TITLE:
Rooted in the Land of Bagui, Integrating Ideological and Political Innovation: A Teaching Reform of the “Principles of Geographic Information Systems” Course Serving Guangxi’s “Two Mountains” Practice
AUTHORS:
Lili Huang, Feihu Deng, Shanlin Wang, Qiming Wang, Mengyao Tian, Jianzhi Chen
KEYWORDS:
Geographic Information Systems, Curriculum Ideological and Political Education, The “Two Mountains” Theory, Teaching Reform, Cultivation of Innovative Ability, Localized Teaching, Instructional Design
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.17 No.7,
July
23,
2026
ABSTRACT: To meet the pressing demand of higher education in the new era for cultivating innovative and application-oriented talent, and to address the core problems commonly found in teaching the “Principles of Geographic Information Systems” course—namely, a disconnect from regional development needs, an overemphasis on operation at the expense of thinking, and a single, narrow mode of assessment—this study designs and proposes a teaching reform that deeply integrates curriculum-based ideological and political education with the cultivation of innovative ability. The reform is closely aligned with Guangxi’s strategic positioning as a hub of the Belt and Road Initiative, a national demonstration zone for ecological civilization, and a leading province for culture and tourism. Guided by the values of the “Two Mountains” theory (the principle that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”), the study systematically builds a four-in-one teaching model of “ideological-political guidance—content restructuring—system innovation—assessment reform”. Specific measures include: developing modular, locally grounded cases under the theme of “GIS + Guangxi’s characteristic industries” to embed ideological and political elements into concrete scenarios; designing a three-tier progressive practical teaching system of “basic operation—comprehensive application—innovative decision-making” to systematically train students’ ability to solve complex spatial problems; and establishing a diversified assessment mechanism that combines process-based and innovation-outcome evaluation. This paper presents the design of the reform together with a planned two-year pilot and an evaluation framework; it aims to establish a replicable and transferable paradigm for cultivating Geographic Information Science talent in service of regional development and to offer a reference for the reform of specialized courses at local universities. Empirical results of the pilot will be reported in follow-up work.