Journal article
The impact of instruction on undergraduates' understanding of homeostasis: Results from administering the Homeostasis Concept Inventory
Advances in physiology education, v 49(2), pp 423-429
Jun 2025
PMID: 40063381
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The Homeostasis Concept Inventory (HCI) is a validated instrument for measuring students' knowledge of homeostasis. It is comprised of 20 multiple-choice questions covering key components of the previously validated Homeostasis Conceptual Framework (HCF). In this paper we present the first multi-institutional study of the impact of physiology instruction on students' HCI performance. Five cohorts of physiology or anatomy & physiology (A&P) students at four academic institutions took the HCI both at the start of their academic term (pre-test) and at the end of their term (post-test). Statistically significant but relatively modest improvements in overall scores were seen from pre-test to post-test. Among the 20 questions, eight questions had incorrect choices identified as "attractive distractors" on the pre-test, meaning that they were chosen at higher-than-random frequencies. From pre-test to post-test, there were only modest declines in selections of incorrect answers generally and of attractive distractors in particular. Three attractive distractors that all target one specific misconception -- that homeostatic mechanisms are active only when a regulated variable is not at its setpoint -- remained persistently attractive except for students of one instructor who directly addressed that misconception in lecture. These data are sobering in that they show a limited impact of instruction on HCI performance. However, these data also include encouraging evidence that instructional targeting of a specific misconception may help students overcome that misconception.
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Details
- Title
- The impact of instruction on undergraduates' understanding of homeostasis: Results from administering the Homeostasis Concept Inventory
- Creators
- Gregory J Crowther - Everett Community CollegeAmy K Hebert - Elmhurst CollegeUsha Sankar - Drexel UniversityJoel Michael - Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Rush Medical College, Chicago, IL, USA
- Publication Details
- Advances in physiology education, v 49(2), pp 423-429
- Publisher
- American Physiological Society
- Number of pages
- 7
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001487889000001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105002558573
- Other Identifier
- 991022040178204721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Education, Scientific Disciplines
- Physiology