How Do Engineering Schools Promote Teachers’ Creative Teaching

It has been more than ten years since the "Plan for Producing Excellent Engineers" was launched in 2010.The "Plan" has led the comprehensive reform of the training of engineering innovative talents in China.Creative teaching is the final foothold of the cultivation of engineering innovative talents.As an important executive subject of the "Plan",engineering schools in universities have carried out corresponding deployment on the basis of "Plan" interpretation,which has an important impact on promoting teachers’ creative teaching.This study focuses on the school level.Through interviews with the vice deans in charge of teaching in eight engineering schools of three universities in Wuhan,we have an in-depth understanding of the actual situation of engineering schools promoting teachers’ creative teaching under the "Plan".Based on the method of comparison,this study analyzes and summarizes the strategies used by engineering schools to promote teachers’ creative teaching and the influencing factors of schools’ strategy formulation under the "Plan".This study constructs the corresponding framework by referring to Schneider and Ingram’s policy tool classification theory and Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior(TPB).The strategic framework for engineering schools to promote teachers’ creative teaching under the "Plan" mainly includes five strategies: Authority urging,Incentive mechanism,Ability training,Spiritual persuasion and Independent development.In addition to Authority urging,other types are fully used.Incentive mechanism and Ability training strategy are basic and most commonly used,but there are some problems such as homogenization and superficialization.In terms of Spiritual persuasion and Independent development strategies,there are great differences in the depth of use among schools.The explanatory framework for engineering schools to promote the formulation of teachers’ creative innovation strategies under the "Plan" believes that the formulation of strategies is mainly determined by the behavior intention of colleges and departments.The behavior intention is composed of three factors: policy implementation attitude,implementation expectation perception and implementation ability cognition.Policy implementation attitude refers to the recognition of the "Plan" by the leaders and the vice president;Implementation expectation perception refers to the expectation of the state and universities on the implementation effect of the "Plan";Implementation ability cognition refers to the schools’ evaluation of the support and obstacles to the implementation of relevant strategies in the unit,mainly including the school’s environment and resources and the will of the target group.Finally,this study reflects on the relationship between the "Plan" and the strategy formulation of schools,summarizes the two mechanisms of pressure and dynamic of the policy on the behavior of schools,and then points out the ways to improve the effect and the unintended consequences that should be vigilant in the process of action.In the future,to strengthen the promotion effect of engineering schools on teachers’ creative teaching,we should focus on solving many problems,such as concept clarification,university positioning,internal and external governance of schools,strategy optimization,culture and cognitive shaping and so on.