Abstract:

Physiology and Pathophysiology contents are distributed in three subjects in the Pharmacy Degree at the Universitat de Barcelona. Two of them, Physiology and Pathophysiology I and II are taught in the second academic year, while Physiology and Pathophysiology III is taught in the third year. The different organic systems included in the third subject are respiratory, urinary, endocrine and reproductive systems. In the 2021-2022 academic year, teachers decided to perform a learning reinforcement activity for each system. These activities were carried out a few days after the completion of the corresponding organic system and were designed differently depending on the system studied. The activities were given to the students in advance to the face-to-face class to give them time to perform autonomous work on the contents already developed in class. On the day of the final exam, the students answered a survey designed to measure their satisfaction about the development of these activities.

For the respiratory system, a clinical case of a long-term smoker was supplied, making the students analyse, with serial open questions, each step of her disease. On the day of the activity in class, students answered a Kahoot about the disease disorders that the patient developed throughout her life due to smoking habit. For the urinary system, several brief clinical cases were handed out, which included short open questions and calculations on kidney function. In classroom, students answered a Kahoot about the different clinical cases. For the endocrine system, a clinical case on Cushing’s syndrome was provided, which included several activities and questions designed to reinforce learning. In classroom, students answered simultaneously each question by showing a different coloured cardboard according to whether they answered as correct, incorrect or blank. For the reproductive system, several questions about the theoretical classes were given to the students. In the classroom, the students answered the questions after the teacher questioned them and they had free time to ask the teacher any doubt about the content of the theoretical classes.

With respect to the results of the survey, the fact of performing a specific learning activity at the end of each organic system was highly appreciated by the students. Most students (91 %) valued positively the activities, because they allowed them to understand and assimilate the contents of the course.

Considering each activity separately, the students considered all of them positively, but the satisfaction degree was slightly higher in those activities with included a clinical case. Concerning the methodology applied, no differences were observed between the activities carried out with the use of computer technologies (Kahoot) and those activities that favour the use of the oral participation of students.

To conclude with, the application of learning reinforcement activities to each organic system studied is highly appreciated by the students, since it allowed them to understand and assimilate the concepts explained in the theoretical classes. All these activities obtained a high degree of satisfaction and no differences were observed between activities that used computer or classical teaching technologies.

Keywords:

Learning reinforcement activities, theoretical classes, teaching methodologies, survey.