Application and Exploration of Innovative Teaching Methods in Pharmaceutical Botany
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Keywords

Pharmaceutical Botany
Innovative teaching
Teaching reform
Autonomous learning
Curriculum-based ideological and political education

DOI

10.26689/jcer.v10i6.15158

Submitted : 2026-06-16
Accepted : 2026-07-01
Published : 2026-07-16

Abstract

Pharmaceutical Botany is a core compulsory foundational course for students majoring in Pharmacy and Chinese Materia Medica in China. It integrates theory and practice and serves as a key bridge between basic botany and applied research in traditional Chinese medicine. The course features fragmented knowledge points, numerous specialized terms, a heavy memorization load, and abstract theoretical content. The traditional “lecture-based” single teaching model struggles to meet the training objectives for innovative pharmaceutical talents in the new era. Based on our team’s long-term frontline teaching-reform practice, this paper integrates multiple modern innovative teaching methods and constructs a comprehensive stereoscopic innovative teaching system for Pharmaceutical Botany across four dimensions: theoretical teaching innovation, practical teaching optimization, diversified assessment and evaluation, and curriculum value guidance. Theoretical teaching relies on multimedia visualization, CBL combined with flipped classrooms, interest-oriented task-driven learning, short review writing, and Latin name-specific teaching reforms to fully stimulate students’ autonomous learning motivation. Practical teaching introduces the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle for refined management and establishes an integrated virtual-actual practical education system using living plant platforms, field practice bases, and digital virtual resources. At the assessment level, it abandons the drawbacks of traditional summative assessment and establishes a whole-process, multi-dimensional formative evaluation mechanism. Meanwhile, the concept of “micro-ideological and political education” is subtly integrated throughout the teaching process, achieving the organic unity of knowledge transmission, ability cultivation, and value guidance. Teaching practice shows that this innovative teaching system can effectively improve the classroom teaching atmosphere, significantly enhance students’ professional learning interest, independent inquiry ability, and practical skills in plant identification, providing a referable practical paradigm for the teaching reform and quality improvement of the Pharmaceutical Botany course.

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