Examining the Short‐, Medium‐, and Long‐Term Success of an Embodied Learning Activity in the Study of Hand Anatomy for Clinical Application

Abstract

A student's own body provides an often disregarded site of knowledge production and corporeal wisdom. Learning via cognitive processes anchored in physical movement and body awareness, known as embodied learning, may aid students to visualize structures and understand their functions and clinical relevance. Working from an embodied learning perspective, the current article evaluates the use of an offline physical learning tool (Anatomical Glove Learning System; AGLS) for teaching hand anatomy for clinical application in medical students. Two student samples (N1 = 105; N2 = 94) used the AGLS in two different ways. In the first sample, the AGLS was compared to a traditional approach using hand bones, models and prosected specimens. Secondly, the AGLS and traditional approach were combined. The evaluation consisted of three outcomes: short‐term learning (post‐test), medium‐term applications (mock‐objective structured clinical examination, MOSCE), and longer‐term assessment (objective structured clinical examination, OSCE). Findings from the first sample indicated no significant differences between the AGLS and traditional laboratory groups on short‐ (F(1,78) = 0.036, P = 0.849), medium‐ (F(1,50) = 0.743, P = 0.393), or longer‐term (F(1,82) = 0.997, P = 0.321) outcomes. In the second sample using the AGLS in combination with a traditional approach was associated with significantly better short‐term post‐test scores (F(2,174) = 5.98, P = 0.003) than using the AGLS alone, but demonstrated no effect for long‐term OSCE scores. These results suggest an embodied learning experience alone does not appear to be advantageous to student learning, but when combined with other methods for studying anatomy there are learning gains.

Exploring the impact of interactive movement‐based anatomy learning in real classroom setting among kinesiology students

“…Triggering embodiment through movement execution enhanced functional anatomy learning at the end of a real learning semester. This result is in line with the scarce studies providing evidence of the positive impact of embodiment on anatomy learning using quantitative learning outcomes (Macken & Ginns, 2014;Dickson & Stephens, 2015;Cherdieu et al, 2017;Smyth et al, 2021;Yohannan et al, 2022). In previous studies, embodiment was triggered mainly through hand gestures.…”

“…On the contrary, this decrease of anatomical knowledge retention was not observed in the EXP group. This result is at odds with Smyth et al (2021) study who found that embodiment was associated with better short-term scores, but demonstrated no effect for long-term assessment. The absence of significant longterm learning gains in Smyth et al (2021) study may be linked to the nature of their assessments which consisted of clinical applications.…”

“…What explains the EXP group outperformance is mainly the multimodal learning triggered during the practical lessons by combining 3D animation visualization with movement execution. As supported by Smyth et al (2021) such an integrated approach is beneficial for learning. An embodied learning experience when combined with other methods might provide further benefit to learning (Smyth et al, 2021).…”

“…An embodied learning experience when combined with other methods might provide further benefit to learning (Smyth et al, 2021). Furthermore, it is known that associating visualization to real practice fosters learning outcomes (Eldred-Evans et al, 2013).…”

“…More recently, two studies provided evidence on the positive effect on anatomy learning of two cost‐effective methods. The first study reported a positive effect of combining traditional approach with the use of an anatomical cotton glove (Smyth et al, 2021). Practically, hand bones were already printed on the glove and students were instructed to draw additional anatomical components for a better understanding of innervations, functions, and clinical relevance.…”