Five-in-One, Four-Stage Progressive: Exploration of Innovative Practical Course Teaching for Mechanical Majors

Against the backdrop of Emerging Engineering Education (3E) construction, promoting practical teaching reform in mechanical majors is key to cultivating high-level innovative talents. Problems in the practical courses of mechanical majors are identified in this study, such as a disconnect between industrial demands and teaching content, fragmented and isolated practical teaching links, and insufficient innovation ability training. To address these, a “Five-in-One, Four-Stage Progressive” teaching model for mechanical innovation practice courses is proposed. Driven by industrial demands, the systematic cultivation of students’ engineering practice and innovation abilities is achieved through four progressive stages: “Classroom Foundation Building, Scientific Research Enhancement, Competition Verification, and Graduation Project Application.” To verify the model’s effectiveness, a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was employed, and the ability development of 30 participating students (experimental group) and 30 non-participating students (control group) was assessed. Results indicate that the improvement in core abilities such as complex engineering problem analysis and innovative scheme design was significantly greater for the experimental group than for the control group. Good applicability and effectiveness are demonstrated by this model in cultivating students’ abilities to meet the demands of sustainable industrial development. A reference is also provided for practical teaching reform in mechanical majors under the Emerging Engineering Education context.