Advances in Physiology Education最新文献

Undergraduate science curricula increasingly emphasize professional competency development alongside disciplinary knowledge. In the physiology capstone laboratory course at Michigan State University, professional skills training is intentionally integrated with human physiology content to prepare students for postgraduate education and diverse career pathways. Students complete weekly professional development activities embedded within laboratory homework and in-class assignments. These activities are structured self-assessments and guided reflections focused on teamwork, communication, leadership, grit, conflict management, time management, critical thinking, and goal setting. Students complete self-assessment surveys aligned with the Michigan State University Career Services Network "12 Essentials for Success" to assess perceived professional skill proficiency. A culminating professional skills summary assignment requires students to synthesize reflections from across the semester and practice articulating transferable competencies for interviews and applications. This integrated approach provides a scalable model for embedding professional skills development within a discipline-specific physiology capstone curriculum.

Muscles can be categorized broadly into striated and smooth muscle types. Physiology textbooks consistently describe how the repeating sarcomeric organization of vertebrate skeletal and cardiac muscle generates a striated appearance. Unfortunately, very few texts discuss the common functional role of this sarcomeric organization. Briefly, the repeating sarcomeres in striated muscles provide a mechanism to amplify the nanometer scale steps of myosin cross bridges into the dynamic large-scale movements embodied by diverse animals. That is, the sarcomeres contracting in unison dramatically expand the speed of muscle shortening. This functional role was recognized by the proponents of the sliding filament theory in the mid-1950's. Striated muscles are found not only in vertebrate skeletal and cardiac muscles but are used to power movement in animals as disparate as jellyfish, clams, swimming crabs, and flying insects. Historically, several different invertebrate muscles have been studied in great detail. Recent studies based on whole sequenced genomes and transcriptome sequencing are providing new evidence that striated muscles evolved at the dawn of animal life. Although there is a deep evolutionary divergence of striated and smooth muscle myosins, striated muscles have likely arisen multiple times through convergent evolution. Several well studied examples of these striated muscles from diverse animals are discussed to illustrate their common functional roles. The central thesis presented here is that striations provide a structural mechanism to amplify the speed of muscle shortening. Comprehending this principle is foundational to the teaching of basic muscle structure and function relationships.

This study explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically ChatGPT, as a self-directed learning tool in an undergraduate physiology-related course within a Speech Therapy program. The aim was to introduce first-year Speech Therapy students (n = 30) to AI technologies, assess their prior knowledge and perceptions, and foster critical thinking regarding AI-generated content, with a focus on evaluating AI literacy both generally and within the context of physiology education. A preliminary survey revealed that 73.3% of students (22 out of 30) had previously used AI, while 93% expressed interest in learning about its academic applications. Students participated in a structured two-hour classroom session to understand how generative AI works, followed by a group task comparing traditional and AI-generated responses to academic questions. Notably, students engaged in a comparative analysis of their own completed work with the AI-generated version. A post-intervention survey indicated that 82% of students learned new aspects of AI use, 86% found the experience helpful, and 95.5% emphasized the importance of verifying AI output with other sources. These findings reflect students' views on both general AI use and physiology-related academic tasks, suggesting that, with proper guidance, undergraduates can critically engage with AI tools and recognize their strengths and limitations. The intervention promoted self-regulated learning, digital literacy, and ethical awareness in the use of AI, laying the groundwork for broader implementation in physiology and biomedical education. Furthermore, the findings suggest that additional faculty training and institutional support could facilitate meaningful integration of AI into higher education programs.

Introduction: Enhancing student retention and conceptual mastery within the undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology (A/P) curriculum serves as a foundational strategy for advancing student readiness in pre-professional pathways. Discipline-specific teaching strategies should be evaluated for how well they support student success in introductory gateway courses such as the A/P series. Our study extends the Learning Assistant model where undergraduate students support learning in the classroom by involving them in active, peer-led teaching to examine its impact on course grades and content learning.

Method and results: Cohort 2 (Spring) students showed significantly higher academic performance than Cohort 1 (Fall), with increased laboratory exam scores and overall course grades (86% vs 77%, p<0.0001). To investigate factors contributing to this improvement, we conducted a student survey of both groups. Cohort 1 experienced the original Learning Assistant model, whereas Cohort 2 participated in an expanded model in which Learning Assistants led weekly review activities during the laboratory sessions. Students in Cohort 2 reported greater improvement in their understanding of course content (82% vs 71%, p<0.05), and across both cohorts, students viewed Learning Assistants as a valuable component of the course.

Conclusion: The active engagement of students in review activities facilitated by Learning Assistants during the laboratory setting was found to be an efficient pedagogical approach to enhancing student learning in Anatomy and Physiology. This is a potential methodology that can enhance the educational experience and retention of students seeking pre-health majors and professional careers.

Pregnancy requires substantial maternal adaptations and increased function of maternal systems including cardiovascular, respiratory and renal systems, to provide nutrients and remove wastes from the conceptus. How the increased nutrient requirements for conceptus growth and increased maternal metabolic rate are met is less well understood than adaptations in some other systems, however. This Staying Current review will therefore provide an overview of nutrient requirements, adaptations in food intake and adaptations in nutrient absorption during pregnancy, to support teaching of these concepts to undergraduate and postgraduate biology, physiology and health science students.

Learner-centered pedagogies are recognized as best practices in education. However, when faculty adopt these approaches in daily instruction, most STEM courses continue to use traditional, high-stakes exams, creating a disconnect if students learn collaboratively but are assessed individually. Collaborative group exams (CGEs) brings the peer interactions of learner-centered instruction to classroom assessments. Prior research has focused on how CGEs influence student learning and content retention, yet relatively less is known about the students' experience during these assessments. In our study we investigated the students' experience to determine whether benefits of CGEs transcend individual classroom contexts. This mixed-methods study explores multiple and diverse metrics representing both student opportunities for learning and student experience across 13 different courses in the undergraduate biology curriculum at a medium, comprehensive US PUI institution. Our findings show that CGEs facilitate peer interactions leading to consistent opportunities for student learning, while maintaining the integrity of the courses' overall assessment of individual learners. Our data suggest that incorporation of CGEs into course structure is a simple and effective way to improve student outcomes and foster positive classroom culture.

Poor sleep health is common amongst university students, but there are diverging viewpoints on whether their sleep loss helps, harms, or has no impact on academic performance. We investigated whether sleep health markers in first year university students predicted longitudinal academic outcomes, when accounting for key variables. First year university students who were pursuing a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career pathway (N=489) were recruited to complete a baseline session that included measures of global sleep quality, chronotype, daytime sleepiness, social jetlag (change in sleep timing from weekdays to weekends), demographics, mental health, and fluid intelligence (reasoning). At the end of Year 1 and Year 2, we extracted data on cumulative grade-point-average (GPA), academic major change, STEM pathway change, and institutional withdrawal. After adjusting for demographic, mental health, and fluid intelligence factors, we observed that worse global sleep quality, evening chronotype, and worse social jetlag independently predicted Year 1 GPA. Global sleep quality also predicted Year 2 GPA, even when accounting for prior academic performance. Students with shorter sleep durations were more likely to switch from their STEM career pathway, even when accounting for academic performance, demographics, mental health, and fluid intelligence. In conclusion, sleep health markers are predictive of better future academic performance and retention in STEM pathways. There is a need for individual and environmental interventions to improve sleep health in first year students and to determine causal direction.

Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) is a structured, competency-based method for assessing practical skills. While OSPE is well established in clinical settings as Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), its feasibility and utility for formative assessment in preclinical subjects like Physiology in India remain underexplored. The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility, utility, and student perceptions of OSPE as a formative assessment tool for practical Physiology competencies. This mixed-methods study was conducted among 100 first-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students. Two OSPE assessments were conducted 1 mo apart. Core certifiable competencies on blood pressure measurement and neurological examination were assessed. Quantitative analysis compared student scores across both assessments. Student perceptions were documented using a feedback questionnaire. Narrative feedback from students was analyzed through thematic analysis. Students performed better on their second OSPE assessment than the first one (P < 0.001) for all but one of the six questions. This may partly reflect a testing effect from reassessment of similar competencies. Questionnaire responses indicated strong agreement on OSPE's fairness (80%) and relevance (97.3%), with 81.3% advocating for its regular use. Thematic analysis highlighted strengths such as objectivity and skill focus, alongside weaknesses (time constraints and limited feedback) and threats (logistical challenges and subject cooperation). OSPE is a feasible and effective formative assessment tool for Physiology within the Indian Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) framework. This work adds context-specific insights from a resource-constrained Indian setting, offering practical directions for sustainable OSPE integration.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study from India evaluates the impact of repeated formative Objective Structured Practical Examinations for assessing physiology competencies under the newly implemented Competency-Based Medical Education curriculum. Using a mixed-methods design, it demonstrates that OSPE not only improves student performance but is also perceived as fair, relevant, and skill oriented. Importantly, the study highlights the possible influence of the testing effect on performance gains and identifies context-specific challenges such as time constraints, subject cooperation, and logistical demands.

Current trends in education advocate for the development of skills alongside knowledge. Biology laboratories serve as essential platforms for developing practical skills and competencies such as data analysis, scientific inquiry, critical thinking, and problem-solving that are crucial for health science students. This article aims to identify a standardized, competency-based biology laboratory curriculum aligned with international educational frameworks. The curriculum may be integrated into undergraduate health curricula across European universities to ensure consistent and high-quality education. A systematic search of university curricula was conducted across 28 European countries and included 138 universities. Eligible programs included medicine, pharmacy, nursing, biology, biomedical sciences, and others. Of the 432 syllabi identified 290 were retrieved, and about half included a laboratory. Course outlines were analyzed for laboratory content and extracted data were summarized. The most frequently integrated laboratories were microscopy, isolation of DNA and PCR, agarose gel electrophoresis, cell division, cell structure and function, lab safety, and using basic lab equipment. Learning objectives for foundational and advanced biology laboratories are presented. The proposed two-semester curriculum maps to the European Tuning and Vision and Change to provide a structured progression from foundational to advanced laboratory techniques. It utilizes digital tools, such as virtual labs and AI, to enhance accessibility and modernize laboratory education. In conclusion, the proposed curriculum provides a practical framework for implementing biology labs providing the foundational knowledge and competencies to prepare students to progress to more advanced topics in other disciplines, including physiology. It ensures consistent skill development across geographical locations, enhancing education quality and preparing students to address global health challenges.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study identifies the most frequently used biology laboratory topics in health-related undergraduate programs across 28 European countries. We propose a standardized two-semester curriculum that strengthens foundational biology skills and advanced molecular methods, grounding students in physiology education. This framework reduces disparities in laboratory training, fosters competency, and prepares students for global health challenges.