Abstract: With the mission of fostering talented graduates with innovative skills and knowledge, colleges and universities are the primary base for providing innovative educational models. The traditional high-education model in the field of plant science is not well suited for innovative student talent development due to its structural deficiencies such as obsolete teaching forms and contents, the dissociation between theoretical teaching and practice, non-standardized training processes, and irrational evaluation systems. As an important vehicle for promoting in depth teaching reform, subject teaching competitions exert a remarkable impact in stimulating students’ innovative potential and practicing their innovative skills at four levels: consciousness, thinking, spirit, and quality. This paper takes the undergraduate training program in College of Life Sciences in Zhejiang Normal University as an example to explore how to incorporate teaching competitions into the innovative talent training programs in plant science. Specific implementation strategies were proposed from multiple perspectives such as curriculum construction, management system, teaching staff, incentive and evaluation mechanisms. The effects of our college’s educational practice is summarized. This work provides a reference for the training of innovative student talents in plant science in similar institutions.

Key words: subject competition, innovative educational reform, cultivation of innovative talents, plant science