"treatise On" Effective Teaching In The English Classroom Study And Comparison

With the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) higher education in China and abroad,TCM educators need to improve teaching effectiveness with evidence-based intervention to ensure educational quality and production of talents.Researches on teaching effectiveness are crucial to the improvement of educational quality and clinical care as well. Classromm is the major teaching settting for TCM higher education.However,how to teach effectively in the classroom has not been studied before.Objectives:This case study explored the teaching effectiveness in a TCM course(Shang Han Lun,Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases) in two specific TCM institutions(BUCM and RMIT,Beijing University of Chinese Medicine in China and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia).By using a designed and validated measurement tool of Shang Han Lun classroom teaching effectiveness and comparing the similarities and differences between the two institutions,this study was aimed to explore dimensions of teaching effectiveness for Shang Han Lun course while searching answeres for the following three research questions: 1.What are taught in Shang Han Lun classrooms and is there any difference/similarity in the two institutions? 2.What are effective teaching behaviors for Shang Han Lun classroom teaching and is there any difference/similarity in the two institutions? 3.How the teachers and students view teaching effectivness for Shang Han Lun course in the two institutions?Methods:Syllabi were examined to compare the teaching contents.Participation observation and survey were designed,validated and used to measure classroom teaching behavior.Achivement tests were composed,validated and used to measure the cognitive achievements of students in the two institutions.Associations between teaching behaviors and student attitude/cognitive achievements were explored using correlational statistics. Participant observation was used to triangulate the data while interviews were conducted to collect faculty and students' opinions of teaching effectiveness for the course.Results:Findings from the multiple approaches are summarized as follows:1) Differences were present in the two institutions including teaching contents,classromg teaching behaviorsm,and conceptions of teaching effectiveness;2) Clarity,organization,enthusiasm,rapport,teaching strategy,interaction,collaborative teaching,personality and couse-specific teaching behaviors were significantly associated with student evaluating teaching effectivenss;3) Couse-specific teaching behaviors of Shang Han Lun are:Explains clauses in depth; Mentions everyday life experience as examples;Mentions personal experience as evidence(including his/her own.e.g.case);Mentions clinical studies as evidence; Quotes from four key classics;Introduces different schools of opinions;4) Factor analysis identified three effective teaching dimensions:teaching ability(Clarity, organization,enthusiasm,personality),student-centered teaching(rapport,teaching strategy,interaction,collaborative teaching) and course-specific teaching behaviors;5) The commonly-seen effective teaching dimensions were established as associating factors with students' cognitive achievements,among which clarity and organization were associated with higher level of cognitive achievements.However,correlations were not found between most course-specific teaching behaviors and student tests designed for this study;6) Low-inference descriptions of some effective teaching dimensions(e.g.clarity & organization) might not all share among different settings with different cultural and linguistic background though some effective teaching behaviors(e.g.smile while teaching) exceeds cultrual boudary.Discussions:These results indicate that:1) General effective teaching dimensions(clarity,organization,enthusiasm,rapport,teaching strategy,interaction,collaborative teaching and personality) can be applied to Shang Han Lun classroom as well.2) Shang Han Lun has its own course-specific effective teaching dimension;3) Shang Han Lun classroom teaching effectiveness could be summarized as three dimensions:teaching ablility,student-centered teaching & learning activity and course-specific teaching.4) Further research is necessitated for designing appropriate evaluation and testing of course-specific effective teaching behaviors for Shang Han Lun course;5) Low-inference descriptions of effective teaching dimensions might not share among different settings with different cultural and linguistic background.6) Factors contributing to Shang Han Lun classroom teaching effectiveness probably include: teaching contents,classroom teaching behaviors,student profile(age,learning styles) and other differences.This study is an explorative study in methodology and its findings.Multiple dimensions of teaching effectiveness are established for Shang Han Lun course.It is suggested that future educational studies of Shang Han Lun should be conducted with multiple approachesl.TCM educatiors and researchers needs informed reporting of continuous studies to accumulate evidence for evidence-guideded teaching practice.This is essential for improvement of teaching quliaty,clinical care and sustainable development of TCM.