Lake Region State College, Devils Lake, North Dakota, United States.
Department of Education, Health & Behavior Studies, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States.
Adv Physiol Educ. 2024 Dec 1;48(4):867-872. doi: 10.1152/advan.00020.2024. Epub 2024 Aug 29.
Physiology concepts, such as acid-base balance, may be difficult for students to understand. Systems modeling, a cognitive tool, allows students to visualize their mental model of the problem space to enhance learning and retention. We performed a within-subjects three-period randomized control comparison of systems modeling versus written discussion activities in an undergraduate asynchronous online Anatomy and Physiology II course. Participants ( = 108) were randomized to groups with differing treatment orders across three course units: endocrine, immune, and acid-base balance. Participants demonstrated content understanding through either constructing systems modeling diagrams (M) or written discussion posts (W) in a MWM, MMW, or WMM sequence. For each of three units, student performance was assessed on 6 standardized multiple-choice questions embedded within a 45-question exam. The same 6 questions per unit, 18 questions in total, were again assessed on the 75-question final exam. The groups demonstrated no significant difference in performance in the endocrine unit exam [mean difference (MD) = -0.036]. However, the modeling group outperformed the writing group in the immune unit exam (MD = 0.209) and widened the gap in the acid-base balance unit exam (MD = 0.243). On the final exam, performance was again higher for the modeling group on acid-base balance content, as mean difference increased to 0.306 despite the final exam content for acid-base balance being significantly more difficult compared to other units [modeling: (2) = 29.882, < 0.001; writing: (2) = 25.450, < 0.001]. These results provide initial evidence that participation in systems modeling activities may enhance student learning of difficult physiology content as evidenced by improved multiple-choice question performance. Physiology educators often intuitively utilize systems thinking and modeling while teaching difficult concepts. Guiding students in development of their own systems modeling skills by enhancing their visualization of their mental model of the problem space may improve performance on multiple-choice test questions.
生理学概念，如酸碱平衡，可能对学生来说难以理解。系统建模是一种认知工具，可以让学生可视化他们对问题空间的心理模型，从而增强学习和保留。我们在一门本科异步在线解剖学和生理学 II 课程中进行了一项系统建模与书面讨论活动的三周期随机对照比较，参与者（n=108）在三个课程单元中按不同的处理顺序随机分组：内分泌、免疫和酸碱平衡。参与者通过在 MWM、MMW 或 WMM 序列中构建系统建模图（M）或书面讨论帖子（W）来展示内容理解。对于每个单元，学生的表现都通过嵌入在 45 个问题的考试中的 6 个标准化多项选择题进行评估。每个单元的 6 个相同的问题，总共 18 个问题，在 75 个问题的期末考试中再次进行评估。在内分泌单元考试中，两个组的表现没有显著差异[平均差异（MD）= -0.036]。然而，在免疫单元考试中，建模组的表现优于写作组（MD=0.209），并在酸碱平衡单元考试中扩大了差距（MD=0.243）。在期末考试中，建模组在酸碱平衡内容上的表现再次更高，尽管酸碱平衡的期末考试内容比其他单元明显更难，但平均差异增加到 0.306[建模：（2）=29.882，<0.001；写作：（2）=25.450，<0.001]。这些结果初步证明，参与系统建模活动可能会增强学生对困难生理学内容的学习，因为选择题表现得到了提高。生理学教育者在教授困难概念时，通常会直观地利用系统思维和建模。通过增强学生对问题空间心理模型的可视化，引导学生发展自己的系统建模技能，可能会提高选择题的表现。
