Salomon Danielle, Martin-Harris Laurel, Mullen Brian, Odegaard Brian, Zvinyatskovskiy Aleksey, Chandler Scott H
UCLA Library Teaching and Learning Services, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ. 2015 Mar 15;13(2):A64-73. eCollection 2015 Spring.
The ability to critically evaluate neuroscientific findings is a skill that is rapidly becoming important in non-science professions. As neuroscience research is increasingly being used in law, business, education, and politics, it becomes imperative to educate future leaders in all areas of society about the brain. Undergraduate general education courses are an ideal way to expose students to issues of critical importance, but non-science students may avoid taking a neuroscience course because of the perception that neuroscience is more challenging than other science courses. A recently developed general education cluster course at UCLA aims to make neuroscience more palatable to undergraduates by pairing neuroscientific concepts with philosophy and history, and by building a learning community that supports the development of core academic skills and intellectual growth over the course of a year. This study examined the extent to which the course was successful in delivering neuroscience education to a broader undergraduate community. The results indicate that a majority of students in the course mastered the basics of the discipline regardless of their major. Furthermore, 77% of the non-life science majors (approximately two-thirds of students in the course) indicated that they would not have taken an undergraduate neuroscience course if this one was not offered. The findings also demonstrate that the course helped students develop core academic skills and improved their ability to think critically about current events in neuroscience. Faculty reported that teaching the course was highly rewarding and did not require an inordinate amount of time.
批判性评估神经科学研究成果的能力，正迅速成为非科学专业领域一项重要技能。随着神经科学研究越来越多地应用于法律、商业、教育和政治领域，让社会各领域未来的领导者了解大脑变得势在必行。本科通识教育课程是让学生接触至关重要问题的理想方式，但非理科学生可能会因认为神经科学比其他科学课程更具挑战性而避免选修神经科学课程。加州大学洛杉矶分校最近开发的一门通识教育集群课程，旨在通过将神经科学概念与哲学和历史相结合，并建立一个在一年时间里支持核心学术技能发展和智力成长的学习社区，让神经科学对本科生更具吸引力。本研究考察了该课程在向更广泛的本科群体提供神经科学教育方面的成功程度。结果表明，该课程中的大多数学生，无论其专业如何，都掌握了该学科的基础知识。此外，77%的非生命科学专业学生（约占课程学生总数的三分之二）表示，如果没有开设这门课程，他们不会选修本科神经科学课程。研究结果还表明，该课程帮助学生发展了核心学术技能，并提高了他们对神经科学时事进行批判性思考的能力。教师们报告说，教授这门课程非常有意义，而且不需要花费过多时间。
