Advances in Physiology Education, Vol 263, Issue 6 33-S36, Copyright © 1992 by American Physiological Society
The Predictions Table: a tool for assessing students' knowledge
A. A. Rovick and J. A. Michael
Department of Physiology, Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois 60612.
The Predictions Table (PT), a tool for determining students' knowledge, is
described. The PT is a matrix consisting of a group of variables and a set
of time periods. Students enter in the PT their qualitative predictions of
the effects of a perturbation on a physiological system. The instructor or
a teaching program can then evaluate the students' knowledge from these
entries. An example is given from the teaching program CIRCSIM, which deals
with blood pressure regulation. It shows the way that the program uses
errors in the students' PT entries. CIRCSIM was evaluated and was found to
have a statistically significant effect. It reduced the number of errors
that students made in predicting the responses of the cardiovascular system
to a perturbation. Also, students who worked in groups had significantly
greater improvement than did control students. Using CIRCSIM also
significantly reduces the number of relationship errors that the students
make. They made even fewer errors when an instructor was present in the
computer classroom while the students used CIRCSIM.
