Study of the Expectations of Life Science Students on Their University Education

Abstract

The recent education reform in Hong Kong led to unprecedented diverse education backgrounds of secondary school students entering the university. The present study was conducted to investigate the views and expectations of life science students (LSS) regarding their university education. LSS considered critical thinking skills, as well as personal attitudes, teamwork, and creativity as important soft skills acquired in university. They preferred practical learning methods to other traditional classroom learning. LSS considered personal attitudes, the ability to make judgment, critical thinking and communication skills as important assessment criteria; while the evaluation of factual knowledge was the least supported, in spite of the fact that the majority of LSS agreed the assessment of factual knowledge was fair. When compared with other non-LSS, higher percentage of LSS was found to be more satisfied with their personal capabilities; to the other extreme, the data also indicated a higher proportion of LSS with less satisfaction in their creative talents, mastery of factual knowledge, and their interpersonal communication skills when compared with other non-LSS. Interestingly, despite their personal motivation, the data implicated that the improvement of creative talents and interpersonal communication skills was less under the control of LSS. Taken together, our study suggested the curriculum for LSS should be highly diversified and balanced, in particular the development of creative talents and interpersonal skills, with an emphasis on practical training in the laboratory. The assessment should be designed to evaluate multiple talents in addition to the relatively fair assessment of factual knowledge. Furthermore, novel assessment scheme should be implemented to reflect on students’ personal attitudes. Index Terms life Science, learning methods, assessment methods, curriculum, learning outcomes