For the pharmacology student to be successful in learning, the student must have a good foundation in science. That good foundation should include anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology. An exposure to microbiology and pathology may be of benefit to the student.

Additionally, providing students with the reasons for learning something is crucial to their understanding of any content. It is not appropriate to say to students, “you’ll learn why that is important in a later class or lecture”, without providing students with a “glimpse” of what that “later content is and its relational context to the current content”. 

For example, when students learn about biochemical processes, such as the production of tyrosine in the body, a “hook” for them might be to add the role of tyrosine as the precursor of important catecholamine neurotransmitters. 

Another example would be, learning about electron transfer coupled to context and comments about the cytochrome P450 metabolic enzymes and why these enzymes are important to the body and to drug use, both legitimate and illicit drug use.