Defining and Assessing the Core Principles for Undergraduate Physiology

这个生理学教育工作者团队继续努力开发生理学概念评估，目前正在研究先前确定的15个核心原则中的三个，这些原则是理解这一学科概念的核心。 这三个问题如下：向下流动梯度（物理和热力学）、体内平衡和多细胞系统中的细胞间通讯。 通过面对面和远距离合作，他们收集了与三个原则中的每一个相关的想法的目录，在评估工具中用多项选择题瞄准这些想法，其可靠性和有效性得到优化，并将该工具广泛传播给本科生理学教师。 团队成员的家乡机构从医学院和研究型大学到本科文科和社区学院。 因此，随着评估的发展，它是对广泛的本科生的背景和经验进行测试。 该团队本身代表了一个学者社区，多年来一直在这一共同奋进中有效地合作。 这一评估工具的发展将影响学生学习生理学的测量，同时指导努力改进教学方法，使学生在更大的数字成功。 该项目由生物科学理事会，生物基础设施司和教育和人力资源理事会，本科教育司共同资助，作为他们对本科生物学教育的愿景和变革的努力的一部分。

This team of physiology educators continues its efforts to develop a Conceptual Assessment for Physiology, currently working on three of the 15 core principles previously identified as being central to understanding concepts in this discipline. These three are as follows: flow down gradients (both physical and thermodynamic), homeostasis, and cell-to-cell communication in multicellular systems. Through face-to-face and at-a-distance collaborations, they assemble a catalog of the ideas associated with each of the three principles, target those ideas with multiple-choice questions in an assessment tool whose reliability and validity are optimized, and disseminate that tool widely to undergraduate physiology faculty. Team members' home institutions run the gamut from medical schools and research universities to undergraduate liberal arts and community colleges. Thus, as the assessment develops, it is tested against a broad range of undergraduate student background and experience. The team itself represents a community of scholars that have worked together effectively on this common endeavor for a number of years. The development of this assessment tool will influence the measurement of student learning in physiology while guiding efforts to improve the methods of teaching to permit students to succeed in larger numbers. This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts toward Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education .