AJP: Advances in Physiology Education This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

A comparison of professional-level faculty and student perceptions of active learning: its current use, effectiveness, and barriers
Active learning is an instructional method in which students become engaged participants in the classroom through the use of in-class written exercises, games, problem sets, audience-response systems, debates, class discussions, etc. Despite evidence supporting the effectiveness of active learning strategies, minimal adoption of the technique has occurred in many professional programs. The goal of this study was to compare the perceptions of active learning between students who were exposed to active learning in the classroom (n = 116) and professional-level physiology faculty members (n = 9). Faculty members reported a he...
Source: AJP: Advances in Physiology Education - September 1, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Miller, C. J., Metz, M. J. Tags: HOW WE TEACH Source Type: research

Revision workshops in elementary mathematics enhance student performance in routine laboratory calculations
In this report, we highlight teaching methods delivered via revision workshops to undergraduate Life Sciences students at the University of Nottingham. Workshops were designed to 1) expose student deficiencies in basic numeracy skills and remedy these deficiencies, 2) introduce molarity and dilution calculations and illustrate their workings in a step-by-step manner, and 3) allow students to appreciate the magnitude of numbers. Preworkshop to postworkshop comparisons demonstrated a considerable improvement in students' performance, which attenuated with time. The findings of our study suggest that an ability to carry out l...
Source: AJP: Advances in Physiology Education - September 1, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Sawbridge, J. L., Qureshi, H. K., Boyd, M. J., Brown, A. M. Tags: HOW WE TEACH Source Type: research

An alternative to the use of animals to teach diabetes mellitus
We developed an alternative approach to teach diabetes mellitus in our practical classes, replacing laboratory animals. We used custom rats made of cloth, which have a ventral zipper that allows stuffing with glass marbles to reach different weights. Three mock rats per group were placed into metabolic cages with real food and water and with test tubes containing artificial urine, simulating a sample collection of 24 h. For each cage, we also provided other test tubes with artificial blood and urine, simulating different levels of hyperglycemia. The artificial "diabetic" urine contained different amounts of anhydrous gluco...
Source: AJP: Advances in Physiology Education - September 1, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Basso, P. J., Tazinafo, L. F., Silva, M. F., Rocha, M. J. A. Tags: HOW WE TEACH Source Type: research

Implementation of a study skills program for entering at-risk medical students
While the first year of medical school is challenging for all students, there may be specific issues for students from rural areas, economically disadvantaged backgrounds, ethnic minorities, or nontraditional age groups. A Summer Prematriculation Program (SPP) was created to prepare entering at-risk students for the demands of medical school. For the past 2 yr, an emphasis was placed on the development of appropriate study plans and skills. On presurveys, students predicted an increase in their number of study hours per lecture hour, from 7.6 h in undergraduate coursework to 9.1 h in medical school coursework (n = 35). The...
Source: AJP: Advances in Physiology Education - September 1, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Miller, C. J. Tags: HOW WE TEACH Source Type: research

The use of team-based, guided inquiry learning to overcome educational disadvantages in learning human physiology: a structural equation model
The study of human bioscience is viewed as a crucial curriculum in allied health. Nevertheless, bioscience (and particularly physiology) is notoriously difficult for undergraduates, particularly academically disadvantaged students. So endemic are the high failure rates (particularly in nursing) that it has come to be known as "the human bioscience problem." In the present report, we describe the outcomes for individual success in studying first-year human physiology in a subject that emphasises team-based active learning as the major pedagogy for mastering subject learning outcomes. Structural equation modeling was used to...
Source: AJP: Advances in Physiology Education - September 1, 2014 Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Rathner, J. A., Byrne, G. Tags: HOW WE TEACH Source Type: research