Abstract
This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Research has shown that students feel overwhelmed by the amount of information covered in first year anatomy and physiology subjects (Eagleton, 2015). In this paper, we present an activity designed to facilitate learning of the organization of the human skeletal system and anatomical directional terms used to help describe it. Learning styles and the effect of body painting was also investigated.Two studies are described and each were analysed separately both quantitatively (pre- and post-test scores) and qualitatively (surveys).Body painting did not affect the number of directional terms included in the concept maps. The most common term used was "superior" and the least was "superficial". Students applied the greatest number of directional terms to the lower limb, upper limb and vertebral column. Knowledgeable students gained no benefit from the body painting activity and from completing the concept map test a second time, whereas, the students who were naïve to the content benefited significantly from repeated testing and from body painting.Students need scaffolding, practise and feedback to construct concept maps. Adapting the concept map tests increased student engagement and the objectivity of scoring. Learning style did not have an effect on learning outcomes of the students in this study.
Highlights
Students working towards a degree in the Health Sciences are required to undertake a first year subject in anatomy and physiology vary significantly in their education prior to university (Anderton, Evans, & Chivers, 2016)
Students have previously stated that they underestimate the amount of content and comprehensiveness of a first year anatomy and physiology subject and that the teaching methods used can influence their ability to learn the content (Eagleton, 2015)
The learning style of the student had no effect on the learning outcomes in this study
Summary
Students working towards a degree in the Health Sciences are required to undertake a first year subject in anatomy and physiology vary significantly in their education prior to university (Anderton, Evans, & Chivers, 2016). Many of these students either drop out or decide to repeat these subjects before progressing in their chosen field (Entezari & Javdan, 2016; Schutte, 2016). Students have previously stated that they underestimate the amount of content and comprehensiveness of a first year anatomy and physiology subject and that the teaching methods used can influence their ability to learn the content (Eagleton, 2015). We were interested to see whether adding a learning activity that contained elements of all learning styles, influenced learning about the human skeletal system
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