Student perceptions of their gains from a college‐level human physiology lab

Abstract

Many educators consider labs to be an essential part of learning about physiology and yet few studies show what is gained from a lab. This study documents student perceptions of their academic gains from a human physiology lab. A Participant Perception Inventory (PPI) was developed by physiology faculty from a Research I University, a Master's University, and a Community College. The survey items were based on published student surveys, science education literature for lab outcomes, and college physiology lab goals found on the web. The PPI measures students’ perceptions of their practical lab skills, scientific reasoning, conceptual understanding of physiology subject matter, and science teamwork abilities. The survey was given to students in a college-level human physiology class for students in pre-health profession programs. Survey responses were gathered three times during a semester: the first week, at mid-term, and in the final week of the semester. Results show a significant increase in the students’ perception of their knowledge, experience, and confidence in all four learning areas that were surveyed. Surprisingly, even though physiology subject matter is not emphasized in this lab course, the students reported significantly higher average gains in understanding physiological concepts (36.8 ± 4.0 %) compared with practical lab skills (26.8 ± 2.8 %) scientific reasoning (23.3 ± 3.3%) and science teamwork (15.5 ± 3.0 %). As next steps we will correlate these perceptions to measured gains and assess perceived gains in the absence of lab.