Perceptions of South African academic instructors toward the teaching and learning of anatomy

Abstract

Background: Reflecting on teaching is commonly cited as a fundamental practice for personal and professional development. Educational research into the scholarship of teaching and learning anatomy includes engaging in discipline specific literature on teaching, reflecting on individual teaching methods and communicating these findings to peers. The aim of this paper was to formally assess the opinions of senior anatomy instructors regarding the state of anatomical knowledge at their respective institutions. Materials and methods: An open-ended questionnaire was devised consisting of eight direct questions seeking opinions on anatomy teaching, knowledge, potential educational developments and general thoughts on the teaching of anatomy to medical students. These were distributed to senior Anatomy Faculty (identified by the author by their affiliation with the Anatomical Society of Southern Africa) based at the eight national medical schools within the country. Results and Conclusions: A number of key themes emerged. Most senior faculty felt that the standard of medical education at their respective institutions was "good." However, emphasis was also placed on the "quality of teaching" incorporating clinical scenarios. There were also indications that staff are split into those that are keen to do research and those that are happy to provide teaching to medical students as their primary function. Several challenges such as time constraints within the curricula, lack of cadavers to reinforce knowledge and lack of appropriately qualified staff were highlighted. Recommendations included fostering partnerships with both clinicians and medical scientists into the anatomy curriculum thus improving teaching and research.

Morphological Practical Teaching Platform Improves the Outcome of Anatomy Laboratory Teaching

“…The anatomical laboratory plays an important role for medical students to effectively learn anatomy (Rizzolo, 2002). How to carry out anatomy teaching and improve teaching effect, especially experiment teaching, is an eternal topic worth thinking about for every anatomy teacher (McMenamin, 2008;Lazarus et al, 2019). In the traditional teaching mode, teachers usually show students with samples and models, and students always acquire RESUMEN: El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar si la nueva plataforma de enseñanza práctica morfológica podría mejorar el resultado de la enseñanza en el laboratorio de anatomía.…”

A base da Medicina: anatomia como parte fundamental para a formação acadêmica e segurança profissional

“…A revisão bibliográfica contou com 8 artigos que embasavam sobre o estudo da anatomia prioritariamente, sendo eles, 4 revisões bibliográficas, 3 estudos qualitativos ou descritivos e 1 estudo multicêntrico. Após a utilização dos filtros dos últimos 5 anos (2017 a 2021), foi observado que a maioria dos artigos foram publicados no ano de 2019 (62,5%), seguido por 2020 (25%), sendo todos os artigos pesquisados em 3 línguas, o português (Alghamdi et al, 2017), espanhol (Rodríguez-Herrera et al, 2019, Tayyem et al, 2019 e inglês (Cordeiro, 2019;Fornaziero, 2019;Hendriks et al, 2020;Lazarus et al, 2019;Schroeder et al, 2020).…”

“…Os artigos abordaram o contexto histórico, os quais enfatizam como a medicina tinha um estudo anatômico minucioso, o que demandavam horas de dedicação, a metodologia de ensino, que por sua vez apontam as mudanças que a grade curricular vem sofrendo devido a introdução de tecnologias avançadas nas unidades de ensino superior, o que como consequência tem reduzido as horas aulas de anatomia devido a rapidez das informações e adição de outras disciplinas no currículo acadêmico, a percepção dos docentes e discentes em relação a qualidade de ensino e aprendizagem em anatomia, estes ressaltam que está havendo um baixo rendimento no ensino da anatomia por conta da facilidade de informações, o que causa um aprendizado passivo momentâneo, além das poucas horas de aula voltada para a disciplina, e a questão jurídica, esta que fala sobre a dificuldade que as instituições de ensino superior tem para obtenção de peças orgânicas (Cordeiro, 2019;Lazarus et al, 2019;Rodríguez-Herrera et al, 2019;Schroeder et al, 2020;Tayyem et al, 2019) .…”

“…Algumas sugestões foram citadas na tentativa de resolver essa problemática como padronizar a carga horária no estudo de anatomia, conciliar o estudo de peças sintéticas com peças molhadas, interligar a anatomia com as outras disciplinas e melhorar a qualificação dos profissionais sendo este preferencialmente um cirurgião. (Alghamdi et al, 2017;Lazarus et al, 2019;Rodríguez-Herrera et al, 2019;Fornaziero, 2019;Schroeder et al, 2020;Tayyem et al, 2019).…”

Cultural practices of the Zulu ethnic group on the body and their influence on body donation

“…In the South African context, anatomy is taught to a variety of health science students (i.e. medical, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, dental therapy, oral hygiene, optometry and pharmacy) (Lazarus et al, 2019) utilizing traditional didactic lectures and dissection (Kramer et al, 2008). To complement dissection in teaching anatomy, prosected specimens, skeletal material, and e‐learning resources are other teaching modalities used in South Africa (Kramer et al, 2008; Biasutto et al, 2014a).…”