ERIC Number: EJ1021086
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Mar
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1043-4046
EISSN: N/A
Physiology Applied to Everyday: The Practice of Professional Contextualization of Physiology Concepts as a Way of Facilitating Learning
Borges, Sidnei; Mello-Carpes, Pâmela Billig
Advances in Physiology Education, v38 n1 p93-95 Mar 2014
The teaching of Physiology is indispensable in many biological and health disciplines. Physiology is one of the major components of the curriculum in a number of life science courses, including the study of life, cells, tissues, and organisms as well as their functions. A bigger challenge for physiology teachers is to make physiological concepts attractive to students, particularly since students of different majors are often assigned to the same class. The health professional, especially, needs a foundation of contextualized learning to make learning more meaningful to them, without losing quality. This foundation depends on student-centered teaching methods that assist the student in building on previous learning to prepare to be a knowledgeable future health professional. Furthermore, since physiology is sometimes a difficult course, physiology teachers need to be conscious that different teaching- learning strategies are preferable for helping different students learn. Based on the principle described in this article, seminars about human physiology related to the practice of health professionals were offered. Seminars were offered with parallels to topics in theoretical and practical classes during extracurricular time to stimulate student participation. Participation in the seminars was not compulsory and not limited to students in the course; thus, the seminars were broadly attended throughout the institution. When this activity was organized it was hypothesized that this innovative pedagogy would improve student motivation for learning and enhance results of student learning. Participation of undergraduate students from physical education, nursing, pharmacy, and physiotherapy courses was a total of 499 attendees at the seminars, with an average of 20.79 participants/session. This large number shows considerable interest from the students, since their participation was optional.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Physiology, Science Instruction, Context Effect, Teaching Methods, Seminars, College Students, Course Content, Online Surveys, Student Surveys, Student Attitudes, Experience
American Physiological Society. 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20814-3991. Tel: 301-634-7164; Fax: 301-634-7241; e-mail: webmaster@the-aps.org; Web site: http://advan.physiology.org/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Brazil
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A