“July 1 Special”丨Professor Zhang Meizhen, Head of National First-Class Program

Original  ·  Practice

—— Head of National First-Class Program and Moral and Artistic Excellence Winner of the School

Professor Zhang Meizhen

Recently, the Ministry of Education announced the list of national first-class programs for 2021, and the radio and television program of this School was approved. The achievement cannot be achieved without the joint efforts of all the teachers and students of the program, as well as the hard work of Professor Zhang Meizhen, the person in charge of the program construction.

Zhang Meizhen, CPC member, is the Deputy Dean of the School of Arts and Communication. In her 22 years of teaching career, she has always taken the moral education and values establishment as the primary goal of education and teaching, and regarded setting a typical example of teacher with profound learning and proper behavior as the value pursuit of teaching and educating people, and worked hard in her teaching position. She has presided over two scientific research achievements that won the Hubei Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award and one teaching achievement that won the Teaching Achievement Award of Colleges and Universities in Hubei Province, and has been awarded the title of Outstanding CPC Member by the university for three times. She is the vice president and secretary-general of Hubei Science and Technology Communication Society, the expert reviewer of Fok Ying Tung Young Teachers Fund and Young Teacher Award of the Ministry of Education, the expert reviewer of Hubei Social Science Fund, and the judge of Hubei Journalism Award.

I. Leading the whole training process of journalism professionals with moral education consciousness

Education oriented, and moral first. Journalism and communication has strong ideological attributes and practicality. As the head of the major, Zhang Meizhen actively takes the lead and guides the professional teachers to establish moral education, respect moral and professionalism, and strengthen ideology and politics education in the major and courses. According to the talent training characteristics and professional ability and quality requirements of the program, she deepens the reform and innovation of the ideological and political teaching methods of the professional courses, integrate the ideological and political elements into the professional talent training program, the curriculum syllabus and teaching design, running through the teaching materials.

Enhancing the educational foundation of professional courses. She deeply promoted the Marxist concept of journalism into teaching materials, classrooms and minds, and always emphasized the educational function of professional courses. In the past four years, the teaching team has successively presided over five ideological and political theories teaching and Marxist engineering teaching projects, and opened a series of courses of "Marxist Journalism Education" and "Environment and Technology Communication", so as to make the ideological and political theories teaching in courses and discipline characteristics “co rotate” and achieve the positive coupling between value guidance and knowledge transfer.

II. Caring about students' success with benevolence

“In front of the students, Ms. Zhang has love in her heart and light in her eyes”. As a teacher, Zhang Meizhen hopes that students should have a sense of ritual and reverence. Every year, the first class for freshmen is her lecture on the frontiers of disciplines and professional ideals to tie the first button of their college career. In the last class before graduation, she will cheer and bless the students with passion.

“Ms. Zhang's class has depth and warmth!” She has received several awards for excellent undergraduate teaching quality from the University. She keeps track of the academic frontiers and latest developments, and continues to innovate teaching methods while adhering to traditional teaching concepts, mainly promoting thematic, problem-based and hybrid methods.

Her course content system is complete, her lectures are logical, her ideas are active and clear, and the whole process is off draft and off screen. In the classroom, she can pay close attention to the learning needs of each student, and she is attentive to each course and each lesson. She has spent more than a year preparing the lectures of 8 class hours and updates from time to time, and she has prepared more than 100 pages of content for a 45-minute topic class, so she is almost persistent in teaching.

Ms. Zhang, who is gentle and kind to her students in life, is serious in her studies and treats every student equally. She helps and supports students with outstanding academic performance and practical skills to reach higher goals. When she encounters students with learning difficulties, employment pressure and confused thoughts, she never tires of giving careful guidance patiently and meticulously, and finds ways to help solve the problem.

III. Helping young teachers grow with selfless dedication

Organize the teaching team, do a good job of mentoring, and optimize the discipline team with team building. Zhang Meizhen led two young teachers to form a course team to elaborate the "Introduction to Journalism and Communication", create the case base for ideological and political theories in courses. Under her guidance, young teachers Ding Jie and Li Jing won the champion of the teaching competition for young teachers of the University for two consecutive years, and Ding Jie won the third prize in the teaching competition for young teachers of Hubei Province. From the innovation of teaching ideas and methods to the design of teaching content and the control of teaching process, she teaches the young teachers one by one in different ways. Under her leadership, a series of teaching activities, such as classroom teaching in journalism, are rigorous and standardized.

    Ms. Zhang loves life and has a sunny attitude. She is a colleague with wisdom and strong feelings, and I always gain enlightenment and positive energy when communicating with her!” In work, she can make scientific and reasonable arrangements and guidance according to the strengths of each young teacher, give full play to their respective advantages to help them grow gradually. In life, she can always give them careful and considerate care, and communicate with them to discuss how to establish a correct outlook on career, values, marriage and childcare.

IV. Performing duties with diligence and integrity

Be brave to take on heavy responsibilities to dare to innovate. The development of journalism and communication discipline has encountered some bottlenecks in recent years. The scale structure and scientific research strength of the team are weak, especially the characteristics of the discipline direction are not clear.

As the discipline leader, Professor Zhang Meizhen led the scientific research team to actively seek the intersection and integration with the mainstream disciplines of the University, introduce characteristic professional teachers, integrate the resources of the University, and build an interdisciplinary academic exchange platform. After several years of exploration, they have gradually formed a distinctive popular science communication direction, and have achieved remarkable results in the accumulation of achievements, team building, social services, etc., especially the effective practice and exploration of the cultivation of popular science communication talents. The program of radio and television has been approved as a national first-class program, and the relevant teaching achievements have been awarded the first prize for teaching achievements of the University and recommended for the provincial teaching achievement award.

Be strict with herself and loving her job and dedication. Since taking the post of Deputy Dean in 2015, Zhang Meizhen has been mainly in charge of research and discipline work, and the School has been awarded the advanced research management unit by the University for four consecutive years. As the principal, she completed the 4th and 5th rounds of discipline evaluation, degree program evaluation, discipline benchmarking evaluation, disciplines cultivation, and the application for national and provincial first-class majors. In addition to taking the lead in organization and coordination, she has wrote various evaluation and application materials with high quality.

Writing materials is a laborious job. She is often busy for months from preparation to completion, sitting in front of the computer for a whole day. It is normal to stay up late and work overtime. However, she never cares about fame and personal gains and losses. “As long as there is a work task, Ms. Zhang can always devote herself to it with full spirit and strive for perfection.” She is rigorous and serious in her work, good at thinking, clear in her work ideas, introverted and steady in her work, and sincere and honest in dealing with people.

Professor Zhang Meizhen hopes to encourage herself with the goal of "noble teacher ethics, personality charm and academic style", to be a guide and mentor for the healthy growth of students, and to write a new chapter in her ordinary teaching position.