An exploration of first-year medical students’ prior knowledge of cell biology and the potential effectiveness of technology integration in bridging the gaps

Abstract

First-year medical students’ prior knowledge of cell biology could provide insight into their subsequent understanding. This research project was conducted to explore first-year medical students’ prior knowledge of cell biology and the potential effectiveness of technology integration in bridging the gaps. To address this aim, I determined whether there were gaps in first-year medical students’ knowledge of cell biology and how students and lecturers addressed any gaps with the use of technology. The study was conducted with students and their lecturers at a university in Gauteng, South Africa over 2020 and 2021. Data was collected through interviews with staff, questionnaires with students, by analysing assessment responses on content related to cell biology, and analysis of online lessons given to students. From the data collected, it was found that the majority of students do not have a holistic understanding of cell biology from high school. Consequently, students may be unable to accommodate successive knowledge taught in first-year. The study also revealed that first-year lecturers are vaguely aware of the content that is taught in school. Lecturers also indicated that the use of technology could enhance students understanding of cell biology concepts. This belief was confirmed to some extent, with the use of technology as part of the teaching practice. The results of this study indicate that the concept of the cytoskeleton, a component of the animal cell, may need to be introduced at high school level, as it is critical for the understanding of many intracellular processes. Secondly, lecturers may need to become more aware of what the high school syllabus offers so that their teaching is better aligned with the knowledge that students have when they enter their first year. They can then better scaffold the students’ learning through the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) from their knowledge at high school to their understandings developed at university. In addition, technology has the potential to mitigate conceptual challenges by enabling students to visualize the dynamic and abstract characteristics of cells and may need to be used to teach this concept using the Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework.