Case study of the curriculum of bio-medical English program of Peking University / 中华医学教育探索杂志

ABSTRACT

Objectives To optimize the curriculum for better education quality. Methods By literature review, the curriculum of the bio-medical English program of Peking University was summa-rized. Interviews were conducted on 8 sophomores of the program based on convenience sampling for their concerns over the curriculum and a questionnalre was designed based on such concerns. Ques-tionnalre survey was used for the remarks and suggestions of the 129 graduates of year 2002, 2003 and 2004 on the curriculum, with 79 valid questionnalres collected and the data analyzed by Microsoft Excel. Results Respectively 64 (81.02%), 52 (65.82%), 53 (67.09%) respondents believe the se-quence, duration and connection of the English courses are appropriate and 65 (82.27%), 46 (58.22%), 50 (63.29%) respondents believe the sequence, duration and connection of the medical courses are appropriate. 63 (81.77%) respondents hoped that they could do experiments in the medical courses, but 18 of them (23.08%) worried that the experiments would make the curriculum more tense. 71 (89.97%) respondents thought that the internship at hospital in the curriculum was conducive to better understanding of medical course contents . Suggestions on the improvement of the curriculum were also made by respondents. Conclusions The curriculum could be further optimized, especially on the connection between different courses, although most of the respondents by and large believe that the curriculum of the program is rational and hold positive attitude towards the internship in hospital and experiments in the curriculum.