A Scoping Review of Effective Teaching Strategies in Surface Anatomy

Abstract

To become skilled physicians, medical students must master surface anatomy. However, the study of surface anatomy is less emphasized in medical and allied health science curricula, and the time devoted to direct engagement with the human body is limited. This scoping review was designed to answer one research question: "What are the elements and strategies that are effective in teaching surface anatomy?" The review was performed using a five-stage scoping review framework, including research question identification, relevant study identification, study selection, data charting, and result collating and reporting. Three databases were searched using two search terms combined with a Boolean operator: "teaching" and "surface anatomy." The initial pool of 3,294 sources was assessed for duplication, and study eligibility was evaluated using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were abstracted from 26 original articles by one researcher and verified by two other researchers. A thematic analysis was performed, and several elements of effective teaching strategies for surface anatomy were identified, namely contextualized teaching, embracing experiential learning, and learning facilitation. This review revealed that a multimodal approach was most commonly used in surface anatomy instruction. Hence, future research should explore the effectiveness of multimodal teaching strategies that adopt the three aforementioned primary elements of effective teaching in an authentic learning environment. It is pertinent to clarify the effectiveness of these teaching strategies by evaluating their impact on student learning, organizational changes, and benefits to other stakeholders. Anat Sci Educ 15: 166-177.

Promoting more future‐ready anatomy education after the Covid‐19 pandemic: A scoping review

“…Therefore, a fully online anatomy course cannot ensure students' achievement of necessary learning outcomes (Tg Muda et al, 2021). The adoption of blended learning and the implementation of innovative pedagogical ideas during the pandemic have suggested efficient methods to combine traditional face‐to‐face teaching with online modalities (Abu Bakar et al, 2022; Xiao & Adnan, 2022). However, these approaches' effectiveness and implications for post‐pandemic anatomy curricula must be explored further to ensure their sustainability.…”

Transforming musculoskeletal anatomy learning with haptic surface painting

“…Although there has been increased recent focus on active, experiential learning activities to improve understanding of anatomy, [86][87][88] there has been limited development of approaches to support visuospatial and metacognitive skills in anatomy learning and assessments. 8,28,89 Here, this area is addressed through presenting a description and evaluation of a novel Haptic Surface Painting (HSP) approach.…”

Needs assessment of essential anatomy: The perspective of adult primary care resident physicians

“…Previous studies provided evidence of successful surface anatomy initiatives including body painting, 71,72 learning through ultrasound imaging and scanning sessions, 73,74 and clinical-applied teaching sessions. 75 Abu Bakar et al 76 performed a scoping review to determine elements and strategies that were effective in teaching surface anatomy and found that contextualized teaching, experiential learning, and learning facilitation (comprising the teachers' role and technology-enhanced teaching) to be three main themes. Finally, an expansion of surface anatomy content within gross anatomy could also provide an additional opportunity for interprofessional education (e.g., physical therapy students assisting medical students with musculoskeletal examination training).…”