Tertiary Anatomy and Physiology, A Barrier for Student Success

Abstract

Anatomy and physiology courses are a foundation for numerous degrees, but experience some of the highest failure rates of all undergraduate health science programs (Higgins-Opitz & Tufts, 2014). While interventions have been developed in an attempt to remediate this concerning phenomenon, there is a paucity of evidence to determine the reason anatomy and physiology courses pose such an obstacle to students, and whether there are reliable early determinants for student success in these courses. This review will discuss why this obstacle exists, and the factors that contribute to success and failure in undergraduate anatomy and physiology courses.

A Review of Self-Regulated Learning and Self-Efficacy: The Key to Tertiary Transition in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

“…The ability to distinguish between effective and ineffective study strategies based on feedback is of utmost importance for secondary school leavers transitioning to tertiary education (Abbott-Chapman et al, 1992;Beaumont et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2010) Increased student autonomy and independence of study across all learning domains at university can be both confronting and difficult to master (Van der Meer et al, 2010;Vitali, Blackmore, Mortazavi and Anderton 2020). Often accompanying this learning environment transition is academic difficulty and an increased possibility of failure (Hall & Sverdlik, 2016;Alspaugh, 1998;Vitali et al, 2020). Specifically, introductory anatomy and physiology courses, a major component of STEM foundational courses, experience some of the highest failure rates across undergraduate courses (Higgins-Opitz & Tufts, 2014).…”

“…However, the need to understand student learning patterns is based on far more than just the potential ramifications of an unsuccessful transition to university. Research suggests that learners' academic potential does not consistently reflect their academic outcomes (Mahmud, 2014;Sullivan & Guerra, 2007;Zimmerman, 1990), which implies that intrinsic factors such as self-efficacy (Locke & Latham, 2002) and the ability to self-regulate (Boekaerts, 1999), may influence the pathway of academic outcomes (Schunk, 2005;Vitali et al, 2020). Students need to make accurate self-efficacious judgements about their learning in order to evaluate the effectiveness of their learning strategies or to decide when they have sufficiently completed a learning task.…”

The Anatomy of Persistence: Remediation and Science Identity Perceptions in Undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology

“…While previous work highlights problems with retention and remediation within A&P courses (Gultice et al, 2015), much evidence that exists about A&P attrition and retention is anecdotal or highly contextual, and further investigation is warranted to define the scope of this issue. Our study is similarly contextual and limited in that it occurred over one semester with a homogeneous population of students; thus, we were unable to look at potential demographic effects reported elsewhere, such as gender (Schutte, 2016;Vitali et al, 2020). Our use of final course grade as a proxy for academic success in our regression models is another limitation, as course grade does not necessarily capture student learning, but instead is only one facet of academic success (Schinske & Tanner, 2014).…”

“…Undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) courses are biology service courses that cover introductory biological topics related to human anatomy and homeostasis for students studying to enter nursing and allied health fields. Anecdotally, these courses are rife with student retention problems (Griff, 2016;Vitali, Blackmore, Mortazavi, & Anderton, 2020). While high school under-preparation contributes to poor performance in these introductory classes (Anderton, Evans, & Chivers, 2016), it does not account for much of the variance that explains the traditionally high Drop-Fail-Withdraw (DFW) rate in A&P courses (Gultice, Witham, & Kallmeyer, 2015).…”

“…A&P courses cover disciplinary topics known to be academically challenging for undergraduate students (Slominski, Grindberg, & Momsen, 2019;Sturges & Maurer, 2013), but examining factors that contribute to student success in these courses, such as student affect and college course preparation (Harris, Hannum, & Gupta, 2004), is one step in exploring how to tangibly support students so they can make progress toward their personal ambitions. Additionally, early identification of students who may be at risk for needing remediation (Vitali et al, 2020) and exploring both affective and academic at-risk factors may better support students' progress in their allied health programs (Goradia & Bugarcic, 2019). Indeed, calls to investigate affect in biology education contexts suggest that affect could help inform or possibly predict how students succeed in biology courses like A&P (Flowers & Banda, 2016;Trujillo & Tanner, 2014).…”