Based on effect-centered teaching, teaching methods such as tracing to China's historical steel design specification or code, learning from excellent design specification or code abroad, comparisons by tables and figures are studied to improve the teaching effect of steel connections. Teaching practice shows that the proposed teaching methods can promote students' understanding of relevant provisions in Code for Design of Steel Structure (GB 50017-2003), help students to grasp the knowledge of classroom teaching, and lay a solid foundation for future work in structural design, construction and so on.