Abstract
Background: Effective class management is important for educational activities and helps to enhance the learning outcomes. However, information about the attitude of postgraduate students towards the class management in China is limited. We aimed to have a better understanding of the students’ perceptions and behavior intentions of class management.
Methods: A large-scale questionnaire survey among postgraduate students at West China School of Medicine of Sichuan University was performed to collect students’ opinions on class attendance, digital device use, examination assessment method, and class size. A comparison was made between master’s and doctoral degrees and across different academic grade levels.
Results: A total of 823 medical students finally participated the survey and completed the questionary. Of these participants, there were 175 doctoral students and 648 master’s students. There was a higher prevalence of punctuality issue in the higher-grade students. A greater number of master’s students came late or left early for classes mainly due to the conflicts with their clinical work or duty schedules, whereas more doctoral students claimed that managing experimental tasks was their main reason for such behavior. Compared with master’s students, a higher proportion of doctoral students supported that reason for using electronic devices in class was to complete scientific tasks. In terms of the examination assessment method, the majority of students preferred an open-book exam or essay-based assessments. Additionally, both high-grade and doctoral students showed a preference for smaller class sizes.
Conclusions: The attitude towards class management differed across different academic grades and between master’s and doctoral degrees. Future medical education should carefully balance study, clinical work, and scientific research, and also encourage student to engage in the class management.