Guided inquiry is an active learning technique featuring collaborative group learning with a structured set of models and highly structured questions for students to discuss and answer. Moving this technique to an online delivery format presents challenges, leading to questions about the effectiveness of this technique during online instruction.…

This paper presents community college (CC) instructors' responses to the Community College Anatomy and Physiology Educational Research (CAPER) project, a professional development program focused on active learning and educational research. We engage with conceptual change theory to better understand why and how CC instructors shifted their…

A unique approach to improving student success in Human Anatomy and Physiology can be centered around teaching the students about metacognitive learning strategies. This perspective discusses the implementation of a metacognitive learning strategies session and highlights some of the outcomes that resulted from the session through exam wrapper…

Pre-clinical community college students represent a unique population with varied academic backgrounds and levels of preparedness. Addressing the needs of this population is important for issues of access, equity, and diversity in higher education. As part of a larger National Science Foundation (NSF) funded Community College Anatomy and…

Evidence Based Instructional Practices (EBIPs) have been shown to increase student engagement in college classrooms. Education research conducted to date on the effectiveness of these EBIPs and their impact on students' has largely focused on four-year and research-intensive institutions, and community colleges represent a significant gap in the…

One strategy to transform the high attrition rates among community college (CC) students is for CC instructors to utilize the teaching practices shown to most likely lead to student success. CC students and faculty are underrepresented in biology education research (BER), with only 3% of BER articles addressing CC-specific issues (Schinske et al.…

In this pilot study, students in Anatomy and Physiology courses at a Southwest US Community College were assigned to groups with the instruction that they must meet outside of class time to work on course assignments throughout the semester. The assignments included exam preparation questions and case studies, but the groups could use their out of…

Despite widespread calls for reform in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, effecting lasting change in instructor practice is challenging to achieve. This article describes the results of a 2-yr research study that involved efforts to develop the pedagogical expertise of a group of anatomy and physiology…

This article describes a one-semester anatomy and physiology course that is currently offered through the concurrent enrollment program at the University of Minnesota. The article explains how high school teachers are prepared to teach the course and describes efforts to promote program quality, student inquiry, and experiential learning.…

To generate motivation and promote the development of written communication skills, students in a freshman-level anatomy and physiology course for nonmajors created group webpages describing historically important diseases. After the groups had been formed, each individual was assigned specific components of the disease (e.g., causes or…

Uses qualitative research methods to document the experiences of six technophobic students as they progressed through a technology-rich anatomy and physiology course. Analyzes data collected and condenses them into common themes. Makes some recommendations to help instructors better accommodate students who have difficulties and fear of…