According to self-determination theory, the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness has been associated with intrinsic motivation. Fulfilling basic psychological needs can lead to better learning, academic performance, and well-being. In this study, an anatomy program integrated gamification and drawing methods to explore their influence on…

Dental anatomy education for dental technology students should be developed in alignment with digital dental laboratory practices. We hypothesized that a virtually assisted sketching-based dental anatomy teaching module could improve students' acquisition of skills essential for digital restoration design. The second-year dental technology…

Spatial visualization, the ability to mentally rotate three-dimensional (3D) images, plays a significant role in anatomy education. This study examines the impact of technical drawing exercises on the improvement of spatial visualization and anatomy education in a Neuroscience course. First-year medical students (n = 84) were randomly allocated…

Visuospatial skills are considered important attributes when learning anatomy and there is evidence suggesting that this ability can be improved with training techniques including drawing. The Mental Rotations Test (MRT) has been routinely used to assess visuospatial ability. This study aimed to introduce students to drawing as a learning strategy…

The way medical students learn anatomy is constantly evolving. Nowadays, technologies such as tablets support established learning methods like drawing. In this study, the effect of drawing on a tablet on medical students' anatomy learning was investigated compared to drawing or summarizing on paper. The quality of drawings or summaries was…

Anatomical body painting has traditionally been utilized to support learner engagement and understanding of surface anatomy. Learners apply two-dimensional representations of surface markings directly on to the skin, based on the identification of key landmarks. Esthetically satisfying representations of musculature and viscera can also be…

Haptic perception is used in the anatomy laboratory with the handling of three-dimensional (3D) prosections, dissections, and synthetic models of anatomical structures. Vision-based spatial ability has been found to correlate with performance on tests of 3D anatomy knowledge in previous studies. The objective was to explore whether haptic-based…

Ongoing research has attempted to discern the optimal way to teach surgical anatomy. This study investigated the relative effectiveness of drawing and clay modeling on learning spinal anatomy among medical students. Participants were recruited from a first-year medical school class to participate in an optional educational session in their regular…

Studies have demonstrated that students experience a variety of intense emotions in anticipation of human anatomical dissection, including enthusiasm, gratitude, responsibility, apprehension, detachment, anxiety, and spiritual or moral reflection. The exercise described here provides an opportunity to start a conversation about the complexity of…

The concept that multisensory observation and drawing can be effective for enhancing anatomy learning is supported by pedagogic research and theory, and theories of drawing. A haptico-visual observation and drawing (HVOD) process has been previously introduced to support understanding of the three-dimensional (3D) spatial form of anatomical…

In contrast to medical education, information on the use of arts as a learning approach is scarce in veterinary anatomy. The aim of this prospective, questionnaire-based study was to survey students' use of drawing in various aspects of veterinary anatomy learning (self-study, examinations, preparation for, and reflection on cadaver dissection).…

Drawing is a teaching tool that provides numerous benefits to student learning, including enhanced knowledge retention, improved observation skills, and increased engagement with course content. However, these exercises also place high cognitive demands on students and require a considerable time commitment. To acknowledge and celebrate the effort…

Students' engagement with two-dimensional (2D) representations as opposed to three-dimensional (3D) representations of anatomy such as in dissection, is significant in terms of the depth of their comprehension. This qualitative study aimed to understand how students learned anatomy using observational and drawing activities that included touch,…

Anatomical relationships are challenging concepts for first-year medical students. The use of progressive drawing, where an image is created from a blank template, has long been utilized for outlining anatomical relationships and continuity from one region to another, and has shown positive outcomes for student learning. More recently,…

Medical students have to process a large amount of information during the first years of their study, which has to be retained over long periods of nonuse. Therefore, it would be beneficial when knowledge is gained in a way that promotes long-term retention. Paper-and-pencil drawings for the uptake of form-function relationships of basic tissues…