Quantitative concept mapping in pulmonary physiology: comparison of student and faculty knowledge structures.

Quantitative concept mapping, in contrast with qualitative approaches, is rigorous scientifically and permits statistical analyses of data about concept learning. This study extends past quantitative research on the structure of student concept learning in pulmonary physiology. Pathfinder scaling is used to derive concept maps for medical and veterinary students and their physiology instructors at Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin, respectively.

Medical and veterinary students' structural knowledge of pulmonary physiology concepts.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to assess quantitatively medical and veterinary students' knowledge structures of 12 pulmonary physiology concepts before and after receiving a focused instructional block. The "goodness of fit" and internal consistency reliability of the students' knowledge structures were evaluated. Indexes of the students' structural knowledge were correlated with customary measures of student learning of the same concepts.