At the beginning of the new school year, a course at South China Agricultural University has become popular - the school has incorporated the standard riding of shared electric bicycles into the military training for undergraduate freshmen, so that students can learn to start smoothly, turn at right angles, make S-shaped turns, and brake to stop. A freshman from Ningbo, Zhejiang Province said that the campus is so big that it takes him more than half an hour to walk from the school gate to his dormitory; it takes more than an hour for a senior to take him around the campus on an electric bike. Therefore, "it is very necessary to learn this (use shared electric bicycles)."
Thousands of miles away in Luojia Mountain, Wu Jielin, a student at the School of Liberal Arts of Wuhan University, took the life course "Gardening and Flower Arrangement" this semester. The teacher first talked about the key operational points and aesthetics of hemispherical flower arrangement: identifying the quality of flower materials, pruning appropriately, paying attention to the echo of primary and secondary, and the complementation of virtual and real; then let the students carry out practical operations. Wu Jielin took the carnations, baby's breath and chrysanthemums and repeatedly adjusted them, trimmed the remaining leaves, considered the height, and the flower bulb gradually took shape. She said that this labor education class taught her to create beauty in another way, "using scissors as pen and flowers as ink."
Such life education courses have appeared in colleges and universities in the past two years.
In the fall semester of 2024, Nanjing University of Communication has launched a public elective course "College Student Life Guide", which mainly teaches hospital registration, medical insurance reimbursement, rental contract signing, etc. Many students said that it is “too much needed” and “please make it an online open course”. Relevant surveys show that 89.27% of students believe that colleges and universities should offer general life courses, and 81.19% express their willingness to take such courses.
What kind of life education do students need in colleges and universities? How should life education courses be taught, and who should teach them?
1. Strong response, but still sporadic attempts
"In fact, the life courses currently offered in colleges and universities are still sporadic 'bonsais' and have not yet formed a standardized, normalized and systematic 'landscape'. Student feedback is generally good, but they mostly rely on teachers' personal enthusiasm and students' actual needs, and there is no stable course supply mechanism." said Yang Haihua, a professor at the Institute of Higher Education at Suzhou City University.
Lu Wei, an associate researcher at the National Education Macro Policy Research Institute at East China Normal University, also said: "The life courses offered by several universities have caused quite a stir, making people think that such courses have been widely offered, but in fact they are still sporadic."
Gong Qinzheng, a lecturer at the School of Education at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said that whether the life classes on the curriculum are actually being offered depends on three aspects: "Whether there is a training plan, whether there are fixed course codes, credits, and semester schedules, and whether they can be offered periodically every year; whether there is a systematic teaching syllabus, relatively stable handouts or teaching materials, and collective lesson preparation by the teaching and research team; whether there are assessment standards and effect tracking for learners, and whether students have increased their knowledge, abilities, or literacy after learning."
"If a life course is to be launched, it needs to meet the dual standards of 'people' and 'things.'" Yang Haihua said, "On the people side, we need to conduct a solid academic survey in the early stage to accurately understand the shortcomings and needs of students' life skills, and also have a group of teachers who love life teaching; on the thing side, since it is a class, there must be appropriate curriculum standards and teaching materials, as well as special funds for practical training venues, equipment, and consumables."
Yang Haihua believes that life courses are not compulsory courses for majors, and there is no need to excessively pursue standardization in the early stages of construction. Instead, the idea of "start first and gradually improve" can be adhered to, and the radiation effect of the courses can be gradually expanded through the demonstration of results.
Gong Qinzheng also pointed out that "bonsai" has experimental and demonstration value, and the key lies in whether it can be condensed into a course module that can be replicated and promoted. "What we should really be wary of is using 'bonsai' as promotional material. Once it is exciting, there will be no more content."
2. Focus on helping students solve real-life problems
Zhejiang Shuren University's "College Student Dormitory Organizing Magic Tutorial" is an elective course offered by the Logistics Support Office. It teaches how to store dormitory items and how to use storage tools. In the course results sharing session, the team of Yan Shuozhou, a student from the School of Information Technology, submitted photos before and after the dormitory renovation. "In the past, things were piled up randomly, and it took me a long time to find something. After taking this course, my roommate and I reorganized the space in the dormitory, using vertical space and various storage tools, and organized the desktop, wardrobe, bed, and public areas in an orderly manner."
Teacher Wang Ye said that the dormitory is the "second home" for students. This course not only teaches storage, but also helps students gradually develop a sense of collaboration and self-discipline and orderly living habits, truly achieving "big growth in a small space" and helping students develop in an all-round way from the subtle aspects of life.
"Life education is not a new concept." Yang Haihua said that Mr. Tao Xingzhi had already proposed that "life is education." Life education is just a carrier, its core is to enable students to live independently and solve real-life problems. Life education and professional education complement each other.
In his view, the most difficult thing for life classes to continue for a long time is not superficial issues such as teachers and teaching materials. "The real problem is that most colleges and universities do not have high recognition of the value of life education and have not integrated life education into the overall pattern of talent training." Yang Haihua said that the vast majority of teachers and students believe that scientific research capabilities and professional knowledge are the most important. "Without compulsory credits, fixed hours and institutional guarantees, the survival of life classes depends on the teacher who starts the class. It can be said that classes stop when people leave."
Lu Wei said that this type of course is not a professional course, nor can it be considered an academic general course. It teaches life skills and is a new type of general education course. "Higher education is based on advanced knowledge, and curriculum design, teacher recruitment, and textbook selection are all based on this logic. Life classes are therefore easily underestimated."
Gong Qinzheng said: “Because life skills do not belong to advanced knowledge, they cannot find a centralized place in the higher education system.” Without a discipline system, there would be no main body in the construction of teaching materials. Without evaluation recognition, there will be no motivation for teachers to invest. Life skills that are not subject-specific will not be included in the curriculum. In his view, the difficulty in setting up life classes lies in the attribution of legitimacy. "In other words, it needs to be given an 'institutional identity': set up a 'student development and practical literacy' course module to clearly focus on it, and at the same time recognize this type of teaching contribution in teacher evaluations."
Gong Qinzheng further added that currently, my country’s gross higher education enrollment rate has stabilized at over 60%. "As higher education expands, educational content must respond to real life needs. Twenty or thirty years ago, mental health, career planning, and employment guidance were once considered 'things that universities should not take care of,' but now they have long become 'standard' in college courses."
3. Life education cannot be limited to the first classroom
However, some netizens believe that college is not a driving school, let alone a home economics class, and there are only so many classes. Life matters should be learned in society and should not be squeezed into the classroom.
"This view has some truth." Lu Wei said that even after entering the stage of popularization of higher education, the focus of undergraduate education has not changed, and it is still the teaching of professional training and general academic knowledge. "Strictly speaking, life skills should be cultivated outside the campus. This does not mean that cultivating life skills is only the responsibility of universities. The basic education stage also has the responsibility of cultivating life abilities. But at present, in the basic education stage, students often spend a lot of time on academics and neglect the development of life abilities. Therefore, it is necessary for universities to offer life courses."
"If all students' daily needs are included in the first classroom, the university will run the risk of becoming a life service station." Gong Qinzheng does not shy away from this point. In his view, what the dissenters object to is turning cooking by bicycle into a driving school-style or home economics class-style credit course. In fact, education in colleges and universities does not only rely on classrooms. Colleges, dormitories, military training, and social practice can all carry life education.
How are life courses offered? Gong Qinzheng advocates hierarchical classification: "Integrated courses, short-term, non-credit, address rule awareness and basic affairs management, such as safe travel, medical insurance reimbursement, contracts and fraud prevention, etc.; modular courses, incorporated into the general elective system for students to choose according to their needs, such as financial management, time management, communication and help-seeking; practical courses, which can be connected with labor education, volunteer service, etc., and learn by doing."
The flower arrangement class that Wu Jielin took was included in the labor education category of Wuhan University. The school has built a "9+X" open labor education curriculum system for life skills training, and offers elective courses such as cooking theory and practice, sewing and storage, flower gardening, green and low-carbon, and dining etiquette. In terms of teaching, theoretical lectures, practical training and on-site labor are integrated, and campus logistics service scenarios are integrated into teaching to guide students to master life skills in practice and establish a correct outlook on labor.
"Life classes can be embedded into existing courses such as freshmen orientation education, labor education, and ideological and political practice without taking up extra class time." Yang Haihua said, "The curriculum can adopt a 'compulsory + elective' modular structure. The school can set up a life education teaching and research section, with on-campus teachers and external experts forming a dual tutor team. The process-based practical assessment will be fully implemented, with 'the ability to independently cope with real life situations' as an important assessment criterion."
In terms of teaching staff, Gong Qinzheng suggested a combination of full-time and part-time students: "On-campus practical staff will talk about procedures and rules, alumni and industry practitioners will talk about experience, and full-time teachers will be responsible for course design and evaluation. The assessment can try to use performance evaluation, breaking down abilities into observable assessment points, and the results will only be divided into pass and fail."
(Our reporter Jin Haotian)
Guan Yujun, a student majoring in accounting at Shandong University Business School:
"Life skills classes" are an important part of growth
In college, we mostly rely on books to acquire theoretical knowledge. But in order to successfully enter society in the future, mastering practical life skills and improving the ability to adapt to society are also important parts of our growth.
In school, we are more accustomed to delving into professional knowledge and looking for standardized answers in class; but when we enter society and face real life scenarios, we often find it difficult to make sound judgments and choices. For example, in the face of intensive marketing in the live broadcast room, it is easy to place an order on impulse; when negotiating about renting a house, it is difficult to identify the risks hidden in the contract.
As I enter my senior year and get closer to the stage of independent living, I feel more and more the importance of mastering life skills. Clothing, food, housing and transportation are all inseparable from the arrangement of income and expenditure: How to consume rationally? How to understand the medical insurance reimbursement rules? How to establish a sound awareness of savings and planning? These contents that rarely appear in textbooks and classes are the indispensable "compulsory courses in life" before we become independent.
I hope that colleges and universities can set up more "life skills courses" on consumption judgment and income and expenditure planning to help us make up for the shortcomings in our growth and support us to calmly and steadily lead a fulfilling and colorful life.
Ye Yizhang, a student at the School of Culture and Tourism of Jinhua Vocational and Technical University:
Fully integrate professional and characteristic resources with life education
As a student majoring in culture and tourism, the life education in my mind has a unique connotation belonging to this major: cultivating aesthetics in education about life.
The cultural and tourism major is naturally associated with beauty, but aesthetic education is not just about landscape appreciation and aesthetic theory in books. The life education courses offered by our college not only cover coffee, tea art, baking, flower arrangement and other practical societies and micro-majors, but also organize us to participate in the professional skill level examination of baristas and tea masters. These courses are not just an interesting experience of playing with flowers and brewing drinks, nor are they just for us to feel and appreciate beauty, but are important practices that transform aesthetic abilities into real life interests and professional skills: in the process of making tea, arranging flowers, and extracting coffee, we learned to perceive the beauty in colors, rhythms, and rituals, and also learned to be patient in hands-on practice. The skill certificates we obtained added extra points for our future job hunting.
The cultural and tourism industry is rich in business types. B&Bs, study bases, urban cafes, cultural and tourism spaces, etc. all require comprehensive talents. One more skill and one more certificate can lead to another employment path.
I look forward to integrating more life education content into our aesthetic practice and professional quality improvement on the basis of making good use of professional and characteristic resources. This kind of life education can not only teach us to properly deal with life problems, but also improve our ability to create beauty.
(Interviewed and edited by our reporter Jin Haotian)
