Date of Award
6-1-1987
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Abstract
In the Chicago City Colleges, Malcolm X College is the major center of instruction for allied health students. An integral part of their training is in the area of anatomy and physiology. Malcolm X College is interested in increasing the profitability of the learning experience for the students in this area. These concerns led to the purpose of this study. the purpose of this study was to develop, to implement and to evaluate a regional anatomy and physiology course (RAP-H) utilizing a human cadaver. This course would significantly increase student academic progress in a core anatomy and physiology course within the Chicago City Colleges system (Biology 126). The first major issue was how to develop a course that would meet the needs of the allied health students. A protocol for curriculum development was established and tested. The resolution of this issue was the creation of a curriculum document tor RAP-H. The second manor issue was how to implement the innovation the course, with its human cadaver laboratory, was established and taught. During the Implementation phase, formative reviews were made on sociopsychological and economic factors affecting the installation of the cadaver laboratory. The third major issue was how did the RAP-H compare with other courses with respect to student learning. This was the area of major statistical evaluation. A 2 x 2 multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was utilized to adjust for grade point average and col evaluate the hypotheses that the regional teaching method and the systemic teaching method were equivalent, and that the cadaver laboratory and the cat Laboratory activities were equivalent in terms of their effect on a composite dependent variable called student progress. It was also used to evaluate the hypothesis that there was no significant interaction between teaching methods and Laboratory activities. The dependent variables were testing (student monitored by a formative criterion test), attendance (tallied observations by teacher) and participation (behavior tallied observations by teacher). Thus, the RAP-H was compared with three other groups on the two factors unique to the innovation. The .05 level of significance was used to evaluate the relevant F-ratio from the MANCOVA. One hundred and twenty five student samples were obtained from a population of Malcolm X College students expressing intentions to enter the allied health profession. Through natural selection, these students placed themselves into one of four classes or treatment groups. The scheduling of treatments was then randomly assigned to the intact class groups. An analysis of the results indicated that there was a significant multivariate effect, F (3, 85) = 5.4241, P < .05 (Wilks test), attributable to the type of laboratory activity used. The major contributor to the effect was the attendance variate. On the other hand, the multivariate differences for teaching methods and the interaction of laboratory activity and teaching method could be accounted for by hance alone. Therefore, it was concluded that the differences in the laboratory effect was the use of the cadaver in the laboratory. The similarities between teaching methods were less than conclusive, most likely because of textbook conflicts Also, generalization to the whole City Colleges system was compromised by the non-randomness of sampling technique. No unqualified recommendation to adopt the regional approach in the Chicago City Colleges was possible from this study. However, the work is sufficient to suggest that the human cadaver laboratory component to the regional approach should be reviewed further using a more rigorous experimental design. Many recommendations concerning the implementation of such action were included in the study. Some of these related to political, social, psychological and economic issues observed to be operative in the setting of the course.