Using a Learning Progression Framework and Assessments to Improve Principle‐based Instruction in Physiology

Using scientific principles to reason about biological phenomena is an essential part of scientific thinking. However, students frequently view biology as a discipline full of facts to be memorized without recognizing the fundamental principles that bring coherence to biological phenomena. This can cause students to develop fragmented, superficial knowledge that is topic specific instead of developing rich reasoning frameworks that identify fundamental relationships among elements in complex systems. To address this concern, we created and implemented a principle‐based instructional approach focused on flux (flux ~ gradient/resistance) as a unifying principle that explains material movement across multiple physiological phenomena. We grounded our approach in learning progression research, which uses a cognitive framework of student thinking (i.e., the learning progression) that describes how students' ideas about a topic gain sophistication through time. Learning progressions enrich instruction by aligning three key aspects of instruction: 1) learning outcomes that describe the key behaviors students must exhibit to show proficiency in a topic, 2) formative and summative assessments that evaluate the breadth of student thinking beyond a right/wrong analysis, and 3) instructional strategies that leverage students' emerging ideas in ways that shift them towards sophisticated scientific ideas. We present our learning progression after one round of modeling student thinking about the concept of flux, deploying assessments that elicited a range of student ideas about flux in multiple physiological contexts (i.e., 29 constructed response items to 2956 undergraduate biology students at two R1 institutions and two community colleges ), and analyzing student data for reasoning patterns. We show how this process helped us: 1) better define learning outcomes that captured key reasoning hurdles students must overcome to achieve proficiency in flux topics, 2) develop and revise assessment items that could elicit sophisticated student reasoning about flux, and 3) create instructional tools that guide students towards principle‐based reasoning approaches. Learning to reason with scientific principles and recognizing fundamental patterns across biological systems is a key shift in student thinking that moves students away from novice views towards more expert‐like thinking necessary for successful biology careers in STEM fields. Support or Funding Information NSF DUE 1661263 This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .