Redesign of a journal club course to strategically scaffold learning and promote increased understanding of the scientific method and experimental design principles

Many graduate programs include a required journal club course to teach students how to evaluate published biomedical literature and develop critical thinking skills. Often student learning is dependent upon observation of experienced faculty modeling these skills. Common journal club structures include student presentations or small group discussion of assigned articles. Checklists and guidelines for reviewing scientific literature are good resources for students, however use of these can lead to a superficial evaluation due to limited understanding of the principles of the scientific method and rigorous experimental design. We sought to redesign a journal club course for MS- and PhD-level graduate students with the goals of promoting a deeper understanding of the scientific method and experimental design principles and enhancing analytical and critical thinking skills. Scaffolding learning requires breaking down complex topics into smaller components and providing additional support in early stages, with less support provided as learners demonstrate greater skill proficiency. Using this principle, the course was redesigned to highlight key experimental design principles, with individual class sessions dedicated to one topic (for example: study types, appropriate control groups, sources of bias, study power and fundamental statistics). Students worked independently to answer targeted questions as they reviewed the selected literature for the week. Key concepts were discussed in small groups, with assigned group representatives contributing to large group class discussions. Peer and instructor feedback during these sessions enabled students to better understand why these key principles are important in study design. These targeted sessions were interleaved with more traditional journal club class sessions to provide the opportunity for students to apply the knowledge gained from the targeted sessions to full analysis of selected published scientific literature. This model has increased the robustness of student discussion during class sessions and promotes deeper learning for the students in the course. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.