scholarly journals Promoting student engagement and academic achievement in first-year anatomy and physiology courses

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole B. Reinke
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Exercise Science ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Sport And Exercise ◽  
Physiotherapy Students

Students from three undergraduate programs at James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, studying combined first-year anatomy and physiology courses, showed different academic achievement in physiology. Physiotherapy students were more active and social when completing learning tasks and achieved significantly higher grades in physiology compared with students enrolled in Sport and Exercise Science and Occupational Therapy programs. To promote academic engagement and achievement by all three groups, discussion questions, case studies, and study guides were included. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using these modified resources to promote active learning, enhance academic social interactions, and provide a supportive learning environment. The occupational therapy students showed increased academic achievement (from 57.9 to 66.5%) following implementation of the new resources, but there was no change in the already high-performing physiotherapy students (73.1%) and, more concerningly, the sport and exercise science students (from 54.6 to 56.7%). Fewer sport and exercise science students had prior learning in chemistry (30.4% of participants) and also spent little time outside class studying (8 h/wk), compared with the physiotherapy cohort (70.0% chemistry; 13 h/wk studying). Findings of this research demonstrate that creating a supportive and active learning environment are important factors in promoting the learning of physiology for some cohorts. Background knowledge, academic self-regulatory skills, and the experience of teaching staff are factors that must be considered when endeavoring to increase student academic achievement. Future studies should examine the effect of students’ academic self-regulation and the use of remedial chemistry classes when learning physiology.

scholarly journals Redesigning first year anatomy and physiology subjects for allied health students: Impact of active learning strategies

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Andrea Zimanyi ◽  
Nicholas F. Emtage ◽  
Pamela Lee Megaw
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
First Year ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Sport Science ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Active Learning Strategies

To combat high failure rates in an Anatomy and Physiology for first year Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Sport Science students, a flipped classroom was introduced in 2015. It became apparent that students did not engage with materials prior to classes, but they did engage with in-class active learning strategies. In subsequent years of this study, our focus changed to delivery with student active learning in mind. The active learning approaches introduced resulted in improvements in academic performance for all three student cohorts. Occupational Therapy students’ marks improved by 12.9% when comparing pre-intervention (2014) results to the end of the post-intervention period (2017), Physiotherapy students’ marks increased by 6.9%, while the greatest gains of 14.8% were seen in Sport Science students. When investigating the relationship between student performance and university entrance scores, students with high entrance scores demonstrated modest gains in performance, while those students with lower entrance scores benefited the most. Our results suggest that the introduction of active learning may result in the transition of the learning style of students under-prepared for university studies, to be more like those of more successful students; that is, to a deeper level of learning.

scholarly journals An examination of developmental assets and academic performance in higher education sport students

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Ian Jones
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Developmental Assets ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Exercise Science ◽  
Significant Relationships ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Sport And Exercise ◽  
Individual Asset ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Domain Level

The purpose of this research was to explore the magnitude and direction of the relationship between developmental assets (subcategories and domain levels) and academic achievement in British students. Based on the existing theory I hypothesized that total asset score, individual asset groups (i.e., internal and external assets), and the eight asset subcategories would have a moderate to a large positive relationship with academic achievement. 232 participants were recruited from a second-year compulsory research methods module for undergraduate sport and exercise science students at a UK based university. The participants completed the Developmental Assets Profile (DAP) at the beginning of the course, and their final module grade was recorded after the course had finished. Pearson's correlation between assets and grade score revealed several significant relationships. The strongest subcategory correlation was between commitment to learning and grade score. The strongest domain level correlation was between internal assets and grade score. The current study provides evidence that developmental assets are positively associated with grade score in university students; however, the size of the relationship is smaller than previously suggested.

scholarly journals Introductory anatomy and physiology in an undergraduate nursing curriculum

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.J. Brown ◽  
S. White ◽  
N. Power
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Nursing Students ◽  
Human Anatomy ◽  
High Achievers ◽  
First Year ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Undergraduate Nursing ◽  
Human Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
High Achieving

Using an educational data mining approach, first-year academic achievement of undergraduate nursing students, which included two compulsory courses in introductory human anatomy and physiology, was compared with achievement in a final semester course that transitioned students into the workplace. We hypothesized that students could be grouped according to their first-year academic achievement using a two-step cluster analysis method and that grades achieved in the human anatomy and physiology courses would be strong predictors of overall achievement. One cohort that graduated in 2014 ( n = 105) and one that graduated in 2015 ( n = 94) were analyzed separately, and for both cohorts, two groups were identified, these being “high achievers” (HIGH) and “low achievers” (LOW). Consistently, the anatomy and physiology courses were the strongest predictors of group assignment, such that a good grade in these was much more likely to put a student into a high-achieving group. Students in the HIGH groups also scored higher in the Transition to Nursing course when compared with students in the LOW groups. The higher predictor importance of the anatomy and physiology courses suggested that if a first-year grade-point average was calculated for students, an increased weighting should be attributed to these courses. Identifying high-achieving students based on first-year academic scores may be a useful method to predict future academic performance.

Addressing the divergence between health science students’ learning preferences and the way their teachers teach

The Advisor ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Una L. DeChellis
Keyword(s):  
Learning Preferences ◽  
Health Science ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Level ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Anatomy And Physiology ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Research ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Both the literature and personal experience show that attrition from prerequisite science courses for the health professions is significant. To examine one possible reason for that attrition, a study was designed to examine the relationship between the teaching approaches employed by college-level anatomy and physiology (A&P) instructors and the learning preferences of first-year health science (FYHS) students. Students and instructors of a first-year Anatomy and Physiology course at a small, private four year college in the Northeast participated in a combined quantitative and qualitative research protocol. Results showed that instructors’ teaching approaches met the participating FYHS students’ learning preferences in some areas but not all. The findings suggest that addressing the gap between FYHS students’ learning preferences and the teaching approaches of A&P instructors could lead to more successful academic outcomes.

scholarly journals The Impact of Learning Environment on EFL Students’ Academic Achievement: A study of Socio-Cultural Factors Affecting Academic Achievement

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmakki AMIRI ◽  
Abderrahim El KARFA
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Academic Achievements ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
The Impact

It is worth pointing out that learning a foreign language in a multicultural context is a long and complex undertaking. Several factors influence whether or not English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students can accurately perceive and produce the foreign language. These variables can potentially contribute to the success and, or failure in learning and acquiring a foreign language. Given the Moroccan educational system, the research provided minimal insight into the relationship between those factors and language achievement. The present study’s aim, therefore, was to investigate the environmental factors that affect students’ academic performance. It also aimed to find out how these variables affect students’ academic achievements. To achieve this aim, data have been collected via open-ended questionnaires, and interviews addressed mainly to First Year Students of Master Programs, Department of English, FLDM, USMBA-Fez. The findings have shown that students’ academic achievements were significantly positively/negatively linked with the environmental factors, namely societal, home/family and school/classroom variables. The findings also revealed that the more highly sophisticated the social environment is, the more likely it is to foster EFL students’ academic achievements. In addition, the more similarity exists between the students’ cultures, the more successful the learning is. This study also showed that the development of EFL proficiency is a product of contextual factors influence. As such, the study concludes with several implications that brought up for possible effective change in the future to enhance the learning environment atmosphere, boost students’ academic achievements, and, therefore, achieve better results.

scholarly journals Evaluating the effects of behavior change training on the knowledge, confidence and skills of sport and exercise science students

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Matthews ◽  
Amanda M. Hall ◽  
Alison Keogh
Keyword(s):  
Behavior Change ◽  
Health Professional ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Allied Health ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Exercise Science ◽  
Behavior Change Interventions ◽  
Sport And Exercise ◽  
Behavior Change Support ◽  
Allied Health Professional

Abstract Background Behavior change interventions have the potential to have a transformative effect on the health of populations. Allied health professionals have a key role to play in delivering these interventions. However, traditionally undergraduate allied health professional programs have not had a behavior change focus. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a training program on sport and exercise science students’ knowledge, confidence and skills in the provision of behavior change support. Method A mixed method convergent design was used to address the research question. Fifteen sport and exercise science students took part in a training program consisting of seven 90-min weekly face to face group sessions. Student satisfaction with training methods was assessed. Pre-to-post training changes in students’ confidence and knowledge in the provision of behavior change support was evaluated. Delivery of behavior change support was assessed by an audio recorded role-play rated by an expert using the Health Care Climate Questionnaire, and an adapted version of the Communication Evaluation in Rehabilitation Tool. Students also completed a reflective assignment. Results Students were satisfied with the training. There were increases in students’ confidence and knowledge of certain behavior change components post-training but not behavior change techniques. Students delivered behavior change support in a broadly needs supportive manner. The reflective assignment showed that students found particular behavior change strategies difficult to implement. Conclusion It is feasible to train undergraduate students in particular components of behavior change support. Academic institutions should embed behavior change training into the allied health professional curriculum to ensure graduates are job ready with the knowledge, confidence and skills to support health related behavior change within the wider health system.

Put Yourself in Their Boots: Effects of Empathy on Emotion and Aggression

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Stanger ◽  
Maria Kavussanu ◽  
Christopher Ring
Keyword(s):  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Science Students ◽  
Exercise Science ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Lower Likelihood ◽  
Cross Sectional Studies ◽  
Sport And Exercise

Aggression has been linked to empathy and emotions (e.g., guilt) in cross-sectional studies. The purpose of this experiment was to examine the effects of empathy on emotional reactions to aggression and the role of guilt in the empathy–aggression relationship. Seventy-one undergraduate sport and exercise science students with a mean age of 19.56 (SD = 1.94) years were randomly assigned to either a high- or a low-empathy group. We experimentally manipulated empathy using perspective taking instructions and examined the following: (a) participants’ emotional reactions to images of aggressive acts; (b) their reported likelihood to aggress in a hypothetical sport situation; and (c) the extent to which they anticipated feeling guilt if they were to engage in an aggressive act. Participants in the high-empathy group experienced stronger negative emotional reactions to images of aggressive acts and reported lower likelihood to aggress than did those in the low-empathy group. Anticipated guilt partially mediated the effects of empathy on reported likelihood to aggress. Our findings suggest that empathy may help reduce aggressive behavior and highlight the potential mediating role of guilt.

scholarly journals Teaching and Learning Chemistry with a Motivating Tool: one CLICK!

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa M Garcia-Lopera
Keyword(s):  
Active Learning ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Significant Enhancement ◽  
First Year ◽  
Electronic Response ◽  
Response Systems ◽  
Learning Chemistry

The use of electronic response systems or “clickers” is a popular way to engage students and create an active-learning environment, especially within large courses of general subjects for first-year undergraduates. The present work examines with detail the methodology, the tasks and the results obtained respect to the students’ learning, participation, and engagement in the classroom. In general, students perceived that, clickers provided a significant enhancement to their learning, and teachers obtained real-time feed-back of how the concepts are assimilated or not by the students in order to quickly introduce improvements in their teaching.

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