Patriotism education is an important part of ideological and political education, and closely adhering to the fundamental task of cultivating people with morality and cultivating students’ patriotism is the obligatory duty and mission of ideological and political education in higher vocational colleges in the new era. In view of the problems such as college students’ incomplete understanding of patriotism in the new era, irrational patriotic emotions, relatively weak patriotic will, and weak patriotic action ability, higher vocational colleges, according to the theory of “knowledge, emotion, intention and action”, should rely on the main front of ideological and political theory courses and deepen college students’ patriotic cognition, cultivate patriotism and positively guide college students’ patriotic emotions, strengthen patriotic beliefs and temper college students’ patriotic will, reinforce patriotic education practice and internalize the optimization strategy of college students’ patriotic behavior consciousness.