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How do inquiry‐ based physiology laboratories improve learning in majors versus non‐majors courses?
Author(s) -
Knabb Maureen,
RieserDanner Loretta,
Casotti Giovanni
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.575.3
Subject(s) - curriculum , presentation (obstetrics) , mathematics education , psychology , test (biology) , significant difference , perception , medical education , pedagogy , medicine , biology , paleontology , neuroscience , radiology
We have incorporated inquiry‐based physiology labs in upper level majors and lower level non‐majors courses. Assessment consisted of oral presentations of experiments designed by students and pre‐ and post‐course surveys for both majors and non‐majors. Differences in assessment included inquiry‐based questions on written exams for non‐majors while majors had written lab reports, lab notebooks, and final projects. Assessment results of our pre/post surveys indicated that the change in overall confidence scores from pre‐ to post‐test were statistically significant each semester (p < .001 for 200 non‐ major students and 44 majors). The greatest increase in confidence ratings occurred for those items that were specifically targeted by our curriculum modifications. One important assessment difference between the majors versus non‐majors courses was in student's perceptions of the types of labs that assisted their understanding of physiological content. Majors identified the presentation labs while non‐majors preferred the non‐presentation labs for learning course material. We are currently investigating the use of alternate curricular strategies and assessment tools to effectively incorporate physiology content and inquiry process skills in both majors and non‐majors labs. NSF CCLI 0509161.