Evaluating student understanding of core pharmacokinetic concepts

Both educators and graduates have expressed concern about a perceived pharmacology knowledge gap that includes difficulty applying fundamental principles to clinical and research problems. Consequently, we sought to determine the extent to which current students can explain the meaning of, and appropriately apply, a subset of core concepts, and to identify any misconceptions arising from the responses. Of the twenty-four pharmacology core concepts arising from the recent international collaboration, four pharmacokinetic concepts were chosen, namely drug bioavailability, drug clearance, volume of distribution, and steady-state concentration. A total of 318 students from 11 universities across seven countries chose to participate in this study. Expert analysts identified the essential elements for each concept, then independently assessed each student's response. Teams of two experts compared their evaluations to reach a consensus and grouped misconceptions thematically. For each core concept, less than 30% of students provided responses that encompassed all essential elements. Participants found drug clearance most challenging, generally conflating it with the rate of elimination, whereas they demonstrated a better understanding of drug bioavailability. There were 34 misconception themes coded in a total of 813 statements, with volume of distribution and drug clearance producing the highest numbers (13 and 12, respectively). Overall, results suggest that students found it easier to apply the concept than to explain its meaning, which might reflect the shift from didactic to active learning approaches. These findings may be useful for educators who are developing introductory pharmacokinetic courses by providing conceptual focus and revealing common misconceptions to explicitly address.

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Publication Details

Journal
European Journal of Pharmacology
Published
2025-01-10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejphar.2025.177256
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Innovative Teaching Methods
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
71.41
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article

Evaluating student understanding of core pharmacokinetic concepts

Martin Hawes, Anna‐Marie Babey, Fatima Mraiche, Janet Mifsud et al.
9 citations
European Journal of Pharmacology
Innovative Teaching Methods
71.41
article

Evaluating student understanding of core pharmacokinetic concepts

Martin Hawes, Anna‐Marie Babey, Fatima Mraiche, Janet Mifsud, Paul J. White, Mohamad Aljofan, John Kelly, Marina Santiago, Willmann Liang, Clare Guilding, Steven Tucker, Carolina Restini, Róisín Kelly‐Laubscher, Elvan Djouma, Margaret Cunningham, Nilushi Karunaratne, Tina Hinton, Kelly Dowhower Karpa, Jennifer Koenig, Alison Shield, Joseph A. Nicolazzo, Kieran Volbrecht
article en
9 citations

Abstract

Both educators and graduates have expressed concern about a perceived pharmacology knowledge gap that includes difficulty applying fundamental principles to clinical and research problems. Consequently, we sought to determine the extent to which current students can explain the meaning of, and appropriately apply, a subset of core concepts, and to identify any misconceptions arising from the responses. Of the twenty-four pharmacology core concepts arising from the recent international collaboration, four pharmacokinetic concepts were chosen, namely drug bioavailability, drug clearance, volume of distribution, and steady-state concentration. A total of 318 students from 11 universities across seven countries chose to participate in this study. Expert analysts identified the essential elements for each concept, then independently assessed each student's response. Teams of two experts compared their evaluations to reach a consensus and grouped misconceptions thematically. For each core concept, less than 30% of students provided responses that encompassed all essential elements. Participants found drug clearance most challenging, generally conflating it with the rate of elimination, whereas they demonstrated a better understanding of drug bioavailability. There were 34 misconception themes coded in a total of 813 statements, with volume of distribution and drug clearance producing the highest numbers (13 and 12, respectively). Overall, results suggest that students found it easier to apply the concept than to explain its meaning, which might reflect the shift from didactic to active learning approaches. These findings may be useful for educators who are developing introductory pharmacokinetic courses by providing conceptual focus and revealing common misconceptions to explicitly address.

European Journal of PharmacologyVol. 990
East Tennessee State University (US), The University of Sydney (AU), University of Nottingham (GB), University of Alberta (CA), University of Strathclyde (GB), University of Canberra (AU), Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway (IE), University of Aberdeen (GB), La Trobe University (AU), University of Malta (MT), University College Cork (IE), University of Surrey (GB), Monash University (AU), Nazarbayev University (KZ), Newcastle University (GB), Michigan State University (US), University of Hong Kong (HK), University of New England (AU), Macquarie University (AU)
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Innovative Teaching Methods
71.41
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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