Research on the Improvement Path of Aesthetic Education Literacy for Science and Engineering College Students—From the Perspective of University Counselors’ Educational Field

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the implementation of the educational policy of cultivating students through moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic and labor education, aesthetic education, as a crucial component to fulfill the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, is deeply integrated with ideological and political education in colleges and universities. Rooted in frontline work including daily student administration, ideological guidance and practical education, university counselors serve as vital practitioners extending classroom-based aesthetic education to extracurricular settings and remedying the deficiency in humanistic aesthetic cultivation among science and engineering students. Compared with students majoring in humanities and social sciences, students of science and engineering are dominated by rational thinking due to heavy coursework, experimental training and competitions for scientific research, commonly plagued by narrow aesthetic cognition, insufficient initiative to participate in aesthetic education, weak humanistic foundation and deficient creative capacity for aesthetics. Reliance merely on general art courses fails to accomplish all-round aesthetic education objectives. Based on grassroots educational practice of university counselors, this paper sorts out relevant national policies on contemporary aesthetic education and existing academic findings, defines the theoretical connotations of aesthetic education and aesthetic literacy, and systematically summarizes the physical and cognitive characteristics of science and engineering undergraduates. It identifies prominent obstacles hindering the implementation of aesthetic education for such students from three dimensions: individual students, counselors’ educational practice and institutional guarantee on campus. Centering on counselors’ core duties covering ideological guidance, class construction, cultural and sports event organization, social practice tutoring as well as collaborative education, targeted optimization approaches are proposed from six perspectives: educational philosophy, activity carriers, practical platforms, daily immersive cultivation, team development and institutional safeguards. The research facilitates the organic integration of ideological and political education and aesthetic education, promotes the coordinated advancement of professional proficiency, aesthetic literacy and sound personality for science and engineering students, and provides practical references for advancing grassroots aesthetic education in higher education institutions.