CIE has been attaching great importance to the improvement of teaching quality, constantly promoting the teaching reform and aiming at the cultivation of talents with international views and innovative competence. With the strong support of NWAFU to CIE summer term courses project and English-taught Organic Chemistry class, CIE offered the course for Y2016 CIE Bio-technology majors of base classes. This course was co-conducted by professor Wang Junru of NWAFU and Associated Professor Uwe Schneider from University of Edinburgh, UK, invited by professor Wang. Mr. Uwe Schneider is a member of Organic Chemistry course teaching team of Shaanxi province, whose engagement in the summer term course has been his second time of corporation with CIE, which highlighting the CIE’s educational and teaching reform. 

The course Life and Organic Chemistry is one of summer term courses offered by NWAFU, which has been scheduled to be in run from mid-May to early July, and 40 hours of which are to be conducted by Mr. Uwe Schneider. To have the students fully benefit from the cooperative teaching, the teaching team has worked out the talent cultivation requirements, teaching content, teaching methods and learning outcome evaluation long before the class initiated. They designed three-step way of teaching --- lecture, group discussion and training on innovative competence, marking the irreplaceable role of co-teaching in enhancing personalized training, improving talents’ quality and ensuring the teaching quality. 

CIE is making preparation for setting up the Chemical Quality Education Studio. And the course of Life and Organic Chemistry is one of the program’s pilot-run. Centered on training of chemical quality education, the course takes high-quality research papers in inter-disciplinary field of chemistry and life from journals of Nature and Science as part of teaching materials and resources. By eyeing on the focus issues, strategy of solutions, principles of reaction and skills of expression, the course aims at improving students’ logical thinking in research of inter-disciplinary field of chemistry and life and their insight in research. The overall quality and innovation spirit of students will be on a higher level when their logical thinking and problem-solving competence are improved and research-based learning strategy are acquired.  The teaching materials are upgraded and enriched, compared to last year. 

There are many reading tasks to be done before each class. The foreign teacher required the students to find out the core of reading materials and make presentation on the route of reaction.There are also groups discussion and Q&A session before ending the class with students’ views presentation on the application of organic reaction in natural world. Student Yun Hongyu said, “ I dare not to speak up my mind due to my poor English. However, the teacher keeps drawing me out my ideas and understanding gradually, which greatly improved my expression abilities. I really appreciate the encouraging way of teaching.” 

To see how much improvement can be made for the teaching of courses of the same type, Mr. Uwe Schneider and professor Wang Junru organized a conversazione with 44 students before the end of the summer term. CIE Dean Ou Wenjun, Associated Dean Wang Xiaoping presented at the meeting, too. It is a shared idea among the students that the summer term course greatly improve their oral English and competence of reading English literature. For the student intending to study abroad, it is a great opportunity for building up confidence and picking up skills in expressing ideas. Mr. Uwe is a real hit among the students. With plain languag, vivid drawing and well-calculated time allocation for thinking, he made the learning of abstract chemical reactions a sort of fun. The group discussion had all students highly involved and greatly befitted. All students extended sincere thanks to Mr. Uwe for his inspiring teaching. 

The courses offered in the co-teaching way with foreign teachers is a manifestation of NWAFU’s improvement of international education. There will be more summer term courses offered by CIE until the co-teaching of Chinese and foreign teachers becomes a regular and sustainable program, to further the internationalized cultivation of innovative talents in a precise and elaborate way. 

In class of Life and Organic Chemistry conducted by Mr. Uwe Schneider from University of Edinburgh, Uk


at the conversazione: Mr. Uwe Schneider, professor Wang Junru, CIE Dean Ou Wenjun, and the students


at the debriefing on teaching outcome of CIE’s English-taught summer term course Life and Organic Chemistry


Group photo：Mr. Uwe Schneider from University of Edinburgh, Uk, and some CIE students
                                                                                    (Translated by: Yan Xianhui)