Foundations in Physiology: An Introductory Course Using the Core Concepts

Abstract

Over the past 5 years, the Alma College Integrative Physiology and Health Science Department has noted a decrease in student success in the introductory human physiology course. A major element in variable performance is the increasing diversity of prior experience in students’ educational background, specifically as it relates to courses in STEM disciplines. Within the life science community, and more recently, the physiology community, use of “core concepts” in undergraduate education has been actively promoted as a means to improve student outcomes. To address the concern regarding student success, the department implemented a new “Foundations” course as a pre‐requisite to the Anatomy and Physiology sequence. This class replaced the previous pre‐requisite, Introduction to Cell Biology. We hypothesized that this approach would produce significant gains in student learning. The specific core concepts covered in the class were: causality, scientific reasoning, physics/chemistry, structure‐function, homeostasis, flow down gradients, cell membrane, energy, cell‐cell communication, and interdependence/integration. This set of concepts included and class design emphasized the 5 principles identified by physiology educators as most important for students to know.1 To assess learning, the Phys‐MAPS assessment tool was administered to students enrolled in IPH 227: Human Physiology (for students who had previously completed the Cell Biology pre‐requisite) and students enrolled in IPH 131: Foundations in Physiology (no pre‐requisite completed).2 The tests were taken during the first week of class and again in the final week of the term. Although average scores increased by the end of the semester, the improvement was not significant, regardless of the class assessed (IPH 227: 36.8+5.8 vs 39.2+5.9 total points; IPH 131: 33.3+5.6 vs 36.5+7.3 total points). Importantly, students completing the Foundations class performed as well as those students who had previously taken the Introduction to Cell Biology as represented in the IPH 131 post and IPH 227 pre data, respectively (36.5+7.3 vs. 36.8+5.8). Therefore, while students from the Foundations course performed as well as those enrolled in a traditional introductory cell biology course at the end of each course, use of the “core concepts” failed to result in the expected learning outcomes. As an initial offering, there were multiple challenges/limitations that will be discussed. Adjustments in course design, together with additional/alternative assessment methods, could have an impact on measured student learning. Details of course design, assessment, and limitations will be presented.