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Workshop on teaching of biochemistry in Europe
Biochemical Education 28 (2000) 139}140
Conference
Fig. 1. FEBS Meeting in Nice, from left to right: Peter Ott, Berne; Jeanne FeH ger, Paris; Dominique Bouvier, Paris; Edward Wood, Leeds; Jose Villalain Boullon, Alicante; Norbert Latru!e, Dijon; Clare Sansom, London; Bernard Rossignol, Paris; Anne-Marie Leseney, Paris; Guy HerveH , Paris.
Workshop on teaching of biochemistry in Europe A workshop devoted to biochemical education took place as a satellite during the 26th FEBS Congress in Nice, France, on Monday 22, June, with "nancial support from IUBMB. The Workshop was organized by a French committee consisting of members of the French Biochemical Society (SFBBM), namely B. Rossignol (Head of the Committee, University Paris X), J. Wallach (University Lyon 1), A.M. Leseney (University Paris VI), N. Latru!e (University Dijon), and J. FeH ger (University Paris XI), known as the &Groupe de re#exion sur l'enseignement de la Biochimie'. There were two sessions each with two presenters and each was followed by discussion round-tables.
1. Teaching biochemistry in Europe [Chairmen: E. J. Wood (Leeds, UK) and N. Latru4e (Dijon, France)] E. J. Wood spoke about How to facilitate the mobility of European Biochemistry students. He presented schemes of student mobility in Europe, taking as an example the PII: S 0 3 0 7 - 4 4 1 2 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 7 - 3
experiences in Leeds University. Exchanges are mainly with France, Spain, Germany and Italy. For Leeds University, the ratio of leaving students to incoming students were in some cases balanced (e.g. France, Italy), but unbalanced in others (e.g. Spain, and more surprisingly, Germany). For English students, the language barrier is likely an explanation of the low interest in exchanges. In parallel, there are an equal number of student exchanges towards non-European English-speaking countries, especially the US and Canada. There is a strong desire in the University to continue to improve the exchanges and it was important to try to solve major problems including: better de"nition of courses and better validation of them, simpli"cation of the administrative procedures, more rapid rate of decision, particularly concerning grants available for student travel and accommodation. D. Thomas (Compiegne, France) gave a talk entitled Towards European Schools of Biotechnology. He observed that in biotechnology, exchanges between scientists and companies were signi"cantly improved in recent years, mainly due to "nancial possibilities from various programs such as the Biomolecular Engineering Program, Human Capital Mobility, Marie Curie Fellowship,
140
Conference / Biochemical Education 28 (2000) 139}140
Training Mobility Research, Copernicus, etc. It is necessary that potential candidates possess a general view of the subjects together with more specialised knowledge and appropriate personal capability. Creation of networks based on complementarity in place of similarity would greatly improve the organization of such exchange programs.
2. Is there still a future for books devoted to the teaching of biochemistry? [Chairwomen: Clare Sansom (London, UK) and A.M. Leseney (Paris, France)]. Clare Sansom (London, UK) spoke on Graduate programmes via the Internet, dream or reality ? She described the teaching programme on protein structure developed in Birkbeck College, London. This could be designed and o!ered via the Internet, due to the recent developments in communication technology. A credit unit concerning general principles of protein structure was introduced for the "rst time in 1996, followed by a second one on crystallography of proteins, created in 1998. This type of teaching becomes necessary, due to an increasing need of postal or distance tuition for continuing education, and of enabling easy access. Most students are already graduates and are working in companies. This teaching is spread over 20 countries, including developing countries. All students have a tutor and may communicate instantaneously with them via Internet. Virtual meetings are organized. Assessment is organized partly at a distance, and partly locally with traditional methods. Successful candidates receive a Master of Science Degree from the University of London. D. Bouvier (Paris, France) gave a talk entitled Facts and illusions in using multimedia for teaching. First, Dr. Bouvier gave a de"nition of multimedia: a vehicle of communication associating text, sound, pictures and videos. The computer allows the interactivity necessary for controlling the #ux of information. Multimedia is presently well-used in everyday life as well as in education, particularly in primary schools where interactive documents play an important role in experience of reading, writing, calculus, etc. Then Dr. Bouvier analyzed the present French situation with regard to biochemistry teaching. On-line documents are more useful as information data banks, for writing a report or when a teacher needs support for his personal pedagogy. Multimedia documents, named didacticiels possess variable levels of interativity and are of interest. In France, they are underused, mainly for material reasons (products, software) and because they are sometimes considered as a disturbing novelty, with little consistency with serious science. In fact, multimedia becomes interesting only if computer teaching o!ers additional value, when compared to classical pedagogic methods. Therefore, we cannot say that all parts of a curriculum justify the use of multimedia.
D. Bouvier suggests the creation of #exible documents, which may be used by the teacher in a personal way. These elements, named elementary modules (in French: e& le& modules) may be designed in the following sequence : E identi"cation of the relevant parts of the programme, justifying the use of multimedia (very often the more complicated concepts), E research of a pedagogical solution, E development of a sequenced scenario. A more precise de"nition of the e& le& modules together with examples may be found on the author's web site (http://www.snv.jussieu.fr/enseignement/ARPE). A classi"cation of the e& le& modules in a library would allow a joint control by both students and teachers of their scienti"c content and of the pedagogical procedures. 3. Discussion round-tables In the round-table sessions a number of points were considered. Most importantly, teachers now take into account the fact that new media will have a growing in#uence on the ways of teaching. They must consider them, not as rivals, but as support for modifying and improving their professional behaviour. Initiatives arise from many sources to enable teachers to design, realize, use and modify the existing multimedia documents. There is a great deal of e!ort but there is also a clear lack of communication about them: it becomes urgent to present the actual experiences of teachers who used these aids and their evaluations. Books will not disappear but they are often too expensive. Books should be cheap and easy to use. The new EU laws on copyright will greatly in#uence access to knowledge and new organization of libraries will probably be necessary. An essential aspect of teaching must be to encourage faculty and students to design and carry out research projects as part of their training. There is an increasing mobility of students in Europe, due to the actual exchange programs, but it is necessary to improve their organization so that students can bene"t. It is also important to try to achieve some uniformity and clarity about assessments. This could have a positive in#uence on the mobility students and on their development. The teaching of biochemistry must also consider the evolution of Knowledge in Life Sciences, mainly in the domain of biotechnology, due to its industrial importance. The creation of a European group to re#ect on biochemical education, similar to those already existing in some countries, was also strongly recommended, in order to promote, collect and analyze the di!erent experiences in di!erent countries. J.M. Wallach Biochimie Analytique ICBMC, Univ. Claude Bernard-Lyon 1, 43 Blvd. du 11 Nov. 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
Conference
Fig. 1. FEBS Meeting in Nice, from left to right: Peter Ott, Berne; Jeanne FeH ger, Paris; Dominique Bouvier, Paris; Edward Wood, Leeds; Jose Villalain Boullon, Alicante; Norbert Latru!e, Dijon; Clare Sansom, London; Bernard Rossignol, Paris; Anne-Marie Leseney, Paris; Guy HerveH , Paris.
Workshop on teaching of biochemistry in Europe A workshop devoted to biochemical education took place as a satellite during the 26th FEBS Congress in Nice, France, on Monday 22, June, with "nancial support from IUBMB. The Workshop was organized by a French committee consisting of members of the French Biochemical Society (SFBBM), namely B. Rossignol (Head of the Committee, University Paris X), J. Wallach (University Lyon 1), A.M. Leseney (University Paris VI), N. Latru!e (University Dijon), and J. FeH ger (University Paris XI), known as the &Groupe de re#exion sur l'enseignement de la Biochimie'. There were two sessions each with two presenters and each was followed by discussion round-tables.
1. Teaching biochemistry in Europe [Chairmen: E. J. Wood (Leeds, UK) and N. Latru4e (Dijon, France)] E. J. Wood spoke about How to facilitate the mobility of European Biochemistry students. He presented schemes of student mobility in Europe, taking as an example the PII: S 0 3 0 7 - 4 4 1 2 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 7 - 3
experiences in Leeds University. Exchanges are mainly with France, Spain, Germany and Italy. For Leeds University, the ratio of leaving students to incoming students were in some cases balanced (e.g. France, Italy), but unbalanced in others (e.g. Spain, and more surprisingly, Germany). For English students, the language barrier is likely an explanation of the low interest in exchanges. In parallel, there are an equal number of student exchanges towards non-European English-speaking countries, especially the US and Canada. There is a strong desire in the University to continue to improve the exchanges and it was important to try to solve major problems including: better de"nition of courses and better validation of them, simpli"cation of the administrative procedures, more rapid rate of decision, particularly concerning grants available for student travel and accommodation. D. Thomas (Compiegne, France) gave a talk entitled Towards European Schools of Biotechnology. He observed that in biotechnology, exchanges between scientists and companies were signi"cantly improved in recent years, mainly due to "nancial possibilities from various programs such as the Biomolecular Engineering Program, Human Capital Mobility, Marie Curie Fellowship,
140
Conference / Biochemical Education 28 (2000) 139}140
Training Mobility Research, Copernicus, etc. It is necessary that potential candidates possess a general view of the subjects together with more specialised knowledge and appropriate personal capability. Creation of networks based on complementarity in place of similarity would greatly improve the organization of such exchange programs.
2. Is there still a future for books devoted to the teaching of biochemistry? [Chairwomen: Clare Sansom (London, UK) and A.M. Leseney (Paris, France)]. Clare Sansom (London, UK) spoke on Graduate programmes via the Internet, dream or reality ? She described the teaching programme on protein structure developed in Birkbeck College, London. This could be designed and o!ered via the Internet, due to the recent developments in communication technology. A credit unit concerning general principles of protein structure was introduced for the "rst time in 1996, followed by a second one on crystallography of proteins, created in 1998. This type of teaching becomes necessary, due to an increasing need of postal or distance tuition for continuing education, and of enabling easy access. Most students are already graduates and are working in companies. This teaching is spread over 20 countries, including developing countries. All students have a tutor and may communicate instantaneously with them via Internet. Virtual meetings are organized. Assessment is organized partly at a distance, and partly locally with traditional methods. Successful candidates receive a Master of Science Degree from the University of London. D. Bouvier (Paris, France) gave a talk entitled Facts and illusions in using multimedia for teaching. First, Dr. Bouvier gave a de"nition of multimedia: a vehicle of communication associating text, sound, pictures and videos. The computer allows the interactivity necessary for controlling the #ux of information. Multimedia is presently well-used in everyday life as well as in education, particularly in primary schools where interactive documents play an important role in experience of reading, writing, calculus, etc. Then Dr. Bouvier analyzed the present French situation with regard to biochemistry teaching. On-line documents are more useful as information data banks, for writing a report or when a teacher needs support for his personal pedagogy. Multimedia documents, named didacticiels possess variable levels of interativity and are of interest. In France, they are underused, mainly for material reasons (products, software) and because they are sometimes considered as a disturbing novelty, with little consistency with serious science. In fact, multimedia becomes interesting only if computer teaching o!ers additional value, when compared to classical pedagogic methods. Therefore, we cannot say that all parts of a curriculum justify the use of multimedia.
D. Bouvier suggests the creation of #exible documents, which may be used by the teacher in a personal way. These elements, named elementary modules (in French: e& le& modules) may be designed in the following sequence : E identi"cation of the relevant parts of the programme, justifying the use of multimedia (very often the more complicated concepts), E research of a pedagogical solution, E development of a sequenced scenario. A more precise de"nition of the e& le& modules together with examples may be found on the author's web site (http://www.snv.jussieu.fr/enseignement/ARPE). A classi"cation of the e& le& modules in a library would allow a joint control by both students and teachers of their scienti"c content and of the pedagogical procedures. 3. Discussion round-tables In the round-table sessions a number of points were considered. Most importantly, teachers now take into account the fact that new media will have a growing in#uence on the ways of teaching. They must consider them, not as rivals, but as support for modifying and improving their professional behaviour. Initiatives arise from many sources to enable teachers to design, realize, use and modify the existing multimedia documents. There is a great deal of e!ort but there is also a clear lack of communication about them: it becomes urgent to present the actual experiences of teachers who used these aids and their evaluations. Books will not disappear but they are often too expensive. Books should be cheap and easy to use. The new EU laws on copyright will greatly in#uence access to knowledge and new organization of libraries will probably be necessary. An essential aspect of teaching must be to encourage faculty and students to design and carry out research projects as part of their training. There is an increasing mobility of students in Europe, due to the actual exchange programs, but it is necessary to improve their organization so that students can bene"t. It is also important to try to achieve some uniformity and clarity about assessments. This could have a positive in#uence on the mobility students and on their development. The teaching of biochemistry must also consider the evolution of Knowledge in Life Sciences, mainly in the domain of biotechnology, due to its industrial importance. The creation of a European group to re#ect on biochemical education, similar to those already existing in some countries, was also strongly recommended, in order to promote, collect and analyze the di!erent experiences in di!erent countries. J.M. Wallach Biochimie Analytique ICBMC, Univ. Claude Bernard-Lyon 1, 43 Blvd. du 11 Nov. 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France