Research On The Comprehensive Fundamental Science Education Model Of Nanjing University

In 2009,the Ministry of Education staged a pilot project named "Top-Notch Students Training Program",to train the top-notch students in the area of basic research,establishing national young talents centers in the advantageous disciplines at qualified research oriented universities,setting up a training mechanism aiming at top-notch students,and making them part of basic research activities and a future academic leader in the discipline.By now,there are altogether 19 universities nominated in this top-notch program.Analyzing their training programs,the cultivation models of 19 universities can approximately be divided into three categories:single discipline,interdisciplinary projects and the integration of them.Relatively speaking,it is quite difficult to implement of "interdisciplinary projects",Thus fewer universities try it.The Comprehensive Fundamental Science Education Model of Nanjing University(CFSEM)belongs to this kind,which began to practice since early 90s of last century.And its Experimental Classes for General Science is the first and only interdisciplinary projects of the National Science Training Base for Talented and Gifted Students.Through practicing 25 years,its education model has important influence both in China and even abroad.This innovative education model along with its fruitful results,has received the National Teaching Achievement Prizes,Special Trophy by Jiangsu Province,and over ten individual awards.Therefore,it became my research subject taking the CFSEM as a case to explore how to train the top-notch students in the area of basic research.The research mainly adopts the method of case study.From the perspective of the students,this paper analyzes the successful experience and limitations of the CFSEM,in order to provide suggestions and countermeasures for the "Top-Notch Students Training Program",by following the educational philosophy of "Student-centered "and combined with previous research results.To this end,based on open-ended and semi-structured manner,researcher interviewed 26 graduates and 7 faculty and staffs for nearly 3000 minutes long and a total of 250,000 transcription text.In addition,researcher collected abundant relevant literature,which includes the project implementation in other universities.The first conclusion is that the CFSEM is a Specialty Education model that can produce graduates being of wider caliber in the basic research areas of Physics,Chemistry,Biology,and related interdisciplinary subjects.It has four characteristics.First,the training objective is simple and clear.Second,the courses enjoy wide coverage and inter-discipline.Third,it practices Research Teaching.Fourth,it is fully institutionalized so as to train talented and gifted students in the basic research areas of Physics,Chemistry,Biology,and related interdisciplinary subjects.However,there still exist some problems,which are to be consummated.The second conclusion is about five interventions to train the top-notch students in the area of basic research.First,it is necessary to strengthen humanistic quality education for the top-notch students' cultivation,while specialty education is only part of it.Second,in the course of teaching practice,it is important to properly handle the relationship between "learning" and "doing".Third,spark the students' creative thinking.Fourth,establish learning communities.Fifth,promote interaction of college students and faculty.