‘Done right, teaching can revolutionize medical schools and change lives’
Na Heung-sik
Professor in Department of Physiology, Korea University College of Medicine
Na Heung-sik, a reputable physiologist whose main interest is chronic neuropathic pain and atopic dermatitis, developed a rat model of chronic neuropathic pain, which was adopted in the “Textbook of Pain,” the world’s most authoritative textbook on the subject. He is also the most popular educator at Korea University, which gave him the Seoktap Lecturer Award, the highest teaching honor, 17 times.
Teaching is one of the most underrated skills required for professors. Most universities in Korea evaluate their performance based largely on research and other academic activities such as attending conferences. So it is little wonder that good college professors are rare. With little incentive to hone their teaching skills, many professors choose not to; those who start out with a passion for teaching often lose motivation. Medical schools are no exception. And students suffer as a result. They spend too much time and effort memorizing “dead knowledge” they won’t recall after tests. Na Heung-sik, senior physiology professor at Korea University, lamented at the situation. “I don’t teach physiology. I try to show my students the interesting aspect of it,” he said in an interview. “Teaching in higher education is a mess, to say the least. Many professors don’t make serious efforts to improve their teaching skills, saying students are old enough to find their own ways to learn. But the reality is that few students in Korea ever have the chance to do so.” Na is the only professor to win the Seoktap Lecturer Award, the highest teaching honor granted by the school, 15 times since he first won in 2006. His classes are always packed, not just with medical students but also with those from other departments. “All information I need for teaching is already out there,” he said. “The hard part is delivering information in ways that students can and want to understand.”
But that task is easier said than done. Throughout his career, he has tried to develop better ways to teach by adding interesting images and examples to his lecture. He considers his students as his best teachers when it comes to improving his teaching skills.
After reflecting upon their reactions and questions, he changes his methods and materials whenever he feels necessary. “The key is to make students understand the principle concepts of the subject,” Na said. “For example, I ask them questions such as ‘what are the most important organs in the body?’ The answer is quite obvious, if you look closely at an anatomical chart. The more important the organs are, the more they are protected by bones and other organs. With that in mind, look at where the brain, heart, lung, genitals and digestive organs are.” “Knowledge acquired in a logical order and through interesting stories hardly fades away even after a long time, which is great for students. I often come across students who ask expert-level questions, and surprisingly, many of them have little science background.” The aim is to make ordinary students great and make the great ones greater. Done right, he believes education can revolutionize medical schools and change many lives. The physiologist, whose main interest is chronic neuropathic pain and atopic dermatitis, has loved his work as a medical researcher. “But at one point, I realized there would be nothing more valuable than improving students’ life prospects through education,” he said. Na said he himself was a beneficiary of a good teacher. “My biology teacher in middle school helped me develop an interest in the subject. He encouraged us to think analytically instead of telling us what to memorize for tests.” Inspired by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who pioneered the concept of trust-based banking, Na developed a trust-based learning system in 2006 and has used it in his classes since. “In the system, students are required to work together for cooperative tasks, and at the end of the class, I randomly pick one student from each team and the chosen one must take an oral test and every team member gets the same score he or she gets,” he said. “The method has been successful in terms of boosting their cooperation and overall performance and I expect the method to spread to other departments and eventually the whole school.”
A professor who wants to be a kindergarten teacher
In three years, Na will retire as a medical college professor, but not as a teacher. “I will work at a kindergarten to teach children science,” he said. Over the past 20 years, he has given lectures at elementary, middle and high schools across Korea, from big cities like Seoul to small towns in countryside. “It was an opportunity to see the great potential of students,” he said. “But I also realized that the current ways of teaching are too stereotypical. Many students had already lost interest in learning science probably because of wrong teaching methods.” “To maximize their potential, interest-driven education should start before they recognize learning as a competition. This is why I have much hope and passion for teaching preschoolers, who are like blank slates that can turn into anything they think of.” Na has built relationship with science teachers at elementary, middle and high schools through online communities for teachers and has started to teach students as a way of “donating” his talent. From an elite high school in Seoul to an elementary school of only 12 students in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, he has taken almost every opportunity to stand in front of students. Inspired by his lecture, some students have chosen to pursue their dreams at the Korea University College of Medicine. Last year, 10 students there said they had attended his lecture during their middle or high school years. “I will continue to be a science ambassador, teaching the important value of life and the environment,” Na said.
Developer of animal model of chronic neuropathic pain and atopic dermatitis
Na is the developer of a rat model of chronic neuropathic pain, which has been adopted in the “Textbook of Pain,” the world’s most authoritative textbook on the subject. “There has not been a single day that I did not enjoy my work since I graduated from medical college in 1981. The lab has been my playground,” he said. “Research is still 80 percent of what I do every day.” He is also the developer of a rat model of atopic dermatitis, which is a type of inflammation of the skin. The condition could profoundly undermine a person’s quality of life, especially as attempts to relieve the itch by scratching worsen the problem, creating a vicious circle. It typically starts in childhood, with the severity changing over time. Na found many things in common between chronic pain and atopic dermatitis, and he developed a new drug for the condition in 2014 in cooperation with Ewha Womans University pharmacy Professor Park Hye-young. He said he will continue to work with experts from different academic fields to develop more effective and safer atopic dermatitis treatments as well as pain relievers.