A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

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Teaching in the disciplines
student-led approach to anatomy learning is supplemented with expert-led
tutorials that are clinically relevant and involve tasks to promote active learning.
They incorporate living models, radiological imaging and virtual teaching tools.
This approach develops an appreciation of gross anatomy from the outside
(surface anatomy) inwards, aided by visual observation, body projection,
palpation and auscultation. The innovative use of body projections (anatomical
images projected on to the surface of a human body that may be taken
sequentially, as in dissection, through the underlying layers of the body), body
painting and digital surface anatomy atlases helps the students construct a 3D
picture from the surface inwards.
Why do we do it?
Our approach was motivated by three main factors: (1) a desire to place the
learning in a patient-centred context; (2) a concern that distinct pre-clinical/
clinical phases to the programme could make it difficult to ensure that anatomy
is learnt in a way that is clinically relevant and could be applied directly in medical
practice; (3) the recent technological developments enable the learning of
anatomy to be more authentic to modern clinical practice.
The feedback so far
Students appear to enjoy the expert-led tutorials and learning anatomy in a
clinical context. Some express anxiety about their anatomy knowledge but the
evidence from assessment confirms that anatomy learning increases steadily
across the five-year programme. Our evaluation of the approach is ongoing but
the early signs are encouraging.
(Dr Karen Mattick, Mr James Oldham, Dr Tudor Chinnah, Dr Russell Davies,
Dr David Bristow, Peninsula Medical School)
ASSESSMENT
The assessment challenge is to use appropriate methods, following the basic guidelines
of assessment (see Chapter 10, and Crosby, 2002). Assessment should be valid, reliable,
fair, feasible, defendable and well conceived from the perspective of impact on learning.
Interrogating practice
List the types of assessment with which you are familiar. For each type
consider if it assesses knowing, thinking, technical skills, attitudes and/or
behaviour.