Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2022)

1. INTRODUCTION

The opening of education to the outside world is a key condition to serve the strategy of strengthening education in the new era, and it is a powerful driving force for colleges and universities to expand their international vision, pattern and self-transcendence. In order to implement the requirements of the Party Central Committee to further expand the opening of education to the outside world, and to cooperate with world-class resources in running schools to enhance the educational strength and innovation capabilities of Chinese colleges and universities, this paper focuses on modern design education, facing the new technology revolution and the development trend of the creative industry, making overall use of international and domestic resources. Through in-depth research on the high-quality resources of the United Kingdom, the pioneer of creative design education, this paper explores and tries to build a “one chain, three stages, five dimensions” international creative design talent training path to continuously promote the innovative development of local design education [1].

2. OVERVIEW

Design education in China is deeply influenced by the former Soviet Union, and the composition of its training plan has transformed from the four major sections of public courses, basic theoretical courses, professional basic courses, and professional courses in the early stage of reform and opening up to the current platform construction of general humanities courses, professional compulsory courses, professional elective courses, and practical courses. It can be seen that the structure of China's design education curriculum basically follows the disciplinary characteristics, social orientation and personal value to carry out [2]. The structure of the theoretical and professional skills courses is set. While emphasizing the general knowledge of students' “thick foundation”, it is also required to set up in accordance with the discipline development law and the structure of professional theory and professional skills courses. However, after several years of practice and testing, it is not difficult to find that most of the design students trained by colleges and universities currently have a solid foundation but are not specialized. This is not only related to the expansion of enrollment in colleges and universities, the lack of close connection between theoretical teaching and professional practice, and the mismatch between talent training goals and market demand, but also caused by the logical relationship between courses and the disconnect between teaching content and talent training goals. Through the research of this paper, the following teaching problems are proposed to be solved:

The first is to solve the problems that the degree of internationalization of design education in China's colleges and universities is not high, it is difficult to realize the concept of creative design talent training that is integrated between China and foreign countries, and students have narrow professional vision and weak awareness of design innovation.

The second is to solve the problems of lack of creative thinking generation power and lack of creative evolution and deepening process caused by scattered professional curriculum and lack of exploratory courses.

The third is to solve the problems of students' lack of interest in professional learning, low self-learning awareness, and low creative design practice ability caused by rigid teaching forms and skill training machinery.

The fourth is to solve the problems of unreasonable evaluation of the whole process of students' creative design practice caused by one-sided evaluation indicators, simple evaluation subject and imaginary evaluation standards.

3. DEEPLY STUDYING HIGH-QUALITY RESOURCES OF BRITISH HIGHER DESIGN EDUCATION AND UPDATING THE CONCEPT OF CREATIVE DESIGN TALENT TRAINING IN CHINA

The author has conducted in-depth research on the high-quality higher modern design education resources in the UK, combined with the development of the local creative industry to organically integrate. From the aspects of value guidance, knowledge exploration, capacity building and habit formation, the author believed that it is necessary to implement the fundamental task of “strengthening moral education and cultivating people”, and comprehensively cultivate new-era designers who have both an international vision and a sense of home and country, as well as strong independent innovation ability and professional comprehensive quality [3].

The author organically integrates the modern British design education mechanism with the existing design talent training model of Wuhan Textile University, and adopts the path of combining tradition and modernity, coupling of art and technology, and communication between the nation and the world, to form an educational concept centered on creative thinking training, autonomous learning ability, teamwork awareness, and reflective and critical spirit. The author also found out that teachers can pay attention to the positive role of practice in the process of design education, use different course modules to stimulate students' creative thinking, and improve students' weak awareness of design creativity and narrow professional vision caused by long-term exam-oriented education, in order to cultivate design and creative talents with international competitiveness, effectively promote the in-depth cooperation of Sino-UK design education, and create a benchmark Sino-foreign cooperation platform in the province.

4. CONSTRUCTING A CREATIVE MODULE COURSE GROUP TO PROMOTE THE INTEGRATION OF STUDENTS' PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

Having deconstructed and reorganized professional knowledge points and skills, the author constructed a three-stage advanced creative module course group of “design field cognition-creative thinking training”, “research direction exploration-professional cooperation experience”, and “design direction definition-future career planning”. While ensuring the integrity and systematicness of the design professional knowledge system, it can gradually stimulate the generation of students' creative thinking. This paper deconstructs China's traditional design education professional curriculum system, embeds the core curriculum resources of British modern design education, and constructs three progressive creative module curriculum groups. The generation and development of creative thinking, gradually stimulating the generation and development of students' creative thinking while ensuring the integrity and systematicness of the design professional knowledge system [4].

The first is the basic module group guided by “design domain cognition - creative thinking training”, which is set up in the first and second year of undergraduates. The purpose is to make students have an effective cognition of the basic theory and knowledge system of the major, and at the same time cultivate students to have an international creative vision and form a macro design thinking. For example, courses like “Introduction to Visual Communication”, “Visual Art and Narrative Communication” and “Creative Thinking Expression” for visual communication majors, courses such as “Landscape History”, “Inspiration” and “Introduction to Design” for environmental design majors, and courses like “Introduction to Digital Media” and “Creative Thinking” for digital media majors.

The second is the comprehensive module group centered on “exploration of research directions — professional cooperation experience”, which is set up in the third grade. The purpose is: on the one hand, to cultivate the research spirit of students, and to have a certain sensitivity to the frontier trends and development trends of the professional field, and on the other hand, to cultivate students' sense of teamwork, making them be able to have better communication, organization and coordination, solidarity and collaboration skills, and be able to assume roles in a multidisciplinary team. For example, courses such as “Discourse”, “Personal Professional Field Identification” and “Design Collaboration and Expression” for visual communication majors, “Environment”, “Practical Methods” and “Cooperative Projects” courses for environmental design majors, and courses such as “Cross-Platform Media”, “Creative Visual Visualization” and “Multimedia Group Project” for digital media majors.

The third is the expanded module group aiming at “definition of design direction - future practice planning”, which is set up in the fourth grade. It aims to cultivate students to pay attention to the future development direction of the field of art and design, to be able to plan their future development paths and to conduct self-management, in order to have better independent learning ability and lifelong learning awareness, and to adapt to the needs of the development of the times. For example, each major offers courses such as “Professional Design”, “Code of Professional Ethics” and “Design Exhibition”.

Each module group is composed of an exploratory module course and a number of professional skills comprehensive module courses. The groups are connected vertically and horizontally. All module courses are designed according to the main line of “one theme, multiple tasks”, which promotes the integration of professional knowledge and design skills, and improves students' systematic research ability and practice planning awareness.

5. ADOPTING THE INTERACTIVE TEACHING METHOD OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS, CREATING A POSITIVE AND ACTIVE CLASSROOM ATMOSPHERE, AND STIMULATING SPONTANEITY AND CONSCIOUSNESS OF STUDENTS' DESIGN CREATIVITY

The author adopts the organization method of “task design - project research - exploration of design direction - demonstration of design feasibility - optimization of design plan - evaluation of design results - reflection on the design process”, and carries out classroom teaching practice with the main line of “node - task - project”, innovatively constructing an interactive teaching chain in which teachers guide the analysis of problems, members cross-research problems, and teachers and students promote each other to solve problems, forming an atmosphere of teaching and learning and improving students' academic experience.

Facing the needs of international creative industries, the Chinese and British teaching teams deeply integrate to create the teaching contents of the module courses and create diverse learning situations. Each module course implements interactive teaching methods such as lecture, studio, tutorial, group discussion, presentation and reflection, enabling students to form a learning style that changes from passive learning to active inquiry, and the role of teachers from classroom lecturers to project co-builders, which cultivates students' “self-learning ability”, “teamwork awareness” and “reflection and critical spirit”, and enhances students' design interest and practical innovation ability.

• Lecture — Lectures are held once a week or every two weeks, and each time is 1-2 hours. The content includes teaching tasks, software requirements, design topics, case analysis, etc., to help students broaden their thinking.

• Studio — The teacher explains the project requirements of the studio, the students complete the project tasks in groups or individually, and the teachers assist the students to advance the project tasks throughout the process. Open and inquiry-based learning methods promote the transformation of professional theoretical knowledge into professional practical skills

• Group discussion — 5-6 students are in a group, and the group leader is responsible for the system. The group leader organizes group discussions according to the project tasks. The group members jointly study the project division and formulate design plans. Teachers provide guidance and answer questions during the group discussion process to stimulate students' self-learning awareness and improve students' research ability and teamwork spirit.

• Tutorial — Teachers and students conduct extended research in the form of “mutual assistance, complementarity, and mutual promotion”. In response to the problems encountered by students in design orientation, preliminary research, and design practice, teachers and students conduct in-depth discussions and demonstrations to guide and promote students to continuously improve their design plans.

• Presentation — The presentation and evaluation session is arranged twice in each module course: In the mid-term inspection stage of the module course, students need to show the overall planning, design orientation, design research and completed corresponding design results of their own design tasks in the form of individuals or groups. Teachers and even interprofessional teachers guide the reporter to conduct in-depth analysis and research. At the end of the module course, students design works to express all the output content after learning this module in the optimal form within the specified time and place. It has higher requirements for students' ability to organize and express information. In this work exhibition and evaluation session, professional teachers put forward specifications and improvement measures according to the final requirements of the module, and students submit revised design works.

• Reflection — At the end of each module course, students are required to submit a personal reflection report. Through the report, students will sort out and summarize the gains and deficiencies in the module course learning process, and plan the follow-up study.

6. IMPLEMENTING THE “FIVE-DIMENSIONAL THREE-DIMENSIONAL” ACADEMIC EVALUATION SYSTEM, AND HIGHLIGHTING THE VALUE OF PROCESS EVALUATION

This paper attempts to form a kind of five dimensions of “goal achievement, innovation and creativity, design generation, communication and collaboration, and sustainable development” in the evaluation content, use five forms of “student self-evaluation, group mutual evaluation, teacher evaluation, internal audit and expert external audit” in the evaluation subject, and adopt five levels of “simple imitation, basic improvement, original creativity, rational promotion, and efficient innovation” in the evaluation standard. The author also tries to build a five-dimensional three-dimensional academic evaluation system from the aspects of evaluation content, evaluation subject and evaluation standards, and adopts the form of “internal audit + external audit” mutual audit and mutual verification, which realizes the global dynamic guarantee of teaching quality, and effectively promotes the continuous improvement of design classroom teaching. Taking the above actions, the author found that it can change the subjectivity and one-sidedness of the traditional academic evaluation of design majors, increase the quality control of the teaching process, promote the evaluation in the process of design creativity, guarantee the objectivity and rationality of academic evaluation in a multi-channel and three-dimensional manner, and improve the scientificity, standardization and feasibility of professional teaching [5].

7. CONCLUSION

With the continuous change of the global environment, the construction and practice of design professional talent training is an evolving process. Society's demand for talents and the momentum and challenges in professional teaching are changing at any time. At the same time, the continuous updating of the industry, economic structure and other contents and any dynamics in the industry will have an impact on design education. Therefore, the training concept, training objectives, training process and training methods of creative design talents should always be in dynamic development.

Reflecting on the current situation of advanced teaching, there are still some problems that need to be solved. The following points are summarized:

First, with the development and changes of social and environmental factors in the world, it is necessary to continue to track and study the impact of potential factors, marketization factors and related knowledge changes on the development of international creative design professionals on the changes in the demand for design talents, continue to reflect on dynamic changes in talent training concepts, keep pace with the times, and adjust talent training goals in a timely manner.

Second, it is also necessary to further adjust and supplement the construction content of “interactive teaching chain in the whole territory”, “creative module course group” and “five-dimensional three-dimensional academic evaluation system”, and constantly correct through practice, so that course teaching content, professional teaching methods, and academic evaluation standards can more accurately adapt to the development of the times, and the training methods of creative design professionals can be more rational, further deepening the global management of teaching quality, and striving to make every talent training link perfect.

Third, it is a must to continue to implement the system of off-campus practical teaching and extracurricular scientific and technological activities, continue to summarize the advantages of this achievement, and form a career plan and related system that conforms to the training of creative design talents in the new era.

Forth, it is also a necessity to continue to follow the pace of design discipline construction, promote the further development of design major teaching reform through the in-depth integration of disciplines and scientific research, expand research results, and actively explore the construction of quality key projects such as excellent teaching teams and famous teaching teachers [6].

For a century and a half, China's design education has gone through the “exploration stage - digestion and absorption stage - practice and innovation stage”, and every reform and breakthrough is very hard and difficult. At present, China's design education still has a certain distance from a complete and mature education system. How to correctly treat foreign high-quality educational experience to construct a scientific and reasonable design education model in line with national conditions is an important issue in the process of design education reform in China today. In this process, educators do not evade their own problems, and pondering the advanced Western educational concepts, and cultivating Chinese design innovation talents in the new era is the responsibility of every design educator.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

2021 China Textile Industry Federation Higher Education Teaching Reform Project “Construction and Practice of Modular Curriculum System and Teaching Mode for Design Majors in Textile Colleges and Universities”, Project No.: 373.

REFERENCES