Transforming Undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology Education Through the Use of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning

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In the project Transforming Undergraduate Anatomy and Physiology Education Through the Use of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL), a group of 8 educators at 2- and 4-year colleges and universities throughout the upper Midwest have formed a collaboration to revise a course common to all their programs, Human Anatomy and Physiology. They are preparing activities in which students encounter concepts for the first time through examples, case studies, and thought problems. In working through a carefully developed set of questions designed to elicit critical thinking, groups of students develop a common understanding, vocabulary to express that understanding, and the conceptual mastery to apply their understanding to unfamiliar situations. The POGIL strategy was initially developed in chemistry courses. By applying it to Human Anatomy and Physiology, the team influences the learning in a key gateway course to the health professions. Not only do the eight institutions directly involved in the project benefit, the tested activities will be submitted to the central POGIL site and disseminated through the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society to be freely adopted by faculty at other institutions. The requirement that each activity be shown to be effective in a variety of educational settings before it is considered ready to disseminate increases the value to the community of biology educators.