Applications of the core concepts of physiology

Abstract

The decades-long movement to shift life science education, including physiology, toward students’ conceptual understanding and away from rote memorization has had limited success. In an attempt to promote conceptual learning in physiology, over a decade ago we asked faculty what they thought the core concepts of physiology were. In this way, we identified 15 core concepts of physiology. Five of these (flow down gradients, homeostasis, cell-cell communication, cell membrane, and mass balance) have been “unpacked” to create a conceptual framework for each. These concepts, and their conceptual frameworks, can be used in teaching, assessment, and aiding students to make sense of physiology. Students need opportunities to practice the application of these concepts (and the sub-ideas present in the frameworks) if they are to use them successfully. Data from physiology faculty surveys have shown that in some departments, some core concepts (e.g., homeostasis) are addressed across the curriculum while others (e.g., mass balance) are not as consistently addressed. The core concepts, however, are applicable across essentially all topics and organ systems. Our purpose here is to illustrate that these core concepts apply “all over the place.” We have mapped the five “unpacked” core concepts onto typical physiology topics (organ systems) which may be the subject of textbook chapters, units in a course, or an entire course. For each topic, we have identified one or more examples of a phenomenon or mechanism for which one of the core concepts is applicable. We show that within each organ system there are a number of opportunities to introduce and/or reinforce core concepts by giving students structured practice with them aligned to appropriate formative assessment. We also demonstrate that each of these five core concepts is applicable to many topics within in a physiology course or curriculum. We recognize that each physiology teacher will have to select those core concepts that she wants her students to master, and that not every core concept can or will be incorporated in every course.