A Core-Concepts First Approach to Teaching Non-major Physiology

Students often compartmentalize information gained during their learning, failing to understand horizontally transferrable concepts. This failure of horizontal transfer of information results in challenges of understanding from the point of the student and generalized frustration from the point of the instructor. To combat the perceived failure to transfer knowledge to new contexts, Joel Michael has suggested to focus on the “Core Concepts of Physiology” – the ideas and information that provide the basis of all of physiology (2017). Despite the prevalence of the core concepts within the teaching of physiology and the integration of the core concepts into pre-existing curricula, there have been few attempts to move away from the traditional teaching of physiology through a systems first approach. Rather than focusing on the systems themselves and using the core concepts as exemplars, I have created my course to focus on the concepts first (Core Concepts First or CCF) and use mechanisms from systems as specific cases of the concept. The development of a core concepts first approach to teaching a physiology course uses the core-concepts of physiology to drive the dissemination of physiological information. Following a brief overview of basic concepts related to biology, students were stepped through broader categories of physiology that focused on the core concepts- Cellular structure of the Human Body, Physiological Communication and Maintaining Physiological Balance. Within each conceptual area, specific systems that elucidate and exemplify the concepts were used as examples, providing appropriate background as needed. Students were then given opportunity to explore and apply the concept to systems that were not covered. I compared this approach by asking “application of knowledge” questions using systems that had not been covered in both a CCF course and with other students who were taking a traditional Anatomy and Physiology course. I found similar if not better demonstration of understanding and in depth of responses amongst the CCF students. This case may provide a broader framework for the application of a CCF approach to teaching physiology. 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.