Getting a Bigger Picture in Less Time: Viewing Curriculum Reform in a Chinese Graduate Chemistry Program through the Lens of an Organic Structure Analysis Course
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Jiahai Ma [1]
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[1] College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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- Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 88, Nº 12, 2011, págs. 1639-1643
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
As China’s university enrollment has been rapidly expanding since 1999, along with a steady increase in graduate enrollment, graduate-level chemistry education is confronted with many challenges, such as how to enhance the connection between fundamental knowledge and advanced frontier knowledge, and how to encourage students to do self-directed study with creativity and passion. In the 2009–2010 autumn and spring terms, the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences undertook curriculum reform; one change made reduced the instructional time for most courses to 40 hours from the previous practice of 60 hours, with the intention of freeing up more time for students to do self-directed study. This paper reports on curriculum reform efforts implemented in one fundamental graduate course, Organic Structure Analysis, identifying changes in teaching topics, assessment results (including students’ feedback), and the syllabus (guest lectures were added). During the teaching process, greater efforts were made to introduce new spectra developments as well as broad “practical” applications gathered from top research papers or related to daily life, which are highly welcomed by the students. Students’ feedback data were analyzed and used to guide adjustments to curriculum reform.
