Abstract: At present, the needs of national development strategy have changed, which also present new requirements for students majoring in civil engineering. Soil mechanics is a basic and difficult course for civil engineering related majors, and its teaching system has great impacts on students’ literacy. In order to better develop the teaching of soil mechanics and improve the ability of civil engineering students, this paper analyzes the teaching problems existing in the course of soil mechanics in colleges and universities from the aspects of the orientation of soil mechanics course,the differences between teachers and students’ resources and the practice mode of the course. Then, combined with the changes of students’ achievements in soil mechanics, national strategy, university functions and the development of our university in recent years, it is summarized that the curriculum of soil mechanics should be reformed from the aspects of expanding learning mode, strengthening practical links, optimizing assessment mechanism and improving teachers’ team, so as to effectively adapt soil mechanics to today’s development.