The <i>ABC</i> s of academic engagement in introductory anatomy and physiology courses: A comparison of expectations and high-quality learning

We investigated academic engagement through three indicators of student engagement - Affective, Behavioral, and Cognitive - in a series of undergraduate courses in introductory anatomy and physiology, Human Biology I and II. This series of courses is a requirement for Human Science and Nursing majors at the School of Health and also fulfills a requirement for the Pre-Med track within the university and a Core Science Requirement. Each course has a laboratory component as a separate class period. Together, these courses serve as a foundation of knowledge and are required courses for health and biological science-related graduate programs. Additional resources to support student learning included direct content (e.g., third-party online resources), instructor support beyond class periods (e.g., office hours), and peer to near peer learning (e.g., Student Academic Mentor - SAM). Briefly, affective engagement is associated with a student’s motivation for the academic environment. Behavioral engagement revolves around a student’s involvement in learning. The final component to this multidimensional construct of academic engagement in which we are interested is the cognitive, which is associated with the intellectual approach of the student. From Fall 2021 through Spring 2023 we evaluated academic engagement in these courses through a pre-/post- survey design with surveys administered at the beginning and end of the semester, respectively (IRB ID: STUDY00003488). 115 and 80 student responses to the pre- and post-semester surveys were collected. Not all students answered every question. In general, motivation for the academic environment was maintained at a high level throughout the semester and series of courses, lab and lecture, despite the course rigor exceeding student expectations (p=0.0081). Additional unpaired comparisons (Mann-Whitney U test) demonstrated notable differences in measures of all three domains. In particular, we found that students underperformed their expectations for the value of (cognitive) external resources (p&lt;0.001) as well as behavioral indicators such as reading the designated textbook (p&lt;0.001), working in study groups outside of lecture and lab (p&lt;0.01), and seeking additional instructor support (p&lt;0.0001) for their learning; yet overperformed their expectations for the contributions of (affective) peer support from their lab groups for their learning (p=0.0145). Additionally, student expectations for utilizing peer to near-peer learning were consistent with their behavior via 94% and 95%, respectively, having reported attending SAM sessions ‘Always’ or ‘Often’. Interestingly, post-semester responses revealed a moderate correlation between attending lectures consistently and finding value in the courses (Pearson r=0.2780; p=0.0041), demonstrating effectiveness in course delivery. Somewhat expectedly, students exceeded expectations in connecting principles from lecture to lab exercises (p&lt;0.001) and other science courses (p=0.0542), along with memorizing (p&lt;0.01) and critical thinking (p=0.0364) as cognitive approaches from the Fall course to the Spring course. Overall, such changes may reveal a “trade-off” relationship in student use of course-directed peer/near-peer learning with engaging instructors beyond the classroom and the designated textbook enabling student success. This study provided meaningful insight into where engagement exceeded or did not meet expectations as well as enriched and validated the perspective on academic engagement and measuring it in introductory anatomy and physiology courses. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.