Metaphors for Anatomy Lesson of Students Who Received Anatomy Education in Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry

Abstract

Aim: Metaphor, which is used to mean "to describe one thing with another thing", is the explanation of certain situations, concepts and phenomena with other well-known expressions. Metaphor, which is generally considered by linguists as a rhetoric to embellish discourse, but is mostly used in the field of education and is the subject of research, is also one of the methods that can be used in reaching information. Anatomy courses given in institutions providing education in the field of health are one of the basic courses and take up a very large place in the first years of education. For this reason, the opinions of the students who receive education are important. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the thoughts and interpretations of the students of the faculty of medicine and dentistry about the Anatomy course through metaphors.Methods: A questionnaire consisting of four questions was applied online to the students of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry, who agreed to participate in the study after the approval of the ethics committee, and the answers were evaluated qualitatively.Results: As a result of the data collection period between March 2021 and May 2021, a total of 134 students, 74 from the Faculty of Dentistry and 60 from the Faculty of Medicine, participated in the stud by giving their consent for the study. Of the participants in the study, 82 were female and 52 were male. While 38.8% of the students had positive opinions about the Anatomy course, 61.2 of them had negative opinions. 81.3% of the students expressed the Anatomy lesson with a concrete concept and 18.7% with an abstract concept. 14.2% of the concepts paired with anatomy are related to health, and 85.8% are unrelated to the field of health. 33.7% of the expressions were classified as object, 24.6% as action, 17.9% as situation, 13.4% as place and 10.4% as concept.Conclusions: According to our observations as a result of the research, Anatomy course creates a great burden on students studying in dentistry and medical faculties and becomes a source of stress. In addition, most of the students stated that the course is important. In the light of these data, it has been concluded that it is necessary to make anatomy lessons more attractive to students, to avoid unnecessary information and details, to provide information that they will use in their professional lives, to increase interest by associating the course topics with clinical situations.