Advances in Medical Education and Practice | 2021
Medical Students’ Perspective – Students’ Perceptions and Attitudes After Exposure to Three Different Instructional Strategies in Applied Anatomy [Letter]
Abstract
1Imperial College London, Faculty of Medicine, London, UK; 2University College London, Faculty of Medicine, London, UK Dear editor It was a pleasure to read the study by Bin Abdulrahman et al regarding anatomy teaching methods and whether anatomage, plastinated specimens or combining both methods were more effective in first year medical students. As medical students ourselves, we feel that utilising multiple resources may be beneficial, however the long-term improvement in anatomy understanding and consolidation is hard to determine. The results of the study are ambiguous as to why students showed a higher attitude for combined teaching compared to anatomage or plastinated models alone. The authors only reported the results of 5 questions from the 15-question survey assessing student’s attitudes to teaching methods. The unreported questions may shed more light on factors contributing to combined teaching receiving better feedback. The 3 questions that displayed significant differences between combined teaching versus single methods, are largely subjective and non-specific compared to the other 2 reported non-significant questions which involved tangible outcomes of anatomy learning. Additionally, a higher proportion of students felt that combined methods benefited learning outcomes, however there were no significant differences in the student’s final grades. It is therefore difficult to ascertain why students perceived combined methods favourably. Importantly, the objective structured practical examination (OSPE) was conducted straight after the practical teaching session, thereby only testing students’ short-term memory. This suggests that the results of the study cannot be applied to long-term understanding and memory of anatomy, which is required for end of year assessments and clinical practice. Furthermore, if the OSPE was additionally performed prior to the teaching sessions, the improvement in test scores could have been quantified to assess the effectiveness of the teaching methods. Alongside fulfilling one of the aims of the study, this would also strengthen the argument to adopt novel methods such as anatomage and plastinated specimens in medical school curriculums. Additionally, the study states that the student groups were tested with the help of their assigned teaching method, with questions being demonstrated using either Correspondence: Daniel George Imperial College School of Medicine, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Imperial College Road, London, SW7 2DD, UK Tel +44 7481777676 Email [email protected]