Slominski Tara N, Momsen Jennifer L, Montplaisir Lisa M
Department of Biological Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota
Department of Biological Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota.
Adv Physiol Educ. 2017 Jun 1;41(2):212-221. doi: 10.1152/advan.00129.2016.
Drawings are an underutilized assessment format in Human Anatomy and Physiology (HA&P), despite their potential to reveal student content understanding and alternative conceptions. This study used student-generated drawings to explore student knowledge in a HA&P course. The drawing tasks in this study focused on chemical synapses between neurons, an abstract concept in HA&P. Using two preinstruction drawing tasks, students were asked to depict synaptic transmission and summation. In response to the first drawing task, 20% of students ( = 352) created accurate representations of neuron anatomy. The remaining students created drawings suggesting an inaccurate or incomplete understanding of synaptic transmission. Of the 208 inaccurate student-generated drawings, 21% depicted the neurons as touching. When asked to illustrate summation, only 10 students (roughly 4%) were able to produce an accurate drawing. Overall, students were more successful at drawing anatomy (synapse) than physiology (summation) before formal instruction. The common errors observed in student-generated drawings indicate students do not enter the classroom as blank slates. The error of "touching" neurons in a chemical synapse suggests that students may be using intuitive or experiential knowledge when reasoning about physiological concepts. These results ) support the utility of drawing tasks as a tool to reveal student content knowledge about neuroanatomy and neurophysiology; and ) suggest students enter the classroom with better knowledge of anatomy than physiology. Collectively, the findings from this study inform both practitioners and researchers about the prevalence and nature of student difficulties in HA&P, while also demonstrating the utility of drawing in revealing student knowledge.
在人体解剖学与生理学（HA&P）中，绘图是一种未得到充分利用的评估形式，尽管其有潜力揭示学生对内容的理解以及另类概念。本研究利用学生绘制的图来探究一门HA&P课程中学生的知识掌握情况。本研究中的绘图任务聚焦于神经元之间的化学突触，这是HA&P中的一个抽象概念。通过两项课前绘图任务，要求学生描绘突触传递和总和。针对第一项绘图任务，20%的学生（n = 352）准确呈现了神经元的解剖结构。其余学生绘制的图表明他们对突触传递的理解不准确或不完整。在208幅不准确的学生绘制的图中，21%将神经元描绘为相互接触。当被要求说明总和时，只有10名学生（约4%）能够绘制出准确的图。总体而言，在正式授课前，学生在绘制解剖结构（突触）方面比生理学（总和）方面更成功。在学生绘制的图中观察到的常见错误表明，学生进入课堂时并非一张白纸。化学突触中“神经元相互接触”的错误表明，学生在思考生理概念时可能在运用直观或经验性知识。这些结果：）支持了绘图任务作为揭示学生关于神经解剖学和神经生理学内容知识的工具的效用；并且）表明学生进入课堂时对解剖学的了解比对生理学的了解更好。总体而言，本研究的结果让从业者和研究人员都了解到学生在HA&P中困难的普遍程度和性质，同时也证明了绘图在揭示学生知识方面的效用。
