Challenges in the undergraduate course of comprehensive design of Microbiological Experiments

Abstract:

Microbiology experiment is an important basic practical course tailored for university undergraduates with biology relevant disciplines and also a fundamental skill for further biology professionals. With the encouragement of teaching reform in universities, comprehensive design experiments were carried out aiming to cultivate students’ comprehensive and creative abilities. However, many problems were discovered during the implementation process such as low participation rate of students, poor operational skills, non-flexible experiment program, and too simple assessment method. As a result, the expected learning outcomes were not obtained. In this study, we summarized the features of Microbiology Experiment teaching model, analyzed the problems existed in the teaching process, and provided advice to improve this model from the aspects of encouraging students’ participation, arranging the reasonable experimental settings, introducing research-orientated programs accompanied with corresponding teachers, and improving the evaluation approaches.