title: Positive impact of integrating histology and physiology teaching at a medical school in China.
abstract: To modernize its stagnant, traditional curriculum and pedagogy, the Medical School of Wuhan University in China adopted (with modifications) the University of Chicago's medical curriculum model. The reform effort in basic sciences was integrating histology and physiology into one course, increasing the two subjects' connection to clinical medicine, and applying new pedagogies and assessment methods. This study assessed the results of the reform by comparing the attitudes and academic achievements of students in the reform curriculum (n = 41) and their traditional curriculum peers (n = 182). An attitude survey was conducted to obtain students' views of their respective histology and physiology instruction. Survey items covered lectures, laboratory teaching, case analyses and small-group case discussions, assessment of students, and overall quality of the courses and instruction. A knowledge test consisting of questions from three sources was given to measure students' mastery of topics that they had learned. Results showed that reform curriculum students were rather satisfied with their course and new teaching methods in most cases. When these students' attitudes were compared with those of their traditional curriculum peers, several significant differences favoring the reform were identified regarding physiology teaching. No other significant difference was found for physiology or histology teaching. Reform curriculum students outperformed their peers on four of five subcategories of the knowledge test questions. These findings support the benefits of integration and state-of-the-art teaching methods. Our study may offer lessons to medical schools in China and other countries whose medical education is in need of change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; rsherer@bsd.uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Renslow
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sherer
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; and.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois;
authors.forename: Hongmei
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois;
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois;
authors.forename: Ivy
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Morgan
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; and.
authors.forename: Biwen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; and.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China; and.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000592:standards*; D006653:Histology / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D010827:Physiology / Q000193:education*; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D013337:Students, Medical
keywords: China; basic science integration; histology teaching; medical education reform; physiology teaching