How should we be teaching physiology?

ELESGARAY ROSANA

Encuentro; Reunión conjunta SAIC SAIFAIC SAFIS 2022.; 2022

Different factors have an influence on the teaching and learning of Physiology. Among them, some of the most important are the different teaching methods, the number of enrolled students, how many teachers are participating, the hours dedicated to class, the number of contents to be studied and the difficulty when it comes to understanding the concepts that will be key for future professionals.If we take a look to the different syllabi of this subject, no matter which university nor which course of studies we are talking about, we will find that all of them look like the index on any average Physiology book. And, whenever the teaching of Physiology is discussed, most teachers agree that the contents taught should be the same, whichever the course of studies is. However, isthis really true? Should we actually be teaching everything? Or should we be selecting specific contents? And, in that case… how should we be teaching those contents? Along with globalization and the everchanging social demands come the shifts and adjustments in teaching. Simply discharging content into the students’ brains is no use unless those contents are actually grasped and applied to daily life by students. What we should do is encourage their commitment to a learning method through which they can achieve critical thinking, so that they can later question what they have learned and acquire the skills that they will need in their professional lives. Our lessons should be stimulating their learning not as a passive process, but as a proactive exercise of building knowledge. We should be switching from the master lecture, with the teacher as its protagonist and the student as a mere recipient, to lessons in which the students are the main concern —along with all their needs and intricacies.And to achieve this we need to integrate different teaching strategies. Can we do it? There is no doubt it is a challenge. But we would not be standing here if we did not believe we can.