International Open Access Journal Platform

1 Introduction

Senior high school ideological and political courses are the key courses for implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education. The new curriculum standards emphasize the activity-based and comprehensive curriculum characteristics of ideological and political courses. They add expressions such as “constructing a teaching mode of explaining truths thoroughly, vividly and profoundly” and “the essence of ideological and political courses is to explain truths”, pointing out the direction for the teaching reform of ideological and political courses. As the material carrier of the teaching content of ideological and political courses, textbooks are the content foundation for the development of learning activities, requiring teachers of ideological and political courses to transform textbook content into students’ learning activities accurately and flexibly. However, there is still an implementation deviation of “learning activities being divorced from learning content” in the current teaching of senior high school ideological and political courses. Therefore, the development of learning activities is restricted by certain objective conditions, making it difficult to truly meet the requirements of explaining truths thoroughly, vividly and profoundly. Thus, the improvement of students’ core competencies and literacy is hard to realize. It is urgent to explore the alleviation paths to the dilemmas of the content of activity-based disciplinary curriculum in senior high school ideological and political courses, provide front-line ideological and political teachers with a practical operation guide for learning activities to cultivate students’ disciplinary core competencies and literacy, make textbook content truly understood and remembered by students through effective learning activities, and provide practical support for ideological and political courses to implement the fundamental goal of fostering virtue through education.

2 The Core Connotation and Value of the Content of Activity-Based Disciplinary Curriculum in Senior High School Ideological and Political Courses

2.1 Core Connotation

The activation of textbook content in senior high school ideological and political courses is not a simple mechanical combination of textbook knowledge points and learning activities, but a process of taking the cultivation of disciplinary core competencies and literacy as the orientation. It involves conducting in-depth interpretation and systematic reconstruction of the theoretical knowledge, logical system and disciplinary core literacy connotation of textbook content, presupposing learning content that conforms to students’ learning situation and cognitive development ability, and designing and implementing learning activities according to the preset learning content objectives. Through targeted learning activities, students are guided to conduct in-depth learning and thinking, and ultimately, they achieve the goal of cultivating disciplinary core competencies and literacy.

2.2 Core Value

The content of activity-based disciplinary curriculum transforms static textbook content into dynamic learning activities, breaking the teaching limitation of “teaching textbooks” in traditional classrooms (Lu & Wang, 2021). Learning activities are designed on the basis of the structural construction of disciplinary knowledge and under the guidance of the principle of respecting students’ development laws and subject status. It is conducive for students to systematically master disciplinary knowledge and effectively internalize disciplinary theories in the process of participating in, exploring and experiencing practical activities, and ultimately realize the improvement of disciplinary core competencies and literacy from knowledge cognition to value recognition and then to practical application.

3 Practical Dilemmas of the Content of Activity-Based Disciplinary Curriculum in Senior High School Ideological and Political Courses

3.1 Superficial Textbook Interpretation and Fragmented Presentation of Knowledge in Activities

Textbook content is the fundamental basis for teachers to establish teaching objectives and organize teaching activities. As the carrier of the will of the national curriculum, textbook content is not only a static material presentation of systematic disciplinary knowledge, but also the value support of disciplinary core competencies and literacy (Fu, 2021). The content of senior high school ideological and political textbooks covers multiple disciplinary fields such as political science, economics, law, philosophy and logic. The textbook content forms a comprehensive and hierarchical textbook knowledge system through the modular arrangement of four compulsory textbooks and three elective textbooks. Although the modular arrangement mode helps students focus on specific fields for targeted learning, it easily leads to a tendency towards fragmented knowledge in the overall textbook content. This “point-like teaching” mode makes it difficult for students to construct a complete disciplinary knowledge network, restricting the in-depth development of students’ disciplinary thinking and the overall improvement of disciplinary core competencies and literacy. At the same time, teachers are limited by the thinking of “teaching textbooks” and fail to conduct systematic and creative sorting of textbook content; they neither trace the theoretical foundation behind knowledge points nor conduct structural integration of various types of knowledge points, resulting in the fragmented and superficial problems of knowledge teaching in learning activities.

3.2 Subjective Content Adaptation and Mismatch between Learning Content and Students’ Development

In the process of transforming textbook content into learning content, some teachers fail to accurately grasp the curriculum standard requirements and students’ learning situation: on the one hand, they ignore the three-level academic proficiency system stipulated by the new curriculum standards, and a homogeneous teaching mode is adopted for students who choose politics and those who do not, without designing differentiated learning content for different types of students, either exceeding the syllabus or staying on the surface; on the other hand, they lack an accurate grasp of students’ learning situation, ignore the particularity of students’ growth environment and life experience, the analysis of learning situation lacks pertinence, making the selected learning materials unable to arouse students’ emotional resonance. At the same time, the judgments of students’ knowledge starting point and acceptance ability are subjective, lacking a scientific analysis of students’ learning ability, making it difficult to realize the leap in the zone of proximal development of students and the effective cultivation of core competencies and literacy.

3.3 Formalized Activity Design and Failure to Guide Students’ In-depth Learning

Learning content is the foundation for the formation of learning activities, and high-quality learning activities are the key path to promoting the internalization of learning content and the realization of core competencies and literacy objectives. However, the current learning activities of some senior high school ideological and political courses still have a tendency towards “formalization” and “superficialization”, and there is a disconnection between knowledge teaching and activity development (Yu, 2023), that is: a great deal of knowledge accumulation is carried out in the process of theoretical teaching, and the indoctrination mode hinders students’ in-depth understanding and thinking of theories; in the process of learning activities, The emphasis on interest and the neglect of critical thinking and deliberation, as well as the avoidance of conflicting situations, lead to the formalization of activity development, the slow improvement of students’ critical thinking ability, and the difficulty in realizing the cultivation goal of core competencies and literacy.

3.4 One-sided Evaluation Mechanism and Failure to Form an Effective Teaching Closed Loop

The content of an activity-based disciplinary curriculum is a systematic teaching process, and evaluation feedback is a key link to optimizing this process. However, after the implementation of learning activities, some teachers adopt a single evaluation and feedback method, focusing on summative evaluation in the form of paper-and-pencil tests and ignoring the evaluation of students’ activity participation process and the formation effect of core competencies and literacy. The evaluation lacks a clear purpose, and the role of evaluation results in the reverse optimization of teaching links fails to be reflected. As a result, teachers cannot find problems in textbook interpretation, content reconstruction, activity design and other related aspects in a timely manner. Thus, it is difficult for the content of activity-based disciplinary curriculum to form a practical closed loop of “design-implementation-evaluation-optimization”, which fails to effectively guide the efficient improvement of teaching quality and the development of students’ core competencies and literacy.

4 Practical Alleviation Paths of the Content of Activity-Based Disciplinary Curriculum in Senior High School Ideological and Political Courses under the Background of Core Competencies and Literacy Orientation

To alleviate the practical dilemmas of the content of activity-based disciplinary curriculum in ideological and political courses, it is necessary to take the in-depth interpretation of textbook content as the basic point, adapt to the learning situation to reconstruct learning content and learning activities, construct a diversified evaluation and feedback mechanism for the content of activity-based disciplinary curriculum, and ultimately realize the effective transformation of textbook content into learning activities.

4.1 Lay a Solid Foundation: In-depth Interpretation and Systematic Reconstruction of Textbook Content

Senior high school ideological and political textbooks carry the new theories of the development of the times, respond to the new requirements of ideological and political education in the new era, and are the basic medium for the unification of knowledge teaching and value guidance (Han, 2020). Only through in-depth analysis of textbooks, straightening out the logical relationship between the whole and its parts of the textbooks, and constructing a structured knowledge system of textbook content (Tian & Wang, 2021), can a solid foundation be laid for the effective transformation of textbook content into learning activities (Yang, 2013).

As a high condensation of the knowledge system, Textbooks carry a complex and abstract theoretical system with concise language, and every expression in the textbooks contains rich historical backgrounds and ideological connotations. Therefore, teachers should deepen the interpretation of textbook texts and conduct an exploration in “four directions”: upward, downward, left and right (Zhong, 1993). “Upward” refers to theoretical tracing, that is, tracing the disciplinary theoretical foundation behind the textbook knowledge points and strengthening the academic support of teaching content. “Downward” refers to the expansion of practical vision, that is, paying attention to social reality, focusing on major issues in the context of the times, combining abstract theories with practical issues, and expanding the social relevance of teaching content (Xiang, 2025). In addition, teachers’ vision should not be limited to the knowledge points themselves, but should take the textbook knowledge points as the fulcrum and conduct an exploration to the “left and right”, that is, to carry out horizontal connection within the discipline and establish the logical connection between concepts by integrating the scattered knowledge modules, so as to show the integrity of the disciplinary system. At the same time, it is possible to appropriately cross disciplinary boundaries and draw on the methods and perspectives of relevant disciplinary fields to improve the depth and breadth of teaching content.

Through the in-depth interpretation and systematic reconstruction of textbook content in the four-dimensional integrated way of “upward, downward, left and right”, teachers can continuously enrich their theoretical literacy, construct a comprehensive teaching knowledge system, and provide a solid content support for explaining ideological and political courses thoroughly, vividly and profoundly.

4.2 Accurate Adaptation: Reconstruction of Learning Content Based on Curriculum Standards and Students’ Learning Situation

The core competencies and literacy of the ideological and political discipline are the concentrated embodiment of the educational value of the discipline, which clarify the key qualities and essential abilities that students should possess through curriculum learning, and provide fundamental guidance for the determination of learning content. The new curriculum standards stipulate a three-level academic proficiency system, corresponding to the groups of students who do not choose politics, students who choose politics and top students with surplus learning capacity, presenting progressive requirements from basic cognition to comprehensive application. Therefore, when designing learning content based on textbook content, teachers should select differentiated and hierarchical learning content according to the development requirements of different student groups, accurately grasp the depth and breadth of knowledge, and strictly follow the stage-specific objectives and curriculum standard requirements. Neither exceed the syllabus nor stay on the surface, so as to ensure the unification of the development and appropriateness of learning content.

In the link of learning content reconstruction, it is necessary to take the students’ real learning situation as the core starting point. Teachers should comprehensively adopt a variety of diagnostic methods, such as questionnaire surveys, classroom observations and homework analysis, to fully grasp students’ knowledge foundation, cognitive methods and life experience (Wang, 2014). At the same time, the common characteristics of students’ regional culture, family background and social environment should be fully considered, life-oriented learning materials that can arouse students’ emotional resonance should be selected, module barriers should be broken around core issues perceivable by students, a cross-module learning content system should be constructed, and perceivable learning content should be created to lay a good content foundation for the subsequent design of learning activities (Li & Zhao, 2024). On this basis, the gap between students’ “known” and “unknown” should be deeply analyzed, and the dynamic definition of the Zone of Proximal Development should be deepened, in combination with the results of the previous learning situation diagnosis, and the depth and breadth of learning content should be reasonably adjusted. In this process, teachers also need to coordinate the proportion among students’ existing experience, textbook core knowledge and disciplinary extended knowledge, take experience as the starting point of students’ existing cognitive experience, take textbook knowledge as the core, supplemented by necessary disciplinary extended knowledge, construct a learning content system that highlights key and difficult points and takes into account disciplinary breadth, and provide a solid content foundation for students’ development.

4.3 Practical Implementation: Effective Transformation of Learning Content into Learning Activities

Learning content is the core hub of the overall transformation and the logical foundation for the design and implementation of learning activities. At the same time, as the key carrier for the achievement of learning content and teaching objectives, learning activities bear dual core functions: on the one hand, realizing the transformation of static learning content into dynamic students’ abilities; on the other hand, promoting the transfer of abstract theories to realistic cognition. The design quality of learning activities directly affects the achievement of teaching effectiveness. As an activity-based disciplinary course with students as the main body, senior high school ideological and political courses always take the cultivation and improvement of disciplinary core competencies and literacy as the fundamental orientation, and the effective transformation of learning content into learning activities is the key fulcrum connecting this orientation with teaching effectiveness.

4.3.1 Construct Sequential Activities to Guide Students’ In-depth Learning

The design of learning activities should closely follow the internal logic of learning content and the laws of students’ cognitive development, it should take controversial, realistic and issues for critical thinking as the guide, coordinate diverse activity forms such as thinking analysis, social practice and role immersion, construct a learning activity system of “basic cognition-in-depth critical thinking-core competencies and literacy sublimation”, and form a core competencies and literacy cultivation chain from knowledge to belief and then to practice (Feng & Wang, 2025). In the basic cognition link, focus on the core concepts and principles in the learning content, and help students build a knowledge framework through low-difficulty activities such as simple situation introduction, knowledge sorting and concept analysis. On the basis of students’ preliminary understanding of principled knowledge, teachers carry out in-depth critical thinking activities, design a sequential question chain for critical thinking around the difficulties of learning content and practical issues, guide students to take the initiative to conduct in-depth thinking, and improve students’ dialectical thinking ability. Core competencies and literacy sublimation activities focus on the cultivation of core competencies and literacy, combining learning content with social reality, designing practical activities, deepening students’ understanding and application of knowledge through such activities, and further deepening students’ core competencies and literacy awareness, such as scientific spirit and public participation.

4.3.2 Rely on Issue-based Teaching to Construct the In-depth Integration of Situations and Activities

Issue-based teaching is the key measure for the implementation of activity-based disciplinary courses. Its essence is to take “issues” as the link, build a transformation bridge between learning content and learning activities, endow issues with situational connotations, drive activities with issues, and realize the in-depth transformation of learning content into the cultivation of disciplinary core competencies and literacy.

As the basic support for the development of issue activities, situations should not only stay in the instrumental function of “auxiliary introduction”, but become a “core competencies and literacy cultivation field” that carries value conflicts and stimulates thinking collisions. The situational design of learning activities should be based on learning content, make full use of digital tools and real social scenarios, construct a “deep situation” with realistic relevance, so that students can perceive contradictions, identify problems, make judgments and ultimately form value cognition in complex social phenomena. Such situations should have authenticity, controversy and value connotation, thus guiding students to realize the identity transformation from “onlookers” to “participants”.

Constructing “real issues” on the basis of “deep situations” is the key to ensuring the correct direction and prominent effect of learning activities. The design of issues must adhere to the unification of content and value, and handle the relationship between viewpoints and materials: on the one hand, the viewpoints of issues should be derived from learning content and curriculum standards, reflecting the fundamental direction of ideological and political education, and the selection of issue materials must be true, typical and close to students’ lives; on the other hand, the setting of issues should be of critical thinking, allowing students to have content to discuss, avoiding empty issues that are “empty and grandiose” or divorced from reality. Around a general issue, teachers should design hierarchical sub-issues and activity chains, form an activity design structure of “situation support-issue guidance-task drive-activity development”, and guide students to experience a complete learning process of “experience-questioning-inquiry-reflection-internalization”.

4.4 Closed-Loop Optimization: Construct a Diversified Evaluation and Feedback Mechanism for the Content of Activity-Based Disciplinary Curriculum

The teaching evaluation and feedback mechanism is an important guarantee for promoting the continuous optimization of the content of activity-based disciplinary curriculum. Only by constructing a scientific evaluation mechanism can a complete teaching closed loop be formed.

Establish a diversified evaluation and feedback mechanism to break the limitation of paper-and-pencil tests. By incorporating multiple dimensions such as activity participation, practical performance, homework completion, the formation of values and personal progress into the evaluation scope, we realize the combination of summative evaluation and developmental evaluation, as well as quantitative evaluation and qualitative evaluation, so as to comprehensively evaluate the implementation effect of learning activities and the development level of students’ core competencies and literacy. In addition, strengthen the application of evaluation results. Evaluation feedback is not the end of the teaching process, but rather a new starting point for teaching improvement. After the evaluation and feedback, teachers need to reflect on the problems existing in textbook interpretation, content reconstruction, activity design and classroom development in a timely manner, adjust teaching strategies in a targeted manner, further enhance their overall grasp of teaching, promote their professional growth in reflection, and ensure that the transformation of textbook content into learning activities can continue to exert positive effects.

5 Conclusion

The content of activity-based disciplinary curriculum in senior high school ideological and political courses, under the background of core competencies and literacy orientation, is a key path to implement the requirements of the new curriculum standards, to alleviate the practical dilemmas of ideological and political course teaching, and to cultivate students’ core competencies and literacy. Its core is not a simple formal innovation, but a pursuit of the goal of explaining truths thoroughly, vividly and profoundly, and the realization of the in-depth unification of textbook content, learning content, learning activities and feedback evaluation. In teaching practice, teachers of ideological and political courses abandon the traditional thinking of “teaching textbooks”, and create a dynamic core competencies and literacy cultivation path of “textbook content deconstruction-learning content adaptation-learning activity transformation-evaluation feedback closed loop”, effectively enhance the appeal and persuasiveness of ideological and political courses, and make students truly perceive theories and improve their core competencies and literacy in ideological and political courses. In the future, with the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, textbook content can be further combined with digital scenarios to create a more dynamic activity teaching mode, making ideological and political courses burst with new vitality while adhering to the fundamentals and pursuing innovation.

References

[1] Feng, Y., & Wang, R. S. (2025). Learning activities from the perspective of large unit teaching: Basic connotation, organizational logic and design principles. Curriculum, Teaching Material and Method, 45(2):107-113.

[2] Fu, Y. N. (2021). Activity design and its teaching implementation in general high school ideological and political textbooks. Curriculum, Teaching Material and Method, 41(5):74-81.

[3] Han, Z. (2020). The concepts and characteristics of the newly compiled general high school ideological and political textbooks. Curriculum, Teaching Material and Method, 40(1):31-38.

[4] Li, L., & Zhao, N. (2024). Promoting the transformation of textbook content into teaching content with structural strategies. Ideological and Political Teaching, (6):33-36.

[5] Lu, X. M., & Wang, G. F. (2021). From the textbookization of teaching content to the teachingization of textbook content: Grasping and processing teaching content in the teaching of activity-based disciplinary courses. Reference for Middle School Political Teaching, (13):44-48.

[6] Tian, G. X., & Wang, J. (2021). The triple logic and teaching suggestions of the unified compiled senior high school Ideological and Politics textbooks. Curriculum, Teaching Material and Method, 41(12):63-68.

[7] Wang, W. Y. (2014). On the “five transformations” of moral character textbooks. Ideological and Political Teaching, (7):32-34.

[8] Xiang, X. Q. (2025). The integration of “micro” and “macro” in the teaching of ideological and political courses. Ideological and Political Teaching, (5):36-39.

[9] Yang, L. (2013). Reflections on the in-depth analysis of senior high school ideological and political teaching content. Curriculum, Teaching Material and Method, 33(8):83-87.

[10] Yu, G. Z. (2023). Questioning and solving: Reflection on the activity-based disciplinary courses of senior high school ideological and political education. Journal of the Chinese Society of Education, (1);81-85.

[11] Zhong, Q. Q. (1993). An Analysis of Modern Disciplinary Pedagogy. Shaanxi People’s Education Press.