Physiology core concepts in the classroom: reflections from faculty

It is increasingly difficult for faculty to cover all of the content in a physiology course. Given this constraint, recent efforts in the physiology teaching community, and in particular the Physiology Majors Interest Group (P-MIG), have promoted using core concepts to help students master key physiological principles. This report summarizes the experiences of four faculty members who teach physiology using the core concepts in various educational environments and identifies several common strengths and challenges they have encountered thus far. Strengths of using the core concepts include the transfer of knowledge to solve unknown problems and providing a framework to build a course. Challenges include applying them in a teach-taught course and balancing time spent on content and the core concepts. This is the first report to document the use of the physiology core concepts in a course, and the authors encourage additional faculty to not only adopt the core concepts for their own use, but share their approaches and experiences with the entire teaching community.