Defining the boundaries of physiological understanding: the benchmarks curriculum model

Area of Science:

• Anatomy and Physiology Education
• Curriculum Development
• Educational Benchmarking

Background:

• Traditional anatomy and physiology (A&P) curricula often lack clear relevance and rationalization.
• Ensuring alignment between learning objectives, instruction, and assessment is a persistent challenge in A&P education.
• Developing a systematic process for curriculum design is crucial for effective science education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a systematic and rationalized curriculum development process for anatomy and physiology (A&P).
• To ensure alignment between A&P learning objectives, instructional content, and assessment methods.
• To create a flexible and adaptable A&P curriculum model for future development.

Main Methods:

• Developed a benchmarks curriculum process to identify essential A&P learning needs.
• Defined broad skill and content goals, prioritized topic areas, and established specific learning objectives.
• Created benchmark statements for mastery, designed learning activities, and developed assessment items.
• Implemented the curriculum within a relational database to map interconnections between elements.

Main Results:

• The benchmarks process successfully defined course goals, prioritized topics, and detailed learning objectives.
• Benchmark statements were written to operationally define mastery criteria for each learning objective.
• Learning activities and assessment items were aligned with the established learning objectives.
• A relational database implementation allows for detailed tracking of curriculum components and their relationships.

Conclusions:

• The developed benchmarks curriculum process provides a rationalized framework for A&P curriculum design.
• This systematic approach ensures alignment across learning objectives, teaching, and assessment.
• The relational database implementation facilitates curriculum management and future web-based collaborative development.
• The model supports the continuous evolution and improvement of A&P curricula.