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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Clare GuildingORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2026 The Author(s). Pharmacology Research & Perspectives published by British Pharmacological Society and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Misconceptions in pharmacology can undermine learning and compromise both clinical and scientific reasoning, yet few validated tools exist to identify them. Consequently, we developed and validated the Pharmacology Concept Inventory (PCI), which can be used to identify misconceptions, assess learning gains, and evaluate teaching effectiveness. This PCI was designed based on the IUPHAR-Education Section (IUPHAR-Ed) Core Concepts of Pharmacology Project, addressing eight core concepts: drug efficacy, drug-target interaction, steady-state concentration, structure–activity relationship, drug tolerance, drug bioavailability, volume of distribution, and drug clearance. A triangulated design strategy integrated theoretical frameworks, expert review, and student perspectives. Experts examined quality, content validity, and cognitive alignment. The pilot PCI was then administered to a student cohort to evaluate its psychometric properties, providing preliminary evidence for further refinement. Item-level content validity indices ranged from 0.67 to 1.00, with a scale-level average of 0.93. Seventy students completed the pilot survey, leading to the exclusion of items with low discrimination and reliability. Items on drug-target interaction were removed due to consistently poor performance. The final PCI included 26 items covering seven concepts, with strong discrimination indices (0.36–0.75) and difficulty indices (0.26–0.71). Internal consistency was high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.91), and concept-level reliability ranged from 0.64 to 0.85. The PCI provides strong evidence for identifying misconceptions and assessing learning outcomes through a pre–post-test approach. Although the PCI currently addresses only a subset of concepts, continued refinements informed by surveys and interviews will enhance its utility and expand its scope for concept-based learning and curriculum evaluation.
Author(s): Netere AK, Hughes T, Babey A-M, Guilding C, Restini C, Hawes M, Kelly JP, Djouma E, Koenig J, McLaughlin JE, Olafuyi O, Fernandes LB, Mifsud J, Sills GJ, van Houwelingen AH, Tucker SJ, Liang W, Aronsson P, Khan FA, Hinton T, Hernandez M, Cormier L, Kelly-Laubscher R, Caetano Crowley FA, Santiago MJ, Cunningham M, Richardson JD, Karpa K, White PJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Pharmacology Research and Perspectives
Year: 2026
Volume: 14
Issue: 2
Print publication date: 01/04/2026
Online publication date: 22/03/2026
Acceptance date: 26/02/2026
Date deposited: 14/04/2026
ISSN (electronic): 2052-1707
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/prp2.70237
DOI: 10.1002/prp2.70237
Data Access Statement: All working data for this study will be available on reasonable request to the corresponding author.
PubMed id: 41866637
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