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

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.