Dr Colleen Deane,
Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine
University of Southampton, UK
As an early career lecturer in muscle cell biology, the idea of teaching physiology to medical students was daunting initially. In September 2022 I presented my first set of lectures (as a Lecturer) on the importance of protein and amino acids for muscle and bone. These lectures were very well attended, with more than 150 students out of approximately 200 in the lecture theatres at any one time. The students were highly engaged, evidenced by the lack of distractions caused during the lectures, such as students talking amongst themselves, and the quantity and quality of questions asked both during and after the lectures.
One thing I observed is that as well as the many great questions asked by students to help them build upon their knowledge gained during the lectures, they also had many questions related to exams, such as “do I have to memorise every single amino acid?”. Although this could simply reflect exam nerves, it made me reflect on whether some only seek to learn what is crucial to pass exams, as opposed to fully seeking to understand the fundamental physiology of the body.
From my own experiences I have recognised some areas of support that I believe early career lecturers, such as myself, might benefit from to help teach physiology in such a way that gets the students excited about it
- an online hub for early career lecturers to share their experiences and ideas on ways to make lecturers interactive, which have been received well by students.
- a resource of engaging short animations, figures and core texts that can be used during lectures as teaching aids and that could also be recommended to students as supplemental reading or learning.
- an online network of experts in different aspects of core physiology who early career lecturers can reach out to when needing advice on, for example, how to teach a complex physiological system in an understandable, engaging and interactive way.
I’ve had an overwhelmingly positive start to my teaching career, and I am looking forward to developing my own teaching and delivery methods to support medical students. The Physiological Society has fantastic resources to support my development, including their new Training Hub, which has on-demand videos to support new lecturers teaching basic systems physiology.
Visit the Training Hub for more resources and sessions to support your teaching career.