Physiology Core Concepts: Teaching for Conceptual Understanding

1. Physiology Core Concepts: Teaching for Conceptual Understanding Jenny McFarland, PhD Edmonds Community College Human Physiology Department seminar University of Oregon10 May 2019

2. Land Acknowledgement As we begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional land of the Kalapuya People.

3. Physiology Core Concepts Team The Physiology Core Concepts project team began working together over a decade ago, physiologyconcepts.org • Joel Michael (Rush Medical School) • Harold Modell (Physiology Educational Research Consortium, PERC) • Mary Pat Wenderoth (University of Washington – Seattle) • Bill Cliff (Niagara University) • the late Ann Wright (Canisius College) NSF grant DUE-104344 This work is aligned with the • recommendations of Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians (SFFP) & Vision & Change (V&C) • Physiology Majors Interest Group (P-MIG), Erica Wehrwein & others https://www.physiologymajors.org/ • Partnership for Undergraduate Life Science Education, PULSE http://www.pulsecommunity.org/ 3

4. Overview Thank you for the invitation to discuss Core Concepts for Undergraduate Physiology. Brief Outline: • First, an opportunity to reflect on how we change our teaching over time and the challenge of the overwhelming pile of fascinating facts we offer to our students. • Second, an introduction to Core Concepts. • Third, a description of Conceptual Frameworks to frame teaching & learning of physiology • Finally, the development of student Learning Progressions for a specific physiology core concept.

5. How have you changed your teaching? “Thinking about your [] teaching career over the years, what would you say are the big directions of change in your teaching, if any, and what has caused you to move in those directions?” Beyer et al 2013

6. Learning “Its what you learn after you know it all that matters most.” “We must get our players to believe that the best way to improve the team is to improve themselves, and in doing so we must not lose sight of the fact that the same principle holds true in regard to the coach.” Nate & Gallimore 2006

7. What have you learned recently? What have you learned about learning in the last year or two? “Its what you learn after you know it all that matters most.” Nate & Gallimore 2006

8. “Not just a pile of facts” Pile of Stones, Hatterall Ridge (border of Wales & England)

9. Not just a pile of facts ... “Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.” – Henri Poincaré Facts are important, but like stones, we must first understand the framework in which the facts will be used. Teaching and learning for conceptual understanding requires a framework within which the facts can be organized to serve specific conceptual learning goals. La Science et l'Hypothèse (2001), English translation: Science and Hypothesis (1905), Dover abridged edition (1952)

10. What do we want our students to be able to do? What do we want our students to be able to do & what will they need to know to be able to do this? Do we need to use all of the rocks? Are there things we ask students to know which are not necessary in helping them do what we are asking them to do? How can we help student focus on building robust conceptual understanding instead memorizing hundreds of facts?

11. Core Concepts

12. Core Concepts in Biology (Vision & Change) The Vision & Change report identified 5 core concepts for undergraduate biology. • Evolution • Structure and Function • Pathways & transformations of energy and matter • Information flow, exchange and storage • Systems: Living systems are interconnected and interacting pulsecommunity.org. AAAS 2011

13. Core Competencies for Medicine The Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians (SFFP) report identified competencies for Medical School and Pre-med preparation. • Homeostasis: E7, Explain how organisms sense and control their internal environment and how they respond to external change. • Evolution: E8, Demonstrate an understanding of how the organizing principle of evolution by natural selection explains the diversity of life on earth. These are common core concepts among our Physiology Core Concepts, Vision & Change Core Concepts & SFFP Core Competencies. AAMC 2009

14. Physiology General Models In 2000, Harold Modell described 7 general models for analyzing physiological mechanisms • Control systems (including homeostasis) • Cell-to-cell communication • Mass & heat flow (Flux or “flow down gradients”) • Transport across membranes • Conservation of mass (‘mass balance’) • Elastic properties of tissues • Molecular interaction Modell 2000

15. History of Physiology Core Concepts • Conceptual Assessment in Biology (CAB) meetings (2007, 2008, 2010) • Our deliberations on core concepts of physiology (2007-2009) • Surveys of physiology teaching faculty (2008-2011) • Discussions and workshops at Experimental Biology / APS Institutes on Teaching and Learning and HAPS meetings (2007-2019) The work of our physiology core concepts team overlapped with other efforts including the meetings (2007-2009) that lead to the Vision and Change and Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians (SFFP) reports. Michael, McFarland & Wright 2008; Michael et al. 2009

16. How we identified Physiology Core Concepts Physiology core concepts were identified from surveys of physiology faculty at 2-year colleges, 4-year colleges & universities and medical or other professional schools. • Open ended surveys asking what physiology faculty, what are the core concepts or big ideas in undergraduate physiology. • Two readers read each response and extracted ideas expressed in the >90 open-ended responses • Identified common physiology core concepts • Asked the 90 respondents to respond to another Likert scale survey and asked them to choose their top 3 core concepts for undergraduate physiology education. Michael et al. 2017

17. Physiology Core Concepts Most of this work is published in several papers in Advances in Physiology Education. The book was published on behalf of The American Physiological Society by Springer. Free to download for APS members! Profits from sales goes to APS, not the authors. Michael et al. 2017

18. Physiology Core Concepts Physiology core concepts identified from physiology faculty surveys, listed alphabetically. Michael and McFarland 2011

19. V&C and Physiology Core Concepts Overlap of Vision and Change and Physiology Core Concepts Semsar et al. 2011

20. Physiology Core Concepts are NOT • an attempt to systematically define the science of physiology. • intended to define the content of a physiology course. • intended to define the content of a physiology curriculum. • set in stone or definitive, but a consensus of a distributed group at a particular point in time Michael et al. 2017

21. Physiology Core Concepts can be used • by faculty in designing and teaching a physiology course. • by programs or departments in developing a curriculum. • by students to scaffold their knowledge as they gain mastery in physiology. Core concepts, conceptual frameworks and concept inventories are intended to assist teaching and learning of physiology; we value utility and the ability to revisit these tools over time. Michael et al. 2017

22. Physiology Core Concepts–Ranking 61 physiology faculty ranked the core concepts for the 2011 paper Michael and McFarland 2011

23. Physiology Core Concepts–Ranking Which of these core concepts are most important in your department? Michael and McFarland 2011

24. Physiology Core Concepts–Ranking Jennifer Rogers (PMIG faculty survey results) 2019; Michael and McFarland 2011

25. What should your students be able to DO at end of class? What evidence do you collect to show that they can DO it? What practice do you design to help them gain skill? Backward Design LEARNING OUTCOME ASSESSMENT CLASS ACTIVITIES Wiggins and McTighe 1998

26. Core Concepts in Backwards Design • Core Concepts, Enduring Understandings, General Models, Big Ideas … are what we want students to understand and be able to apply long after they leave our courses. How are core concepts related to Backwards Design? • Understanding and being able to use Core Concepts … should be the learning outcomes that guide teaching, learning and program design.

27. What should your students be able to DO at end of class? What evidence do you collect to show that they can DO it? What practice do you design to help them gain skill? Backward Design LEARNING OUTCOME– Core concepts not just a “pile of facts” ASSESSMENT CLASS ACTIVITIES Wiggins and McTighe 1998

28. How can we help students acquire factual knowledge AND conceptual understanding? The “Pile of Facts” approach: • Physiology has been traditionally taught using a textbook as a scaffold. • Instructor marches through the chapters, organized by organ system, with students in tow. Traditional instructional paradigm: explanation of the physiological function of anatomical structures.

29. Conceptual Frameworks

30. What are Conceptual Frameworks? A core concept can be “unpacked” to into smaller component ideas to form conceptual framework. A conceptual framework • is a hierarchical structure of a core concept, • that “unpacks” a concept into constituent ideas, • organizes knowledge and general principles, • makes explicit tacit knowledge & assumptions, • builds connections to prior knowledge, and • enables development of conceptual understanding. McFarland et al. 2016

31. A Conceptual Framework is NOT • a description of the content of a course or a section of the course. • prescriptive It is a tool that can be used in a variety of ways to facilitate student learning.

32. Conceptual Frameworks for Physiology We have “unpacked” three of the most important physiology core concepts into conceptual frameworks. & two more are in progress: • Flow down gradients or Flux – Michael & McFarland 2011 • Homeostasis – McFarland et al. 2016 • Cell-Cell Communication – Michael et al. 2017 • Mass Balance – The quantity of “stuff” in any system, or in a compartment in a system, is determined by the inputs to and the outputs from that system or compartment. • Cell Membrane – Cell plasma membranes are complex structures that determine what substances enter or leave the cell. They are essential for cell signaling, transport, and other processes. physiologyconcepts.org

33. Conceptual Framework for Flow Down Gradients aka Flux • Flow is the movement of “stuff” from one point in a system to another point in the system . • Flow occurs because of the existence of an energy gradient between two points in the system. • More than one gradient may determine the magnitude and direction of the flow A. Osmotic (concentration gradient) and hydrostatic pressures together determine flow across capillary walls. B. Concentration gradients and electrical gradients determine ion flow through channels in cell membranes of neurons and muscle cells. • The magnitude of the flow is a direct function of the magnitude of the energy gradient that is present; the larger the gradient, the greater the flow. • There is resistance or opposition to flow in all systems. Michael & McFarland 2011

34. Structure of a Conceptual Framework The Cell-Cell Communication core concept was unpacked into 7 critical components. There are more than thirty items in this framework. Michael et al. 2017

35. Hierarchical levels of Conceptual Framework • The core concept is the big idea, e.g. cell-cell communications. • The critical components are aspects of the concept that are essential for building an accurate mental model of this core concept. • The constituentideas are elements that are necessary to develop a working understanding of each critical component of the core concept of homeostasis for undergraduate physiology education. • The cell-cell communications conceptual framework has an additional level: elaborations. Michael et al. 2017

36. Survey Analysis for Conceptual Frameworks • The Cell-Cell Communication Framework was reviewed by 37 physiology faculty. • We computed a mean of the Likert scale ratings (5, Essential; 4, Important; 3, Moderately Important; 2, Slightly Important; 1, Not Important) for each item. • In addition, we calculated the percentage of all respondents who selected 5 (Essential) for each item. • In the published framework, each item that less than 30% of the respondents considered to be essential is marked with an asterisk (*). Michael et al. 2017

37. Example from part of Cell-Cell Communication Michael et al. 2017

38. Using Conceptual Frameworks? How can conceptual frameworks be used in teaching and learning?

39. Conceptual Frameworks can be used By Departments • to direct physiology course design • for curriculum mapping of concepts thru several courses, to reinforce & scaffold concepts across courses and to identify overlap and omissions By Instructors to • reveal connections between core concepts and ideas • uncover assumptions & experts’ tacit knowledge explicit • align learning outcomes with assessments & instruction By Students to • construct accurate & complete mental models of concepts • to scaffold their understanding of core concepts as they move thru the curriculum, to build on lower level courses McFarland et al. 2016

40. Core Concepts • can scaffold teaching and learning, for instructors and students. • can guide teaching and learning so that factual knowledge can be introduced to support conceptual understanding. • and conceptual frameworks can help to align learning outcomes (conceptual understanding), assessment & instruction. • finally, core concepts can be used in physiology education research to explore student learning and to aid instruction & assessment.

41. Learning Progressions for Core Concepts

42. Learning Progressions for Physiology Concepts Current physiology education research: Jennifer Doherty, Emily Scott, Jack Cerchiara & Mary Pat Wenderoth at University of Washington Seattle are characterizing Learning Progressions for Undergraduate Physiology (LeaP UP) for two core concepts: • Mass Balance • Flux

43. What is a Learning Progression? • Learning progressions are descriptions of successively more sophisticated ways of thinking about a topic. • They are anchored on one end by what we know about student reasoning upon entering our programs: This “lower anchor” is empirical. • And are anchored on the other end by what we want students to understand when they graduate: This “upper anchor” is based on expert judgement. Doherty J. et al. SABER West 2018

44. Why develop a Learning Progression? • Learning Progression Framework • can lead to Assessment Tools to reveal student reasoning • enable development of Teaching Tools and Strategies to help students transition between levels Doherty J. et al. SABER West 2018

45. Developing an Undergraduate LP Framework Doherty J. et al. SABER West 2018

46. Example of Student Reasoning for Flux In the figure, there is net movement of K+ ions out of the cell (as indicated by arrow). What can we change to cause net movement of K+ INTO the cell? Identify as many ways as you can and explain how each causes K+ to move into the cell. Doherty J. et al. SABER West 2018

47. Intermediate Level Student Reasoning for Flux In the figure, there is net movement of K+ ions out of the cell (as indicated by arrow). What can we change to cause net movement of K+ INTO the cell? Identify as many ways as you can and explain how each causes K+ to move into the cell. Doherty J. et al. SABER West 2018

48. Higher Level Student Reasoning for Flux In the figure, there is net movement of K+ ions out of the cell (as indicated by arrow). What can we change to cause net movement of K+ INTO the cell? Identify as many ways as you can and explain how each causes K+ to move into the cell. Doherty J. et al. SABER West 2018

49. Importance of Colleagues We originally set out to describe core concepts for undergraduate physiology. Along the way ... • An external evaluator suggested that conceptual frameworks were necessary to our work and useful for faculty and students and important ‘product’. • Dee Silverthorn asked us to write a book for APS. • Kate Semsar and others used them to develop assessments. • Erica Wehrwein brought us into the physiology majors interest group, P-MIG, & are surveying departments. • Jennifer Doherty came to Seattle with a background in learning progressions and became interested in some of these physiology core concepts.

50. Like-minded Colleagues Find “like-minded colleagues to form a team willing to work on improving classroom teaching and learning.” – John Wooden Who are your “like-minded colleagues”, help you reflect on and improve teaching & learning? Nate & Gallimore 2006