Teaching Strategies for Human Resource Management Course Based on the Student-Centered Learning Philosophy ()
1. Introduction
In recent years, the education model in universities has changed from teacher-centered model to student-centered model, which pays more attention to students’ participation, autonomy and critical thinking, and it has greatly improved the learning effect of college students (Alwassil et al., 2024; Yang, 2024). The Outline of China’s Educational Curriculum Reform indicates that the reform of teaching methods should break the traditional teaching model of “teaching-oriented” and advocate an innovative learning model of “student-oriented”. The course of Human Resource Management revolves around the theoretical development and research frontiers of human resource management, which combines theory with practice and has strong operability and application. The most important task is to change the role of teachers from imparting knowledge to guiding and promoting learning. This means that the curriculum design should focus on stimulating students’ active learning and encouraging them to participate in the classroom. This course not only trains students’ professional skills in human resources management, but also integrates ideological and political elements into various modules and links of human resources management, pays attention to students’ ideological trends and attaches importance to students’ ideological education. In the teaching process, students’ enthusiasm for classroom participation is fully mobilized, students are encouraged and guided to use theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems, and students are helped to better adapt to society and future work (Fan et al., 2024; Shehata et al., 2024).
2. Student-Centered Learning Philosophy
Student-Centered Learning (SCL) is an educational concept and teaching method, the core of which lies in placing students at the center of the learning process, emphasizing students’ dominant position, encouraging students to actively participate in learning activities, and actively construct knowledge through independent exploration, cooperative communication and other means, instead of passively receiving information imparted by teachers. China’s National Medium and Long term Education Reform and Development Plan Outline (2010-2020) points out that classroom reform and innovation should be the main focus of education reform and the transition from “teaching-centered” to “learning-centered” should be promoted. Under the traditional “teaching-centered” education model, the course of “Human Resources Management” mainly relies on teachers’ theoretical explanation and case display, with the aim of enabling students to master the basic theories and relevant methods of human resources management in an all-round way. However, in this teaching process, due to the lack of students’ in-depth participation in the classroom, it is difficult for students to truly master the skills to independently carry out human resources planning, recruitment, training and other modules of practical operation only by explaining abstract concepts and teachers’ limited cases. At the same time, the traditional “teaching-centered” education model greatly weakens students’ learning interests. This results in students’ lack of initiative, low participation and poor overall learning effect, and leads to problems in human resources management practice, such as the disconnection between theoretical knowledge and practical operation and lack of innovation in management decisions (Joshua, 2024; Grøndahl Glavind et al., 2023).
The teaching design of the “student-centered” course emphasizes the use of diversified teaching methods, aiming at stimulating students’ active learning, critical thinking and creativity (Feng, 2024; Li & Wang, 2024). The existing teaching reform literature indicates that the student participation teaching model in the course can significantly enhance the students’ learning interest, promote the learning effect, improve the communication between teachers and students, and play a positive role in the multi-dimensional development of the students’ team cooperation ability, communication ability, analysis and problem solving (Woods & Copur-Genstructure, 2024). The existing literature shows that student-centered learning has become an important trend in higher education reform, and common student-centered strategies include flipped classrooms, project-based learning, cooperative learning, and problem-based learning (PBL), which significantly improve student engagement, critical thinking and problem-solving skills. However, the implementation process also faces challenges, such as difficulty in changing the role of teachers, different assessment standards, and different students’ autonomous learning ability. To address these challenges, educators need to strengthen their own training, adopt a diversified evaluation system, and provide the necessary support and guidance to help students adapt to the new learning environment and ensure that the student-centered teaching model can effectively promote students’ all-round development.
Under the principle of student centered, the teaching reform of Human Resources Management faces many difficult problems. First, it is difficult to change the teaching concept. In traditional teaching, teachers play a leading role in imparting knowledge, which makes it difficult for some teachers to change their concepts, teachers do not know how to guide students to find the key points and worry that students’ autonomous learning will result in fragmentary knowledge. For the students, they do not know how to learn autonomously for human resources management. Moreover, the students do not have sufficient knowledge and enthusiasm about the new teaching model, and they feel that traditional teaching is easier and they lack motivation to participate in the activities. In the traditional education mode, teachers usually play the role of knowledge transmitter, they teach knowledge systematically to students according to the established syllabus and textbooks. This approach helps to build a coherent and comprehensive body of knowledge, ensuring that students are able to master basic theories and basic skills. However, when moving to a student-centered learning model, teachers may be concerned that students will not be able to effectively integrate information in the process of autonomous exploration, resulting in a lack of systematic and in-depth knowledge, forming what is known as “knowledge fragmentation”. This is because, in the absence of clear guidance, students may be more inclined to focus on information points that are easy to obtain or interesting, while ignoring the overall framework and logical connection of the subject. In the long run, although a large number of scattered pieces of knowledge can be accumulated, these pieces lack the necessary correlation, which is not conducive to the formation of deep understanding and application ability. Therefore, teachers should not only encourage students to learn independently, but also pay attention to cultivating their critical thinking ability and information integration ability, so as to help them learn how to connect scattered knowledge points together and build a more perfect knowledge network. Second, the integration of teaching resources is facing challenges. As for the content of the teaching materials, the traditional teaching materials are compiled according to the old model, paying attention to the knowledge system conducted by teachers, which is difficult to be applied to the new “student-centered” teaching model. Third, the reform of teaching methods and evaluation is more difficult. In terms of teaching methods, the “student-centered” classroom organization needs various activities to stimulate students’ initiative, but there may be a low level of student participation. In terms of teaching evaluation, the traditional teaching evaluation is mainly based on examination, and the new model needs to build an evaluation system to evaluate students’ abilities of autonomous learning and team cooperation.
In addition to the course of Human Resources Management, business courses such as Marketing, Organizational Behavior, and Corporate Strategic Management have also widely adopted student-centered teaching concepts. Through case studies, group discussions and role playing, these courses allow students to learn theoretical knowledge in practice and improve their ability to solve practical problems. For example, in marketing courses, teachers may ask students to design marketing strategies for a certain product, so as to exercise students’ comprehensive abilities such as market analysis and creative planning. This teaching mode not only improves the participation of students, but also promotes the combination of theory and practice and enhances learning effectiveness and interest.
3. The Course Contents of Human Resources Management
Human Resources Management is a course that combines theory with practice and has strong operability and applicability. The course emphasizes the research-oriented teaching content, highlighting the latest concepts, theoretical research frontiers, latest enterprise management practices of human resources management. The course content includes human resources strategy and planning, position analysis and competency, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, compensation and benefits management, staff relationship management, etc. This course adheres to the “student-centered” teaching concept, and the specific strategies include: First, using role-playing and simulated games to enable students to experience different roles and scenarios in human resources management to deepen their understanding and memory. Second, interactive teaching is carried out to stimulate students’ curiosity and critical thinking through discussions, debates and questions. Third, providing personalized learning resources to meet the learning styles and rhythms of different students and ensure that each student can obtain a suitable education experience.
This course sets the course objectives in three dimensions: knowledge, ability, and quality. It not only pays attention to students’ theoretical knowledge, but also pays attention to the cultivation of practical ability. The objectives of the course include: First, building a disciplinary framework for human resources management and cultivating overall awareness and self-learning ability. To be able to understand the role of human resources management in enterprise management, clarifying the core content of human resources management and the logical relationship between the six modules, so that students can have an overall understanding of the course. Students can learn autonomously along the main line (six modules) of human resources management and the supporting relationship between each part of the content, and improve the effect of students’ self-study. Second, mastering the theoretical knowledge of human resources management and understanding the latest developments in the field of human resources management. Fully grasp the important concepts, theoretical knowledge framework and theoretical development of human resources management, fully grasp the mainstream research paradigm and empirical research methods of human resources management, and understand the application scenarios of various research methods. Third, establishing human resources management values and cultivating dialectical thinking ability. Students are able to use domestic and foreign cases to understand and explain the important role of human resources management in enterprise decision-making, cultivate students’ critical thinking ability in the context of human resources management, and are able to flexibly use relevant principles of human resources management to explain and analyze specific phenomena and problems. Fourthly, establishing social responsibility and sense of responsibility and cultivating practical ability to solve human resources management problems. For more complex human resources management issues, students can use the theoretical framework and research tools for analysis, and can fully understand the diversity of human resources management practices and the internal logical relationship behind the apparently different management practices, and flexibly apply management strategies with practical significance.
4. The Course Design of Human Resources Management
Based on Student-Centered Learning Philosophy
4.1. Teaching Objectives of Student-Centered Learning Philosophy
The course of Human Resources Management follows the “student-centered” teaching concept and improves students’ learning interest and classroom participation. Specifically, the “student-centered” course objectives are divided into three major objectives: knowledge understanding, ability cultivation and interest stimulation.
1) Knowledge understanding. The teaching content of this course integrates theoretical knowledge self-study and key concept group discussion, which aims to help students firmly grasp the core theoretical knowledge of human resources management. Students should be able to summarize the basic principles of human resources management and list the core modules of human resources planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, remuneration and benefits, etc. At the same time, the course encourages students to deepen their understanding of talent demand analysis and human resources strategic planning through self-study and group discussion, and master the methods of staff relationship management and organizational culture construction, so as to enhance students’ autonomous learning ability, team cooperation ability and problem-solving ability.
2) Ability cultivation. In the teaching process, we actively guide students to act as “practice instructors” and organize students to participate in practical human resources management exercises, such as simulation of recruitment process, design of training programs, development of performance evaluation standards, etc. Students are required to demonstrate the design ideas and implementation steps of their plans in class. Through the analysis and solution of actual cases, students’ abilities to apply human resources management tools are improved.
3) Interest stimulation. In addition to focusing on the training of theoretical knowledge and practical skills in human resources management, this course also pays special attention to arousing students’ learning enthusiasm and sense of responsibility. The course uses various interactive teaching methods such as brainstorming, role playing and case studies to enhance students’ participation. In the teaching process, teachers will continuously collect students’ feedback on different teaching activities, so as to adjust teaching strategies and ensure that each student can maintain a high degree of learning enthusiasm.
4.2. Teaching Contents of Student-Centered Learning Philosophy
In terms of teaching content, this course actively incorporates “student-centered” content elements. Different from the traditional human resources management course, which is mainly taught by teachers, this course has specially added many links in the content design, such as students’ practical operation, students’ classroom report, human resources management case analysis, research activity design, etc., aiming at helping students to deeply understand the basic theory and practical operation skills of human resources management.
1) Human resources management practice. Based on the analysis of talent demand within the organization, students are required to make an overall plan for the human resources management system and design a framework diagram including recruitment process, training plan, performance evaluation system, etc. According to the basic process of human resources management, a simulated HR information system is constructed, job description pages and employee training record forms are created, and these practical results are shared in the classroom for evaluation and discussion with other students.
2) Human resources management case study. This course takes groups as a unit, different types of enterprises (such as manufacturing enterprises, service-oriented enterprises, high-tech enterprises, etc.) are selected to make use of the theoretical knowledge and methods of human resources management to make in-depth analysis and comparison of the practices of these enterprises in recruitment, training, performance management, etc. Each team is required to prepare a detailed case study report and communicate with each other in class.
3) Human resources management research activities. On the basis of brainstorming, case analysis and other activities in the classroom, in order to further deepen students’ understanding of human resources management practice and improve their social research ability, students are required to select one or more enterprises in the industry as research objects, and collect data on employee satisfaction, working environment, career development opportunities and other aspects by designing and issuing questionnaires, conducting face-to-face interviews and other means. Based on the results of the investigation, the existing problems are analyzed, and practical improvement suggestions are put forward.
4.3. Teaching Approaches of Student-Centered Learning
Philosophy
This course adheres to the core principle of student-centered philosophy, which is different from the traditional classroom teaching mode in which teachers give priority to teaching. This course integrates various teaching methods in which students participate, such as brainstorming in the classroom, students turning over the classroom, etc. In the teaching process, teachers will timely collect students’ experience and feedback on various teaching activities, dynamically identify and solve problems in teaching, and continuously optimize and improve teaching methods. At the same time, through various teaching methods such as practical operation, role playing and research activities, the students can master the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of human resources management in participating experience. For example, by simulating the recruitment process, playing different roles in the workplace and conducting industry research, students’ understanding of human resource management is deepened from the perspectives of human resource managers, employees, external consultants, etc., helping them to deeply understand the basic concepts, core knowledge and professional ethics of human resource management, and improving their practical ability in the field of human resource management.
1) Classroom group discussion. This course requires students to brainstorm on key topics in human resources management. Teachers will arrange “group discussion” tasks on the online platform before class to guide students to actively participate in class discussion on the basis of being familiar with the theoretical knowledge of human resources management, and deepen their understanding and memory of knowledge points through in-depth discussion. In addition, this teaching form is also helpful to attract students’ attention and increase the interactivity and interest of classroom teaching.
2) Flipped classroom method. Following the “student-centered” education concept, this course introduces the flipped classroom method into the practical teaching of human resources management, guides students to deeply explore complex human resources management issues, such as staff incentive mechanism, performance evaluation system, etc., and enhances students’ practical abilities and team cooperation skills through case analysis and simulation exercises. Finally, teachers regularly collect feedback from students and continuously optimize the course contents and teaching methods to ensure that each student can obtain effective learning experience and growth opportunities in the flipped classroom. This way can not only deepen students’ memory of human resources management practice, but also effectively improve their communication and expression ability and team spirit.
4.4. Teaching Evaluations of Student-Centered Learning
Philosophy
In terms of teaching evaluation, this course innovatively adopts the method of “student mutual evaluation”, which changes the traditional practice of only evaluating students’ achievements by teachers, and implements the dual scoring system of “teacher evaluation +student mutual evaluation”. In particular, in key assessment projects such as case studies and team reports, in addition to the professional evaluation of teachers, it is also combined with the students’ mutual evaluation to determine the score. Through the use of online platforms such as Questionstar, students are able to obtain real-time feedback on each assessment in the classroom, increasing the openness of the grade assessment process and helping to strengthen communication and self-management among students.
In order to better evaluate the teaching effect of teachers, students will be sent questionnaires to collect feedback on the teaching quality, including the evaluation of interest in the course content and the effectiveness of teaching methods. At the same time, students are encouraged to put forward specific suggestions for improvement of course content and teaching methods. For the assessment of students’ classroom performance, teachers have established a set of clear and quantifiable evaluation index system, which covers many dimensions, such as classroom participation, team cooperation ability, innovation ability, etc., to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the evaluation process. Through such an evaluation mechanism, not only can reflect students’ learning effectiveness, but also promote students’ learning initiative and comprehensive abilities.
In terms of teaching evaluation, the course adheres to the basic principle of “sustainable development” and is committed to dynamically optimizing the course contents and teaching methods. After each class, teachers will conduct face-to-face interviews or questionnaires to help students to understand theoretical knowledge and practical skills of human resources management, collect their views and feelings on the teaching content and teaching methods, and explore the specific needs of students for follow-up learning. At the end of the course, a comprehensive questionnaire survey was conducted on the course design, content arrangement and other aspects to obtain a wider range of feedback. Combined with the information collected after each class, teachers can accurately identify the problems existing in the teaching process and the improvement direction, and continue to adjust and improve in the future course teaching to ensure that the course content keeps pace with the times and better meet the needs of students’ growth and development. This can not only improve the quality of teaching, but also effectively stimulate students’ learning interest and motivation.
5. Research Conclusion and Enlightenment
The student-centered Human Resource Management Course Reform aims to transform the traditional teaching mode, stimulate students’ interest in active learning, enhance their problem-solving ability and teamwork spirit, and finally realize the transformation from passive knowledge acceptance to active knowledge exploration. The above student-centered strategies outlined in the paper have been implemented in the classroom. The student-centered course reform of Human Resource Management has significantly improved students’ learning experience and outcomes. Student engagement has increased significantly, with class discussion and interaction increasing by 20 percent. In terms of skill application, through case analysis, project practice and other methods, students can effectively apply theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems. This reform not only helps to enhance students’ participation in the classroom, improve their learning efficiency and quality, but also effectively promotes the development of students’ critical thinking, innovative consciousness and practical ability, laying a solid foundation for their future career. However, although preliminary research has shown that student-centered approaches can lead to positive learning outcomes, more empirical research is needed to verify their long-term effects in different cultural contexts. We call on educators and researchers to work together to carry out more in-depth and detailed studies to continuously optimize and improve the design and implementation of human resource management courses to better serve the needs of students’ growth and development.
Fund Project
2024 Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology Graduate Quality Course Construction Project.