First-year medical students' naïve beliefs about respiratory physiology

Badenhorst, Elmi; Mamede, Sílvia; Abrahams, Amaal; Bugarith, Kishor; Friedling, Louise Jacqui; Gunston, Geney; Kelly-Laubscher, Roisin; Schmidt, Henk G.

doi:10.1152/advan.00193.2015

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…A possible explanation could be that some students are not able to apply their knowledge to organs that cannot be seen or to structures at the micro level. This same misconception was reported by Badenhorst et al (2016) in a study concerning the naïve beliefs of first-year medical students regarding respiratory physiology.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Understanding Pre-Service Teacher Conceptual Knowledge of Human Nutrition Processes Through Drawings

Reinoso

Iglesias

2020

JBSE

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Teachers' subject matter knowledge is a substantive component of the teaching-learning process. For a teacher to be able to transform and integrate into the classroom all the knowledge and experience they have acquired in the course of the professional activity, it is first necessary to acquire a deep and solid knowledge of the matter. The aim of the research was to analyse the understanding that pre-service teachers have about the physiology and anatomy of the human body. The alternative conceptions that pre-service teachers held about the nutritional function in living beings were also explored. The research was conducted on a biology course of the Primary Education Bachelor’s Degree during the 2018/2019 academic year. Drawings and open-ended questions were collected from 96 pre-service teachers. The results reveal that the students surveyed have limited knowledge of the subject before entering university. The use of drawing proved to be an excellent tool for detecting previous conceptions and evaluating the progression made by the students in their learning. Numerous alternative conceptions were identified among the students, thus demonstrating the need to think about the scientific methodology used to teach these contents. Keywords: alternative conceptions, human body, human nutrition, pre-service teacher’s drawings, subject matter knowledge

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Understanding Pre-Service Teacher Conceptual Knowledge of Human Nutrition Processes Through Drawings

Reinoso

Iglesias

2020

JBSE

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“…Whereas Phys-MAPS is not solely based in human physiology, it is highly conceptually relevant to the field, and first-year medical students often have naive conceptions of the most difficult concepts on Phys-MAPS, such as homeostasis (e.g., Ref. 7).…”

Section: Recommended Usementioning

confidence: 99%

Phys-MAPS: a programmatic physiology assessment for introductory and advanced undergraduates

Semsar

Brownell

Couch

et al. 2019

Advances in Physiology Education

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We describe the development of a new, freely available, online, programmatic-level assessment tool, Measuring Achievement and Progress in Science in Physiology, or Phys-MAPS ( http://cperl.lassp.cornell.edu/bio-maps ). Aligned with the conceptual frameworks of Core Principles of Physiology, and Vision and Change Core Concepts, Phys-MAPS can be used to evaluate student learning of core physiology concepts at multiple time points in an undergraduate physiology program, providing a valuable longitudinal tool to gain insight into student thinking and aid in the data-driven reform of physiology curricula. Phys-MAPS questions have a modified multiple true/false design and were developed using an iterative process, including student interviews and physiology expert review to verify scientific accuracy, appropriateness for physiology majors, and clarity. The final version of Phys-MAPS was tested with 2,600 students across 13 universities, has evidence of reliability, and has no significant statement biases. Over 90% of the physiology experts surveyed agreed that each Phys-MAPS statement was scientifically accurate and relevant to a physiology major. When testing each statement for bias, differential item functioning analysis demonstrated only a small effect size (<0.008) of any tested demographic variable. Regarding student performance, Phys-MAPS can also distinguish between lower and upper division students, both across different institutions (average overall scores increase with each level of class standing; two-way ANOVA, P < 0.001) and within each of three sample institutions (each ANOVA, P ≤ 0.001). Furthermore, at the level of individual concepts, only evolution and homeostasis do not demonstrate the typical increase across class standing, suggesting these concepts likely present consistent conceptual challenges for physiology students.

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“…There is empirical evidence of the existence of misconceptions in medical education. Biomedical misconceptions have been investigated mainly in physiology, particularly in the respiratory (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) and cardiovascular systems (11,13,(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cardiovascular system poses particular conceptual difficulties, specifically with integrating anatomical and physiological knowledge (23), assimilating the role of biochemical and physiological processes (18,19), and drawing on a coherent understanding of physics and chemistry (21). Studies about respiratory misconceptions found that medical students draw on teleological explanations to describe breathing (12,25), they struggle to understand the mechanics of breathing (9,12), and they have misconceptions related to the underlying physiological processes (15,26). Research on misconceptions in the field of cell biology and histology is limited and mainly focuses on conceptual difficulties students experience with regards to cell processes, genes, and chromosomes (27)(28)(29)(30).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What happens to misunderstandings of biomedical concepts across a medical curriculum?

Badenhorst

Mamede

Abrahams

et al. 2021

Advances in Physiology Education

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Research on the extent and nature of commonly misunderstood fundamental biomedical concepts across a medical curriculum is scarce. These misunderstandings could point toward robust misconceptions. We examined first whether common misunderstandings persist throughout a medical curriculum, followed by a fine-grained analysis to identify their nature. We designed and administered a 2-tier test to 987 medical students across our curriculum, with 8 questions covering the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, cell division, and homeostatic processes. Proportions of incorrect responses were computed. Four questions where misunderstandings persisted were further qualitatively analyzed. A one-way ANOVA showed the proportion of incorrect responses decreased significantly by students’ academic year [ F(6, 986) = 96.05, P < 0.001]. While novices and end-of -first-year students showed similar proportion of incorrect responses ( P > 0.05), incorrect responses decreased significantly between first years and second years ( P < 0.001). Thereafter, the proportion of incorrect responses remained stable from second to final year ( P > 0.05), with ∼35% of incorrect responses. Five questions showed no decrease of incorrect responses between second and final years, with two questions where final year students performed marginally better than novices. A Chi-square analysis, with Bonferroni post hoc test, showed certain misunderstandings appeared frequently across the curriculum. The qualitative analysis of the open-ended questions yielded 15 categories of common misunderstandings of fundamental biomedical concepts in all years of training. If educators become aware of commonly misunderstood biomedical concepts, preventative measures could be taken to prevent robust misconceptions.

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First-year medical students' naïve beliefs about respiratory physiology

Cited by 10 publications

References 14 publications

Understanding Pre-Service Teacher Conceptual Knowledge of Human Nutrition Processes Through Drawings

Understanding Pre-Service Teacher Conceptual Knowledge of Human Nutrition Processes Through Drawings

Phys-MAPS: a programmatic physiology assessment for introductory and advanced undergraduates

What happens to misunderstandings of biomedical concepts across a medical curriculum?

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