Institutional construction and practical logic of labor education courses in Chinese universities ——an empirical study based on 83 universities

Abstract

This study takes 83 undergraduate colleges and universities across China as research subjects. By conducting textual analysis of implementation plans, combined with questionnaire surveys and face-to-face interviews, it attempts to investigate the current implementation status of labor education courses in Chinese higher education institutions.The study finds that the credit allocation of labor education courses is relatively uniform, while the arrangement of theoretical and practical class hours presents two typical models: practice-oriented and equal emphasis on both theory and practice. Such courses are mostly offered to lower-grade students and are gradually extended to upper grades and the entire academic stage.The practical content is diverse, yet problems such as content homogeneity and insufficient integration with professional teaching exist. The assessment and evaluation of labor education still mainly rely on service hour recording and report writing, which makes it difficult to effectively evaluate the extent to which students master labor knowledge and internalize labor literacy.Meanwhile, the author further summarizes existing problems in current labor education, including deviated teaching objectives, mismatched content, single evaluation methods, and inadequate faculty support. Accordingly, this paper proposes comprehensive institutional improvements in curriculum and teaching design, multi-departmental collaboration, optimized teaching evaluation, and teacher training guarantees. These measures aim to organically integrate labor education with professional education, effectively embed it into the talent cultivation system of colleges and universities, and give full play to its educational function.