Evaluation of core concepts of physiology in undergraduate physiology curricula: results from faculty and student surveys

Abstract

Unlike other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) disciplines, program guidelines for undergraduate physiology degree programs have yet to be firmly established. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of physiology core concepts within undergraduate physiology curricula to discern whether a common subset could be broadly recommended for inclusion in programmatic guidelines. A curricular survey tool was developed to evaluate the depth to which each core concept was included in physiology curricula. Seven self-selected physiology programs assessed core concept inclusion across all courses within the major (0 = not covered, 1 = minimally covered, and 2 = covered to a great extent). The top core concepts ranked by each institution varied considerably, but all were robustly represented across programs. The top five combined rankings for all institutions were as follows: 1) interdependence (1.47 ± 0.63); 2) structure/function (1.46 ± 0.72); 3) homeostasis (1.45 ± 0.71); 4) scientific reasoning (1.44 ± 0.70); and 5) cell-cell communication (1.38 ± 0.75). No common subset of specific core concepts was evident among the seven participating institutions. Next, results were compared with recent Physiology Majors Interest Group (P-MIG) faculty and student surveys that ascertained perceptions of the top five most important core concepts. Three core concepts (homeostasis, structure/function, cell-cell communication) appeared in the top five in more than one-half of survey questions included. We recommend that future programmatic guidelines focus on inclusion of the core concepts of physiology as general models to scaffold learning in physiology curricula, but the programmatic guidelines should allow flexibility in the core concepts emphasized based on program objectives.

The 2019 P-MIG Student Survey report and capturing the undergraduate perspective of physiology programming

“…Survey participants reported a moderate understanding to mastery of individual core concepts more frequently than recognition. Most core concepts, therefore, appear to be represented across physiology coursework consistent with the P-MIG curriculum survey results and what faculty report they are teaching in their physiology coursework (15). Two general observations arose from evaluation of student perceptions of core concepts.…”

“…In recent years, the P-MIG Curriculum Committee has evaluated the use of the core concepts of physiology in physiology curricula (6,8,15). The pilot 2018 Student Survey asked participants to rate 1) the extent to which each core concept had been learned in a physiology course, and 2) the importance of each core concept based on its relevance to a future career, using a five-choice Likert scale, ranging from unimportant to vitally important.…”

“…To set a firm foundation from which to develop physiology program-level guidelines, P-MIG has curated a wide range of resources examining the current state of undergraduate physiology education. Examples of input sources and formalized assessments include the following: characterization of known physiology program characteristics via evaluation of internetbased resources (16), robust discussions among attendees at P-MIG annual meetings and in conjunction with presentations at conferences hosted by other societies (American Physiological Society, Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology), P-MIG committee work, and faculty surveys (5,7,15).…”

Where do we go from here: a forward-thinking vision for physiology undergraduate education

“…To address this, P-MIG has spent several years locating institutions with physiology and physiology-related degree programs, collecting data about the characteristics and course requirements (for details about institutions and degree programs, see Refs. 16,18). As shown in this special collection, programs vary from a series of physiology courses within a general major, such as Biological Sciences, to well-defined physiology-specific majors.…”

“…It is an independent consortium that welcomes anyone interested in physiology education at the level of the undergraduate degree in physiology and physiology-related fields. As demonstrated by this special collection of papers of Advances in Physiology Education, P-MIG has already made substantial progress in three areas: 1) developing curricular guidelines based on core concepts in physiology (8,10,13,17,18,21); 2) developing guidelines for professional skills for our students and surveying advising practices (7,9,19); and 3) using survey data to learn about physiology educators and physiology (3,16,22).…”