At present, China is in the transition period of urbanization from quantity to quality, and urban and rural planning development is moving forward in a more rational direction. In the context of new urbanization proposed in China, new requirements are also put forward for the planning and design of residential areas. The new goal of urban and rural planning becoming a first-class discipline has put forward new requirements for the training of urban planning professionals in China.

Modern urban and rural planning has gradually changed from traditional morphological planning to comprehensive planning, in order to solve increasingly complex urban problems and create spatial forms that better meet the needs of the times. At present, under the macro background of the establishment of “urban and rural planning”, the teaching system of urban and rural planning undergraduate program is bound to face the requirements of adjustment, adaptation, innovation and reform.

The importance of teaching contents and methods of the course

As an important core course for urban planning majors, residential planning and design should meet the characteristics of the new era and explore the teaching mode aiming at cultivating students’ core planning skills and comprehensive quality. In the teaching system of urban planning majors, the course of residential planning and design has a special status, on the one hand it has its own independence, and at the same time it is influenced by many other factors.

The curriculum should further improve the structure of the knowledge system of professional talents oriented to the development of the discipline, which must meet its transitional, creative and comprehensive characteristics. In order to cultivate advanced applied talents of modern urban planning that meet the needs of the society, it is necessary to carry out a major reform of the personnel training program, curriculum system and its content of urban planning majors. The curriculum needs not only to supplement and expand its theoretical contents, but also to study and reform the practical teaching system, contents and methods.

Current situation of curriculum development

The current urban and rural planning education and personnel training in China mainly serve spatial planning, and the main courses of urban and rural planning colleges and universities in China basically focus on the planning theory and methods of new city development. In 2011, “urban planning” was renamed “urban and rural planning” and upgraded to a first-level discipline, and the second-level discipline under it includes “community development and housing construction planning”. The teaching content of residential planning courses was expanded and adjusted. Changchun College of Engineering, majoring in architecture, offers 40 hours of “Residential Community Planning and Design”, and the new major of urban and rural planning, which started to enroll in 2011, offers 32 hours of “Principles of Residential Planning” and 80 hours of practical design “Residential Planning and Design”. Compared with similar institutions in China, this course in our school has a late start and a big gap.

Thinking about the teaching contents and methods

The design course of urban and rural planning is the core course, and the teaching quality directly affects the level of students’ professional skills, comprehensive quality and employment direction. Residential planning and design is a good transition from architectural design to planning and design for students, and it plays a pivotal role in understanding the thinking and methods of urban and rural planning and design.

(A) Application of progressive teaching methods

The residential planning and design course is offered in the third year, and the students go from architectural design to residential planning and design, the research object is extended from the building to the city, the spatial scale of design spans more and more, and the design influencing factors change from less to more, extensive and complex. Facing the complex design conditions, students apply the correct way of planning thinking and master the methods of planning and design.

Progressive teaching method is a teaching mode that organizes and arranges teaching contents in a planned, phased and gradual orderly manner. The main principle is to turn the whole into zero and to progress step by step, which is suitable for the treatment of more complex problems. The progressive teaching method emphasizes the phased teaching of objectives, in guaranteeing the wholeness and coherence of teaching contents, and forming the teaching contents and objectives from shallow to deep.

(B) Introduction of open teaching

The setting of open environment in the teaching process promotes the communication of multidisciplinary teachers in the college and the collision of engineers’ and teachers’ thinking, which is conducive to the setting of open teaching team. Mutual collaboration among teachers of architecture, environmental art and urban and rural planning in our college can open windows of different disciplines for students, which can integrate design-related contents and expand students’ professional theoretical knowledge and practical ability.

The open link mainly includes the opening of teaching places, the expansion of teaching resources and the opening of assessment methods. The teaching place is transferred from the teachers to the site to investigate the settlement base and increase the perceptual understanding of the settlement. The expansion of teaching resources is mainly co-teaching teachers and designers, and the teaching assessment method is also changed from the traditional back-to-back to face-to-face. After the students’ proposal report, the students can do mutual evaluation and teacher’s comment on the proposal to determine the students’ performance.

(C) Experiential teaching method

With the development of community planning, planners have started to understand the actual situation according to the actual research, using the research process to understand the local residents’ opinions on the existing situation of the residential area, and to understand the residents’ opinions and suggestions on the construction of the community through talks and other means.

Through researching specific areas of the city, students record and analyze human behavior and the site environment in detail, and promote discussion among students during the analysis process, thus fostering a collaborative learning and thinking process among students, making the quality and efficiency of the experience more secure. The experiential teaching method can stimulate students’ emotions, not only to stimulate their interest but also to cultivate creative thinking. Thus, the teaching process can be completed in a vivid and lively way and achieve the teaching objectives in the active and positive experience of students.

Conclusion

Through the analysis of the teaching contents and methods of the residential planning and design course, the application of progressive teaching, open teaching and experiential teaching is added, and the teaching contents are more compact and holistic in terms of teaching organization.

Vocational education in settlement planning should also conform to the period of new urbanization, knowledge structure, skills and abilities should be adjusted accordingly, and sustainable settlement construction is the requirement and expectation for urban and rural planning talents.