1 Introduction

The Ministry of Education has released the Outline of Guidelines for the Construction of Civic and Political Affairs Courses in Higher Education Institutions. The guidelines emphasise the importance of integrating the civic and political affairs curriculum into the entire teaching process, ensuring that all curricula align with the civic and political affairs courses, and achieving the unity of explicit and implicit education.[1] The Guidelines for Mental Health Education for Students in Colleges and Universities emphasise the importance of cultivating students' mental health qualities, ideological and moral qualities, and scientific and cultural qualities in a coordinated manner. It is crucial to maintain the unity of cultivating the mind and morality. As a mandatory course for the public, mental health education for college students has a broad audience and is highly popular.[2] To broaden and deepen the scope and depth of ideological education for college students, it is important to fully integrate the elements of ideology and politics into the mental health course. This can be achieved by constantly updating the teaching concepts and methods. Additionally, the course can guide college students to cultivate healthy personality traits. The promotion of cooperative education between ideological and political education and mental health education for college students has become an important measure for colleges and universities to carry out the fundamental task of forming morals and educating people.[3] This collaborative education model can better meet the overall development of students and the expectations of society, and is of great significance in cultivating new-age talents with socialist core values.

2 Problem

2.1 Current Situation Analysis

Mental Health Education for University Students is a mandatory public course for first-year students. It covers topics such as mental health, self-identity, independent learning, love and emotions, interpersonal communication, emotion regulation, lifestyle, and life values.[4] The teaching team comprises school and university teachers. The course includes practical sessions, such as psychological film viewing and group counselling. The course has been positively received by students, however, there are areas that require improvement. These include an overemphasis on theoretical teaching, inadequate practical experience, low levels of student participation, and a limited evaluation method. Therefore, it is necessary to innovate and improve the teaching concepts and methods of the programme.

2.2 Insufficient Concept of Collaborative Education

The public course 'Mental Health Education for College Students' aims to provide students with basic mental health knowledge, behavioural skills training, and physical and mental improvement. The course covers various professional theories in education and psychology. Teachers may spend a significant amount of time teaching these theories. Currently, the course primarily focuses on psychological counselling, self-identity, emotional relief, psychological disorders, and family of origin. The teaching goal is gradually shifting towards identifying abnormalities and correcting obstacles for effective problem-solving. However, the course ideology has not fully embodied the concept of synergistic cultivation of individuals with mental health. The teaching design and objectives have not been focused on value guidance and virtue formation. To better achieve the goals of the course, teachers should shift their focus from individual students labelled as 'problematic' to a holistic approach that considers all students. The focus should be on cultivating positive psychological qualities and instilling general values in students. During teaching, teachers should consciously define the objectives of ideological and political education to achieve alignment between ideological and psychological education, and to promote the overall development of students.

2.3 Weak Teaching Staff

In colleges and universities, there is often a communication gap between teachers who teach ideological and political theory courses and those who teach mental health education. Teachers of mental health courses may lack systematic training in course ideology and politics, which can make it difficult for them to competently design and integrate concepts. Additionally, they may not be as familiar with ideological and political education materials.

However, full-time teachers of ideological and political theory courses often lack a deep understanding of professional psychological theory knowledge, resulting in a lack of in-depth analysis. Therefore, there is relatively little research on integrating the two fields. There is still much room for improvement in the provision of scientific research support and building platforms for the integration of college students' psychological education and ideological and political education by colleges and universities. Further research on the integration of the two is necessary.

2.4 The Integration of Ideological and Political Elements into the Classroom Is Relatively Low

The design of the programme's Civics has an inherent systemic and logical deficiency, resulting in the integration of Civics elements appearing too rigid. The integration lacks progressive development and is not arranged uniformly with the curriculum materials system, but is mechanically interspersed throughout the various chapters of the textbooks. The integration of Civics into classroom teaching should be implicit, natural and invisible, rather than forced for the sake of integration. The integration of Civics into classroom teaching should be implicit, natural and invisible, rather than forced for the sake of integration. It should not exist alone, but rather be present at all times. It should not be deliberately introduced, but rather appear naturally and at any time. The concept is based on the pedagogical foundations of psychology, with teaching objectives removed. It is not intended to be a separate segment of Civics teaching, but rather is continually updated and expanded as teaching progresses to achieve the effect of invisible education and mind infiltration. It is not intended to be a separate segment of Civics teaching, but rather is continually updated and expanded as teaching progresses to achieve the effect of invisible education and mind infiltration. It is not intended to be a separate segment of Civics teaching, but rather is continually updated and expanded as teaching progresses to achieve the effect of invisible education and mind infiltration.

2.5 Lack of Teaching Methods

The teaching form of the Civics programme is often relatively homogeneous due to the teachers' lack of in-depth understanding. Many teachers use Civics cases for pre-course introductions, which can be overly didactic and disconnected from real life, resulting in poor teaching outcomes. Furthermore, despite the use of various forms of Civic and Political integration teaching, such as video introductions, group discussions, role-playing, and case studies, teachers still rely heavily on traditional lecturing methods. This approach often fails to effectively engage students and stimulate their interest in learning.

3 Optimisation Measures

3.1 Towards A New Teaching System

When teaching Mental Health Education to college students, it is important for teachers to develop a comprehensive Civics teaching plan that aligns with the course's nature, standards, syllabus, and programme. To achieve this, gradually set in-depth objectives for Civic and Political Education that align with the theme of the mental health class. Ensure that each chapter integrates Civic and Political elements. At the same time, we conduct a thorough analysis of teaching materials to guide and shape students' outlook on life and values, while imparting knowledge and skills. This approach strengthens the cultivation of ideals and beliefs, and pays attention to the ideological dynamics and cognitive and behavioural changes of students. In both theoretical and practical sessions, the focus should be on cultivating students' moral concepts and personality traits, as well as the team's overall values and perceptive thinking. The classroom learning should shift from mere knowledge transfer and skill acquisition to exploring the sense of value, meaning, and existence in the spiritual world. To reinforce students' adherence to socialist core values, the mental health curriculum incorporates the concepts of curriculum thinking and collaborative parenting, resulting in the establishment of an efficient curriculum thinking and parenting system.

3.2 Strengthen Teaching Staff

The practice of teaching Civics in Mental Health Education for College Students is currently in its initial exploratory stage and lacks a systematic and effective training and guidance mechanism. Most attempts rely solely on the spontaneous behaviour of mental health class teachers, making the effectiveness of the Civics course largely dependent on their professional level and teaching methods. To address this issue, colleges and universities could establish a learning and exchange platform to offer mental health course instructors specialised training on the Civics curriculum. This training would provide teachers with practical guidance on how to incorporate Civic-Political thinking into mental health education. To enhance teaching effectiveness, it is suggested that teachers form a collaborative parenting concept of Civic-Political integration. Additionally, colleges and universities should establish a regular mechanism for cooperation and exchange between the Civics and Psychology courses. This mechanism can facilitate in-depth cooperation between the two main teaching subjects and promote the implicit integration of Civic and Political education elements in the teaching process of psychological course teachers through regular activities such as collective lesson preparation, teaching seminars, training, observation, and competition. Professional teachers of Civics and Political Science can provide guidance and support to teachers of Psychology to improve teaching effectiveness. They can also conduct innovative research and share curriculum resources tailored to the characteristics of psychology courses. Teachers of psychology courses can also participate regularly in listening and evaluation activities for Civics courses. This can improve their teaching skills and enhance the overall quality of the Civics course.

3.3 Update Teaching Philosophy

The teaching staff should aim to establish the concept of collaborative education and focus on cultivating students' ideals and beliefs. The language used should be clear, objective, and value-neutral, avoiding biased, emotional, figurative, or ornamental language. The text should adhere to a formal register, avoiding contractions, colloquial words, informal expressions, and unnecessary jargon. Additionally, the text should be free from grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and punctuation errors. It is important to provide extensive education on socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Chinese dream, socialist core values, the rule of law, labour, mental health, and Chinese traditional culture. At the same time, they introduce the policies of the Party, current social affairs, and international news into the classroom. They excavate the elements of Civic and Political Education, compile cases of red education, and guide students to combine their personal psychological needs with the development of the country and the nation. Teachers should focus on the psychological well-being and ideological development of their students. They should guide students to reflect on their personal growth while considering the national situation. Individual psychological issues should be contextualised within the current social environment to facilitate problem-solving. It is important to explain the reasons behind the current state of society's mental health and to conduct localised research on mental health. Teachers should aim to cultivate positive qualities such as self-cultivation, moral establishment, unity of knowledge and action, and ethical conduct. This will promote the overall improvement of students' psychological well-being. It will also enhance local comprehension and research on mental health, foster positive personal qualities and morality, integrate knowledge and behaviour, and enhance students' overall psychological well-being.

3.4 Enriching Teaching Formats

To enhance the learning effect of Civics, teachers should constantly innovate their teaching design and methods. This can be achieved by creating various classroom situations centred on students' needs, which will stimulate their interest and encourage active participation. It is important to avoid traditional teaching methods and instead focus on a student-centred approach. For instance, Civics education can be made more engaging through the use of diverse teaching methods, such as heroes in the classroom, scenario reenactment, role-playing, value auction, a letter to the future, and psychological debates. Simultaneously, teachers should conduct pre-course research and post-course counselling to comprehend students' confusion and feedback. They should select teaching content and methods in a targeted manner and encourage positive interaction in Civic and Political Education.

4 Conclusions

This paper proposes measures to optimise 'College Students' Mental Health Education', including constructing a teaching system for course ideology and politics, cultivating a teaching team for course ideology and politics, updating the teaching concept for course ideology and politics, enriching the form of course ideology and politics, and establishing an assessment mechanism for the integration of ideology and politics. By implementing these measures, the effectiveness of the Civic and Political Education programme can be improved. This will promote the coordinated development of students' ideological and political qualities, as well as their mental health. Additionally, it will help to achieve the goal of unifying the 'cultivation of talents' and the 'cultivation of human beings'.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Shandong Social Science Planning Fund Program under Grant No. 23DJYJ14, Shandong Province Special Topic on Innovative Literacy in Education Science Planning under Grant No. 2022CYB218 and Tai’an Social Science Project under Grant No.23-ZD-023.