On Oct 27th, the final of the 5th National Teaching Competition for Young University Teachers rang down the curtain in Nanjing University. After making through the college and university rounds, Liu Yang, teacher from College of Communication Engineering (CCE), ranked No. 1 in Jilin Province (Engineering) and won the 2nd Prize (Engineering) in the national final.

The competition was sponsored by the National Committee of the Labor Union of  Education, Science, Culture, Health and Sports of China, and hosted by the Labor Union of Education and Science of Jiangsu Province and Nanjing University, attracting 162 young teachers from 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to compete in 5 categories: Liberal Arts, Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Ideology and Politics. The competition was highly professional and demanding, thus requiring quite intensive efforts to prepare. Contestants were supposed to prepare 20 items covering complete teaching designs across different teaching stages They were fully tested for teaching design, classroom teaching and teaching reflections under the concept of “making a class count”. Therefore, this competition was a big challenge for young teachers.

Since the beginning of the preparation, Jilin University and the CCE had taken this competition very seriously, and encouraged Liu Yang to “make all-out efforts, sharpen skills through competition, get improved from the teaching practices”. Teaching Development Center and Labor Union of Jilin University worked together to organize internal experts to give Liu Yang instructions on multiple occasions. During preparation, she prepared 20 teaching plans, each revised a dozen of times, and made trial teaching over 80 times internally. In order to achieve the best results, it had become a norm for her to work till early morning hours. On the competition day, CCE made a wide publicity through WeChat, QQ and other platforms, and organized teachers to watch on line. In the competition, Liu Yang performed with calm and confidence, and demonstrated high professional qualities and teaching capabilities in course design, classroom teaching organization and teaching reflections. Teachers attending on and off line were unanimous in their praises for her excellent performance. After the competition, Liu said, “this competition has deepened my understanding of teaching and boosted my confidence of making continuous progress in teaching. At the same time, it has also tempered my willpower and personal character.”

This competition has demonstrated how participation in competitions can promote teaching, and therefore improve the qualities of the faculty. It has motivated young teachers to stay abreast with the latest education concepts, and galvanized CCE teachers to improve teaching skills and capabilities.