Intuitive Reasoning and Context Effects
The current state of Human Anatomy and Physiology education literature articulates many examples of specific student difficulties (e.g., neurophysiology, gas exchange, cardiovascular physiology), often coined as “misconceptions”. However, little research has been done to investigate the origins of these difficulties. Instead of attributing wrong answers to concrete, strongly held knowledge constructs, my research explores the possibility of more intuitive and reactive origins of inaccurate ideas, ultimately exploring why students struggle to learn human physiology. My research also investigates what prompts to employ intuitive reasoning strategies in the classroom. Is it the nature of the task or is it the context of the task?
Study Skills and Student Learning
Undergraduate students are rarely taught how to study. Instead, students typically rely on the study strategies they used in high school and have trouble adjusting these strategies to the demands and expectations of their collegiate courses. I was part of an initiative to develop a course that teaches students evidence-based study strategies and trains them how to integrate these strategies with the content and skills an instructor might expect them to know or be able to do. This work focuses improving course design and assessing the effects of this course on student learning.
Challenges of Nontraditional Undergraduate Students
Our idea of what it means to be a typical college student is out of date. We can no longer assume our students are enrolling immediately following high school and have parental support. As the idea of a college education becomes more accessible, the population pursing a degree grows more diverse, and as a result, the challenges undergraduates experience will likely also change. My research strives to estimate the proportion of NDSU students that identify as a nontraditional student and better understand the unique challenges that come from being a nontraditional student.
Models and Drawing
Using a series of drawing prompts, I investigated how students enrolled in human anatomy and physiology think about several anatomy and physiology based concepts before and after instruction. Analysis of these drawings revealed that students struggle with depicting physiology-based concepts, even after instruction. In addition, assessing students through drawing revealed alternative conceptions not previously documented in biology education research literature.