Teaching Anatomy: need or taste?

Abstract

Background: Anatomy is one of the core sections of Basic Medical Sciences. Given the central role of anatomy, the development of medical knowledge and reach new horizons in science is not possible without relying on anatomy. Since in the anatomy science, students are familiar with the basic terms of medical language, the anatomy's hard to know and have a negative attitude towards this course. With these conditions, anatomy professors have an important role in providing incentives for medical students. However, sometimes applying tastes and the entry of too much anatomical detail creates conditions that cut the motivation for medical students. Therefore, this article seeks to offer solutions to cut apply tasteless and coordinate the teaching of anatomy to interest and motivate medical students to increase this lesson.

Introduction

Anatomy is a multidimensional subject in which students learn the body structures, their functions and relationship theoretically. Research has shown that advanced organizers such as showing the structures before teaching theory has a great impact on students' learning, facilitates learning and increase their interest in this course [1].Providing a thorough knowledge of anatomy to medical students prepares them to enter the field of practical lessons. Anatomy is not only one of the main courses of medicine, but also contributes the advancement of medicine. However, there are problems to be investigated and ways of changing the anatomy teaching so that a medical student can learn it better have to be sought for [2]. Knowledge of anatomy is of value in clinical trials and clinical practice for medical students. Since anatomy contains a great amount of medical terms, location of organs and their adjacencies it is considered one of the difficult courses. The method of teaching anatomy as other courses in medicine can influence the learning ability of students to a great extent. New methods of teaching in basic sciences, specifically those methods which are closer to clinical issues, increase the students' motivation for learning [3]. Precise learning of human anatomy is a necessity for medical students in order to distinguish between a physiologic or pathologic status [4]. However, anatomists are confronted with challenges like presenting the materials in restricted time with limited references [5]. Learning anatomy is based on a high imagination power and a strong memory since it provides a massive amount of information [6]. Low motivation of students, which is caused by their inability to memorize the material leads to their inability to put into practice the learned subjects [7]. Anatomists are active in various fields such as anatomy, embryology, and histology [8]. Professors and students often criticize about the relationship of detailed basic sciences and clinical courses and students always bring this question that is it necessary to learn the detailed basic sciences for better clinical services? [9]. Today, to solve the problems, different universities of the world have reformed their method of teaching basic sciences, such as integration of basic and clinical sciences or methods based on problem-solving [10]. Anatomists sometimes are criticized for their detailed teaching and it is said that these details can sometimes prevent the students to learn better. It is declared that for better memorizing and longevity of learning it is inevitable to provide a background [6]. Given the different methods of teaching anatomy at different universities throughout the world [11, 12, 13, 14] there is no consensus between teaching methods [15]. This lack of coordination in teaching methods can largely influence the students' learning and experience and finally, it affects their clinical function.

Conclusion

Due to massive and difficult materials in anatomy, it seems that the methods of teaching should be arranged in a way that they are not personalized and too much detailed. Clinical relationship of the materials should be considered, as well. Given that the lecture method is the oldest method of teaching anatomy and medical students only to maintain the course itself, expected medical universities in the world in a move consistent with the use of new technologies to operate modern teaching methods such as the use of three-dimensional software for teaching anatomy. It is a better syllabus for teaching anatomy courses in all universities of the same world to prevent the creation of taste in the teaching of anatomy.