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Introductory Anatomy Laboratory Teaching, Correlations Between Contact Hours and Student Success
Author(s) -
Oh Alice Joowon,
Georger Lesley,
Rokitka Elizabeth M,
Holz Jonathan,
Olivieri Nina R,
Stephen Frank,
Olivieri Marion P
Publication year - 2017
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.31.1_supplement.732.4
Subject(s) - graduation (instrument) , medical education , tutor , psychology , medicine , mathematics education , engineering , mechanical engineering
Anatomy is a critical subject for medical and health care education. Many colleges require minimum grades, only some schools allow repeating courses without penalty. The high stakes cause borderline students, often underclassmen, to withdraw to avoid low grades. Those that master the subject have better opportunity to earn admission into desired programs, while others have to face reassessment of career and life goals while potentially dealing with academic, scholarship and financial aid probations or dismissal from programs and/or college sometimes indefinitely. Repeating courses may impact student indebtedness, financial aid access, full‐time status, scholarships, and graduation conferral dates. Effective teaching methods continue to be debated among educators. At D'Youville College, introductory anatomy laboratory classes have traditionally employed full‐time faculty utilizing models, slides, digital images and student cat dissection. During the fall semester of 2014, without adding material, an additional hour was added to the laboratory sessions. In 2015 peer‐tutor availability was increased during open laboratory sessions. In 2016, with addition of a new anatomy masters program, the masters candidates were employed as assistants in the teaching laboratories and to proctor open laboratory sessions often on the weekends. The objectives are to prepare better anatomy teachers as well as improve the success rate of our students. Each laboratory section includes a masters degree candidate to work alongside the faculty to assist students. In order to indicate relationships between the feline dissections and human anatomy, during class, the graduate students present a pro‐section of a human cadaver for comparison. With the added contact time, z‐tests indicated a statistically significant difference (p< 0.0001) in the withdrawal rate that was reduced from 36% to 21%. Comparing the combined fall 2013 and 2014 withdrawal rate to the combined fall 2015 and 2016 it is shown that increasing the contact hours of the faculty and graduate students inside and outside the classroom is associated with an increase in student course completion. Support or Funding Information Work supported by the Department of Biology and Mathematics, D'Youville College.