Does a Student's Academic Major Influence Their Perceptions of a Human Anatomy and Physiology Course and Ultimately Their Success in the Course?

Students from a variety of majors take human anatomy and physiology courses--usually because they are required for their program of study. Many students find anatomy and physiology classes academically challenging and institutions across the country report high failure and withdrawal rates for these courses. Although research has shown that several factors may contribute to poor student performance, this study focused on the relationship between a student's major and their perceptions about the course to investigate whether these data were reflective of student success rates. Survey data was collected from students in the first semester of a two-semester, systems-based human anatomy and physiology course sequence. While the results did not show a statistical difference in successful completion of the anatomy and physiology course related to academic major, interesting preferences regarding learning styles, study habits, and perceived difficulty of the course were found.