The “form” and “function” of undergraduate anatomy & physiology curricular structure

Abstract

The life science sub-disciplines of anatomy and physiology are the study of the form and function of a living organism. Our project describes the “form” (curricular structure) and “function” (student experience and learning) in undergraduate anatomy & physiology courses. Prior literature describes student learning approaches within separated or integrated curricula in medical education. However, little information is available about the impact of these curricular structures in undergraduate anatomy and/or physiology courses. This study analyzed the processes used by students in two different undergraduate anatomy & physiology course structures through a comparative case study methodology. Participants were enrolled in either a 2-semester sequence of anatomy then physiology (A-->P, Case 1) or an integrated 2-semester sequence (A&P1-->A&P2, Case 2). Eleven students were interviewed three times and provided written responses to open-ended prompts throughout the courses. These qualitative data were analyzed with four cycles of coding. First, block coding categorized data based on the theoretical frameworks of Biggs, Fyrenius et al., and Pandey & Zimitat. Next, all passages identified in block coding were assigned process codes through an open coding procedure. In the transition phase, code mapping was completed to identify emerging themes. Finally, focus and axial codes were applied, and the cases were compared. While there were differences identified between the cases, these were not specifically linked to curricular structure as we normally define it. Rather, differences were due to instructional design and instructor choices, particularly the presence of formative assessment within the courses. Our findings indicate that the “function” of structure based on course topics or content is a less important detail, while instructional and assessment choices provide the “form” of a course from the student’s perspective. If “form follows function” in this context, instructors in anatomy and physiology courses should recognize the impact of their assessment practices and instructional choices on student affect and subsequent learning within the course. This project was not supported by any funding sources. 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.