title: Undergraduates' understanding of cardiovascular phenomena.
abstract: Undergraduates students in 12 courses at 8 different institutions were surveyed to determine the prevalence of 13 different misconceptions (conceptual difficulties) about cardiovascular function. The prevalence of these misconceptions ranged from 20 to 81% and, for each misconception, was consistent across the different student populations. We also obtained explanations for the students' answers either as free responses or with follow-up multiple-choice questions. These results suggest that students have a number of underlying conceptual difficulties about cardiovascular phenomena. One possible source of some misconceptions is the students' inability to apply simple general models to specific cardiovascular phenomena. Some implications of these results for teachers of physiology are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biophysics and Physiology, Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. jmichael@rush.edu
authors.forename: Joel A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Michael
authors.forename: Mary Pat
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Wenderoth
authors.forename: Harold I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Modell
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cliff
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Horwitz
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McHale
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.forename: Dee
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Silverthorn
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whitescarver
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D003210:Concept Formation; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D010827:Physiology / Q000193:education*; D012119:Respiration