Professional Development, Shifting Perspectives, and Instructional Change among Community College Anatomy and Physiology Instructors.

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 perspectives toward active learning. Qualitative data indicate that the participating CC instructors experienced pedagogical discontentment, leading to increased positive beliefs about active learning and educational research.

Teaching Interrupted: How COVID-19 Turned Thoughts into Practice.

The Community College Anatomy and Physiology Education Research (CAPER) project is a 2-year grant that provides a variety of professional development opportunities to community college instructors of Anatomy and Physiology in the United States. Instructors who participate in the CAPER project also take part in a larger research study that uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to track the instructors' progress with adapting new teaching methods into their classrooms. When the COVID-19 pandemic caused global disruption to daily life, there were two cohorts of community college instructors participating in the CAPER project.

Some Believe, Not All Achieve: The Role of Active Learning Practices in Anxiety and Academic Self-Efficacy in First-Generation College Students.

First-generation college students face a variety of barriers in higher education compared with their continuing-generation peers. Active learning practices in STEM classrooms can potentially narrow the achievement gap by increasing academic self-efficacy, or confidence in academic abilities. However, these practices can also provoke anxiety in students.

Fostering improved anatomy and physiology instructor pedagogy.

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 instructors at the college level. Data were collected through a series of individual interviews that included the use of the Teacher Beliefs Inventory questionnaire (23) along with observations onsite in participants' college classrooms and at process-oriented guided inquiry learning (POGIL) curriculum writing workshops.

Offering an anatomy and physiology course through a high school-university partnership: the Minnesota model.

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. Recommendations are made for anatomy and physiology instructors who are involved in similar endeavors.

Using student learning and development outcomes to evaluate a first-year undergraduate group video project.

Students in an interdisciplinary undergraduate introductory course were required to complete a group video project focused on nutrition and healthy eating. A mixed-methods approach to data collection involved observing and rating video footage of group work sessions and individual and focus group interviews. These data were analyzed and used to evaluate the effectiveness of the assignment in light of two student learning outcomes and two student development outcomes at the University of Minnesota.

Pros and cons of a group webpage design project in a freshman anatomy and physiology course.

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.