The relationships between attitudes, course aims and teaching methods for the teaching of Gross Anatomy in the Medical Curriculum

Recent developments in medical curricula have led to marked changes in the teaching of gross (topographical) anatomy. This has resulted from the belief that anatomy is largely “content-driven” and not “skills-based”. This presentation describes and evaluates, primarily from the perspective of medical students, different methods of teaching anatomy and includes the “teaching” of such skills as: team skills, relating their dissecting room experience to the study of pathology and to the clinic, relating their experience to medical humanities issues such as their responses to death. The assessment of attitudes was conducted by employing Thurstone and Chave attitude analyses and also a matrix questionnaire that evaluated different methods of teaching anatomy in relation to an array of potential course aims/learning outcomes. Comparisons were made with the attitudes of professional anatomists working in Europe. The findings show that: