Developing effective written communication skills across undergraduate physiology courses

Abstract

Professional skills are defined as broad, cross-disciplinary skills that facilitate collaboration and innovation. These skills are valued by employers and professional/graduate programs. Recently, the Physiology Majors’ Interest Group (PMIG) subcommittee on professional skills developed a consensus list of professional skills for undergraduate physiology students. These consist of four general competencies (1. Think Critically, 2. Communicate Effectively, 3. Behave in a socially and scientifically responsible manner, 4. Demonstrate Laboratory Proficiency). These competencies are subdivided into 2 – 3 measurable skills. These measurable skills allow undergraduate physiology educators to design teaching practices that develop student proficiency in these skills in parallel with the development of physiology knowledge and skills. Evaluating and sharing teaching practices with other physiology educators may improve the effectiveness of those practices. This, in turn, may improve student proficiency and long-term retention of these professional skills.The purpose of this process was to evaluate teaching practices intended to develop written communication skills in undergraduate physiology courses within a kinesiology program. Students in this program take Mammalian Physiology (BIO129/L) and Exercise Physiology (BIO134/L) consecutively. In both courses, effective written communication skills are among the course learning outcomes. To develop these skills, a series of assignments was developed. This consisted of an abstract (BIO129L), a short report (BIO129L), a manuscript over a prescribed laboratory experiment (BIO129L), and a manuscript over a student-designed research project (BIO134L). Students were provided extensive rubrics for each assignment and received written feedback on their work before they submitted the next assignment.Initially, student work exhibited beginner-level proficiency and progressed little over the assignment sequence. In response, the assignment sequence was refined. Refinements included: (1) providing students an additional opportunity to practice each assignment, while also providing students structured, specific feedback; (2) reviewing exemplars of each written form of writing; and (3) streamlining the rubrics to highlight key criteria for each assignment.Based on feedback from students and observations of student performance, providing additional opportunities to practice improved long-term understanding of each form of scientific writing. Reviewing exemplars improved students’ understanding of the purpose of abstracts versus manuscripts. Revision of rubrics also improved student comprehension of each form of writing, resulting in improved clarity and logic in students’ written work. However, the impact of altering feedback strategy is unclear, and evaluation of this practice is ongoing. This process highlights the interative nature of teaching practices designed to develop professional skills. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.