Analysis on the implementation plight of General Education ——experience from a research-oriented university in China

• In Event: Spotlighting the diversity of curriculum development and implementation practices

Proposal

A. Research background:
Under the background of building the world first-class university and the world first-class discipline, training quality of undergraduates has become the focus of higher education in China. As a critical part of undergraduates training, General Education has received more concentration and has been written into national policy in recent years. The implementation of General Education is different and still be explored in different universities and colleges, Beijing Normal University has conducted a reform of General Education in 2015 to improve the quality of General Education , by breaking the barriers among disciplines and setting up a platform which conclude six areas : patriotism and ideal values; international enterprises and dialogue among civilizations; classical study and the cultural inheritance; mathematical basis and scientific literacy; art appreciation and aesthetic experience; social development and civic responsibility. Student's humanity accomplishment and scientific spirit, critic analysis and communication skills are expected to be improved through the study of General Education Curriculum.
B. Research methods
This study is basing on students’ satisfaction of Beijing Normal University General Education course and standing in the perspective of student satisfaction to investigate the way to build a better General Education curriculum which is attractive and beneficial to both students and teachers.
The study combines the related literature around the world, gives priority to questionnaire investigation, and supplemented by interviews and observation, to analysis students’ satisfaction on General Education in three levels. Questionnaire includes four parts, the first part is about student's demographic variable, the second part focus on the basic information about students’ study on general education curriculum, and the third part is students’ satisfaction scale on General Education curriculum. The last part concentrates on the learning effect and open-ended question to get advice from students. The interview objects including students, General Education teachers and educational administration personnel.
C. Results
The results of the study are as follow.
Students overall satisfaction on General Education curriculum was 3.78, which closes to the satisfactory condition; Students are most satisfied with teachers dimension ( M=3.80 ), followed by the satisfaction score of curriculum dimension ( M=3.53 ) , the lowest satisfaction is on school dimension ( M=3.34 ). Among all these 11 items form 3 dimensions, the highest satisfaction score is teachers’ profound knowledge ( M=3.98 ) , the second is teachers ' attitude and input to General Education class ( M=3.87 ) , the lowest satisfaction is school ’s propaganda and introduction of general courses ( M=3.23 ) and the teaching material ( M=3.39 ) .
When it comes to the differences among different groups, study shows that men and women have significant differences on the satisfaction of General Education curriculum, boys were significantly lower than girls. Students’ satisfaction is also significantly different due to their fathers’ education degree. Students of different major categories also exist significant satisfaction differences of general education, Science, Management, and Art subjects have a significant difference with other major categories. Students’ education background before they attend university also affected their satisfaction, generally speaking, art students’ satisfaction is significantly lower than science students and liberal arts students. In terms of growth environment, mother's education level does not influence students' satisfaction of a curriculum, fathers' education does. There were no significant satisfaction differences among students from different level of city. Career planning exist significant differences, students who are going to domestic work satisfaction is significantly higher than students going to work abroad.
D. Conclusion and Discussion
Basing on the questionnaire survey and interviews, problems exist in schools’ level, courses’ level, teachers’ level and students’ level are summarized:
a) School issues: the lack of an effective promotion of curriculum, curriculum cannot meet the demand of students.
b) Teachers issues: single pedagogics, the lack of interaction.
c) Curriculums issues: ignorance of examination, lack of proper teaching materials.
d) Students issues: understanding of General Education is insufficient, learning attitude is not correct.
After the investigation of Beijing Normal University, it is found the problems of general education are: that the establishment of general education curriculum is not reasonable, the teaching of general education is of poor quality, the evaluation of general education is not effective, and there are conflictions between professional education and general education. In order to promote the quality of general education curriculums and to transform general education curriculums from “the neglected courses” to “the valued course”, the inner structure of general education curriculums should be improved and be made more systematically; the curriculums contents should be enriched and the teaching methods should be modified ; the assessment standard should be enhanced and the process evaluation should be attached great importance especially; the proportion of credits of general education curriculums should be increased, and the performance of general education curriculums should be taken into consideration in all kinds of academic assessment.

Author

• Lingmei Huang, Beijing Normal University