New Perspectives in Science Education

Recently, there is an obvious tendency in the humanistic courses of medical students in China , that is these courses are becoming more and more theoretical and metaphysical, especially in the FMMU. The humanistic curriculum relay on the class learning only. As a result the humanity education is facing a danger which means that it will separate itself from students’ lives and thoughts. In order to hold back the trendy above, we have made some changes. Students are encouraged to ask and think, to comprehend the humanity spirits which are owned by renowned medical figures in the university and affiliated hospitals. Then the humanistic classes are expected to turn to experiential and self-teaching model. We carried out a new event planning through three steps. What came first is a Keynote Speech. A speech focusing on the topic “Medical and Humanity” was delivered by a professor who comes from the affiliated hospital called Xi-Jing. Then, students are invited to have a visit to the Teaching Experiment Center of the FMMU, and national key laboratory in the FMMU. At last students are devised into different groups and each group was asked to interview a CAE or CAS or other figures like hood on the subject “the humanistic spirits of the scientists”. After the interview, students will make notes and produce reports in a group. To sum up the reports by students, three main ideas are apparent. The first one is that honesty and persistence are emphasized by the interviewees who are major in basic medicine. An immunology professor said that the TLSFNM was found because of a experiment error which was reported honestly. The second one is that care and humanity are considered to be the soul of clinical practices. Doctors who were interviewed concluded that the meaning of medical science is caring patients by curing diseases. The third one is that activeness and systematicness are values which are cherished by experts from prophylactic medicine. Visiting personally, communicating deeply, discussing in a group are probably methods to inspire the self-awareness of humanity of the medical students. At last, several further efforts can be made in the future.  They are specific funds, more professors from different areas, and more opportunities to discuss for each student.

Keywords: Medical Students, Humanistic Courses, Experiential Learning.