Beyond Content Mastery: Integrating Executive Function Training with Core Concepts as a Neurocognitive Scaffold for Physiology Learning

The physiology education community has made significant progress in identifying core concepts that organize disciplinary knowledge and promote transfer of learning. However, recent evidence suggests that teaching core concepts alone produces modest learning gains and often fails to address persistent comprehension failures, particularly in homeostasis. We propose that this limitation stems from addressing only the "what to think" while neglecting the "how to think" — the executive function skills that enable students to engage with conceptual frameworks effectively. This challenge is not unique to physiology: similar patterns of modest gains have been documented in biology education with the Vision and Change framework and BioCore Guide, suggesting a structural limitation shared across STEM disciplines that rely on "big idea" pedagogies. This Perspective introduces an integrated neurocognitive scaffolding approach that systematically combines core concept instruction with explicit executive function training, grounded in Zimmerman's self-regulated learning cycle and Bachelard's epistemological obstacles theory. We describe a planned 8-week intervention for health sciences students that addresses this gap by integrating training in working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility with instruction in four fundamental physiology concepts. This approach represents a paradigm shift from traditional content-focused pedagogy toward thinking-centered education that may address current limitations in physiology learning outcomes while providing a replicable model for other STEM disciplines.