their teaching presentations in sequence. First, each team leader explained the instructional design concept for their chosen lesson, with a focus on how to make effective use of teaching materials, integrate intelligent digital technologies, and guide students to “tell China’s stories and communicate with the world.” This was followed by a 20-minute real-classroom teaching demonstration by another team member, showcasing the practical application of Problem-Oriented Teaching (POA), the “Unity of Knowing and Doing” demonstration segment (DEMO), and student learning profile analysis. The teachers' innovative approaches and tightly structured lessons were met with rounds of enthusiastic applause.
Drawing on the competition rules and scoring criteria, Professor Gao delivered an insightful critique centered on the three key dimensions: instructional design (70%), teaching process (40%), and teaching evaluation (10%). He began by systematically analyzing recent innovations in the FLTRP “Teaching Star” contest, including its expansion across multiple languages, levels, and models. He also shared strategies for integrating institutional characteristics with the broader goals of the competition.
Addressing the three teams individually, Professor Gao offered the following recommendations:
In the POA segment, ensure coherent progression throughout the phases—“context creation, task implementation, collaborative feedback, autonomous extension”—by streamlining and operationalizing the process.
Reinforce the practical application of “unity of knowing and doing” in the DEMO segment, using real-life cases to enhance student engagement.
Focus on detailed learner analysis, utilizing diverse data sources to conduct precise student stratification, thereby aligning instructional plans closely with learners’ needs.
Standardize the visual design of PowerPoint presentations to enhance consistency and information delivery.
Clarify the internal logic between theoretical frameworks and instructional goals, ensuring that learning objectives are measurable and assessable.
Each suggestion was both theoretically informed and practically grounded, offering the attending teachers valuable inspiration.
In closing, Professor Gao drew on his personal experience participating in the national Higher Education Teaching Development Index assessment to present his own instructional design template and classroom implementation approach. He demonstrated how to achieve an organic integration of teaching objectives, ideological-political elements, and digital-intelligent resources within time-constrained settings. His compelling case study won widespread acclaim from both faculty and students.
Professor Gao encouraged the teaching teams to use the competition as a driving force for teaching enhancement and academic research, regarding it as a crucial opportunity to deepen educational reform and promote professional development.
We firmly believe that our college’s teachers will deliver outstanding performances at the provincial level, contributing richly to the theme of Understanding Contemporary China and laying a strong foundation for the national finals. The college will continue to provide high-level mentorship platforms, motivating more faculty members to embrace educational innovation and contribute their expertise and efforts to the advancement of foreign language education.
Translated by Li Ran
Reviewed by Wang Yinghui
