Perceived Benefit of Active Over Passive Strategies for Pathophysiology Learning and Retention Among Physician Assistant Students.

PURPOSE: This study examines physician assistant (PA) student perceived benefit of active vs. passive studying strategies for learning and retaining physiology and pathophysiology content knowledge. Identifying beneficial studying strategies is crucial to building a strong content knowledge foundation to support PA students' clinical rotations. METHODS: Three cohorts of PA students (n = 64) were anonymously surveyed regarding perceived benefit of studying strategies for learning and retention of physiology and pathophysiology content knowledge. Students also ranked strategies from most to least beneficial. RESULTS: Strategies were identified during survey development pilot study as either active or passive. Physician assistant students rated the active strategies perceived benefit mean as significantly greater than the passive strategies mean for both the learning (t(61) = 9.24, P < .001, d = 1.38) and retention (t(58) = 8.19, P < .001, d = 1.21) conditions. CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that PA students perceive active studying strategies to be more beneficial than passive strategies for acquiring physiology and pathophysiology content and retaining it into the clinical year.

Exploring progressive mental model representation of core physiology concepts in physician assistant students through word frequency and association analyses.

A well-developed mental model is crucial for effectively studying physiology core concepts. However, mental models can be difficult for students to represent and for instructors to evaluate and correct. Systems modeling as a visualization cognitive tool may facilitate mental model development. On the other hand, evidence of mental model development may also be represented verbally, in writing, and therefore, be evaluated. In this study, analysis of writing prompt completions illustrated progress in physician assistant student mental model formation of physiology core concepts, such as homeostasis and cell-cell communication, over time. Two cohorts of physician assistant students were invited to voluntarily submit completions of writing prompts five times over 16 months. Sessions included submissions pre- and post-small group systems modeling participation. Word frequency and word association cluster dendrogram analyses were conducted on submissions using the tm text mining package in R to provide insight into progressive changes in core concepts of word use and associations. Students demonstrated expanded core concepts systems thinking over time. This was apparent through the increased use of systems process terms, such as homeostasis, in submissions immediately following systems modeling activities. Students also increasingly included terms and associations emphasizing cell-cell communication and systems integration. The inclusion of these concepts within student mental models was demonstrably enhanced by participation in systems modeling activities.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study applies text mining, an artificial intelligence form of natural language processing, to evaluate a series of physiology student-written prompt completions. Text mining of student writing in physiology has not yet been reported in the literature. Through the application of this technique, longitudinal trends in student development of mental models of core concepts were identified and visualized through word frequency distributions and cluster dendrograms.