Knowing Common Misconceptions About Homeostasis Helps Students' Learning

Homeostasis is a core concept in physiology that students must understand and use as they learn physiology. When students enter a physiology course, they have commonly held ideas about homeostasis that may be inaccurate. If we instructors are aware of students' misconceptions, we can focus our teaching on helping the students correct their misconceptions. We conducted surveys and interviews of physiology students and a cohort of faculty at 2‐ and 4‐year colleges, universities, and medical schools to identify common student conceptions about homeostasis. We wrote multiple‐choice questions to assess the conceptual understanding and to diagnosis misconceptions that students have concerning homeostasis. The responses of thirty‐one faculty members at a 2012 Human Anatomy and Physiology Annual Conference provided qualitative evidence of clusters of students' misconceptions. These clusters were similar to the misconceptions determined from our previous surveys and interviews. We aligned common clusters of student misconceptions with the conceptual framework we have developed about homeostasis. We will summarize some of the major trends, patterns, and findings that came from this alignment. We will present data about the connections between the challenges that make understanding homeostasis difficult and misconceptions. Supported by NSF DUE1043443.