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EDITORIAL
Advances in Physiology Education
As Advances begins its second year in the electronic format, you will notice some changes. The sections have been revised to more accurately reflect the submissions that we receive. Readers are encouraged to read the descriptions below and consider writing up their educational innovations and research for publication. All too often, we work in isolation and fail to share our good ideas with colleagues outside our own institutions.
We are also adding a new feature to take advantage of the electronic format. Each article in Advances will have a bulletin board in the Archives of Teaching Resources on the American Physiology Society web site. Readers are invited to post signed comments and questions about the article in this location. If you are not familiar with the Archives, please read the guest editorial by Rob Carroll in this issue.
A brief description of the new sections of the journal follows.
HOW WE TEACH
These papers are descriptions of strategies for teaching and assessment, in which authors state the educational problem addressed and describe the intervention. The project should have explicit pedagogical justification arising from learning theory or published research findings. References to these should be cited.
The paper should include information about the educational context in which the intervention took place, a description of the content, and sufficient detail of how the strategy was implemented to allow readers to duplicate the intervention. Evaluation of the strategy’s success is highly desirable. This may include student and teacher perceptions as well as quantitative assessment of the strategy’s effects on learning. When appropriate, statistical analysis of quantitative assessment should be included. Ideas about teaching that are too limited to warrant a full paper may be submitted for publication in Illuminations (see below).
TEACHING IN THE LABORATORY
Peer-reviewed papers in this section usually fall into two categories. How We Teach in the Laboratory papers should meet the criteria described in the How We Teach section. Curriculum and Materials papers are more descriptive contributions that describe innovative laboratory activities for students and suggestions for constructing or adapting equipment or existing curriculum. Contributors who have ideas they would like to share but who do not feel their information warrants a peer-reviewed paper are encouraged to submit their ideas to Illuminations (see below).
TEACHING WITH PROBLEMS & CASES
Peer-reviewed papers in this section fall into two categories. How We Teach Using Problems and Cases papers should meet the criteria described in the How We Teach section. Problems and Cases are actual problems or cases described in their entirety with detailed teaching notes. The notes should include classroom management, follow-up activities, and references for background reading or follow-up so that readers can adopt the case or problem without additional information. Papers containing cases and problems will be linked to the Archives of Teaching Resources.
Contributors who have small ideas they would like to share are encouraged to submit their ideas to Illuminations (see below). These might include short problems that test for conceptual understanding or descriptions of articles in the primary literature that readers might use for class discussions.
TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Peer-reviewed papers submitted to this section discuss teaching and learning by use of the web, computers, and other forms of multimedia. These papers should include the rationale for using technology to teach a particular topic, detailed information about resources, the educational context in which the activity took place, and sufficient detail of how the technology was used to allow readers to attempt to duplicate the activity. Evaluation of the success of the activity is highly desirable. This may include students’ and teachers’ perceptions as well as quantitative assessment of the activity’s effects on learning. When appropriate, statistical analysis of quantitative assessment should be included.
A new feature in this section will be reviews of teaching software. Readers who would like to submit reviews or descriptions of software they have used are asked to contact the Associate Editor in charge of this section, Robert Kemm, at r.kemm{at}physiology.unimelb.edu.au.
HOW WE LEARN
This section will contain information about educational research and educational psychology that is pertinent to physiology education. It will include reviews of the findings of educational research, with discussion of their potential applicability to teaching and learning physiology. Readers who would like to write reviews for this section are asked to contact the Associate Editor in charge, Penelope Hansen, at phansen{at}mun.ca.
How We Learn will also include book reviews on topics of interest to educators. In each issue there will be a short feature describing books and recent articles of interest. Readers who would like to suggest articles or books to be listed should contact the Associate Editor in charge of that feature, Mary Anne Rokitka, at pgyrokit{at}buffalo.edu.
A PERSONAL VIEW
These peer-reviewed papers are substantive essays that present historical, geographical, or philosophical perspectives on physiology education. They are sometimes provocative and always scholarly, pointed, candid, and reflective.
STAYING CURRENT
This section will help teachers stay current by reviewing recent research advances. Each issue will include an invited short review paper that focuses on research findings that herald new directions in a field. These papers will highlight the important concepts that should be taught to students. Readers who have requests for topics to be covered in this feature or who would like to write a review about their research field are encouraged to contact the Editor.
Other features in the Staying Current section will include a list and links to review articles of interest. Articles that organize the content of physiology for problem-centered learning, such as papers and abstracts from the annual Refresher Course held at the Experimental Biology meeting, will be published in this section.
ILLUMINATIONS
As educators, we are continually designing new methods and procedures to enhance learning. During this process, good ideas are frequently generated and tested, but the extent of such activities may not be adequate for a full manuscript. Illuminations is a feature designed to facilitate the sharing of these ideas. The format of submissions is quite simple: a succinct description of about one or two double-spaced pages (less title and authorship) of something you have used for the classroom, teaching lab, conference room, etc. You may include one or two simple figures or references. Submit ideas for inclusion in Illuminations directly to the Associate Editor in charge, Stephen DiCarlo, at sdicarlo{at}med.wayne.edu.
MISCONCEPTIONS
Students’ understanding of many physiological phenomena is often seriously flawed. That is, students have faulty mental models of many of the things we ask them to learn; these are often referred to as misconceptions. The problem with misconceptions is that they seriously interfere with the students’ ability to learn physiology, and they are often quite persistent. This column is intended to be a forum where the community of physiology teachers can share with one another the misconceptions we encounter in our interactions with our students. Only when each of us knows about the possible existence of a misconception can we look for it in our own students and try to find ways to help them repair their faulty mental models. Send descriptions of the misconceptions that you have encountered. You need to describe the misconception, tell how you know it is present, describe the underlying conceptual difficulty, and describe what we can do about the misconception. Try to keep the number of words between 500 and 1000.
MEETING REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
This section will include reports from meetings of interest and announcements of upcoming meetings around the world. Readers who know of a meeting that should be included are encouraged to send as much information as possible to the Editor (silverthorn{at}mail.utexas.edu). Announcements must be submitted no later than three months prior to the issue in which the announcement is to appear (i.e., announcements for the June issue must be submitted no later than March 1).
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