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Drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci: Vitruvian Man (left); anatomical drawings of the upper limb (right). 

Drawings by Leonardo Da Vinci: Vitruvian Man (left); anatomical drawings of the upper limb (right). 

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Art has played a pivotal role in the understanding and teaching of human anatomy for centuries, and the use of drawing as a teaching tool had been well documented. With the global modernization of medical education, the teaching of anatomy has diminished. We present a model of teaching anatomy through drawing, and assess its efficacy in improving s...

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... and drawing, despite their long established history with the teaching and learning of anatomy, had received relatively few literature to describe its efficacy within the medical education at recent times [21,22]. This historic link can often be sym- bolized by Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (Fig. 1). In France, it is a custom for medical students to receive their basic anatomy teaching through "blackboard" drawing demonstrations, this allowed tutors to highlight anatomical structures in a clear visual manner that were easier to understand and visualize compared to prosections and cadavers ( Fig. 2) [23]. The literature from France ...
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... workshops: 17 upper limb, 8 lower limb, 4 tho- rax, and 20 head and neck (Table 1). The overall attended cohort included 28 (58.3%) medical stu- dents, 8 (16.7%) dental students, 7 (14.6%) science students from varying backgrounds including anat- omy, biomedical sciences, neurosciences, 3 (6.3%) Masters of Art students, and 2 (4.2%) PhD students (Fig. 10). Medical and dental students ranged from year 1-5. No additional demographic details were recorded, such as age or gender. Students reported their frequency of using drawing as learning tool: main learning tool 13%, often 37%, rarely 32.6%, and never 17.4% (Fig. ...
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... neurosciences, 3 (6.3%) Masters of Art students, and 2 (4.2%) PhD students (Fig. 10). Medical and dental students ranged from year 1-5. No additional demographic details were recorded, such as age or gender. Students reported their frequency of using drawing as learning tool: main learning tool 13%, often 37%, rarely 32.6%, and never 17.4% (Fig. ...
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... total of 27 (out of 32) students completed the pre-and post-anatomy MCQ test (Table 1). The test was not offered in the upper limb workshop. The mean score for pre-workshop was 4.93/12 (41.1%), and the post-workshops was 6.04/12 (50%) (Fig. 12). There was a statistically signifi- cant mean improvement across all of workshops of 1.11 points (p = 0.001) with a confidence interval (CI) (0.52-1.71). The mean score of the "anchor" questions pre-workshop was 1.59/4 (39.8%) and post-workshop was 2.63/4 (65.8%). There was a statistically significant mean improvement of 1.04 (p < ...
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... signifi- cant mean improvement across all of workshops of 1.11 points (p = 0.001) with a confidence interval (CI) (0.52-1.71). The mean score of the "anchor" questions pre-workshop was 1.59/4 (39.8%) and post-workshop was 2.63/4 (65.8%). There was a statistically significant mean improvement of 1.04 (p < 0.0001) with a CI (0.63-1.44) (Fig. ...
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... 49 students responded to the self-score (out of 10) in "confidence in drawing" in the questionnaire, and showed a significant post-workshop improve- ment of two points (43.2%) (p < 0.0001) with a CI (1.5-2.5). The mean and SEM of pre-workshop was 4.625 ± 0.293 and post-workshop was 6.625 ± 0.218. (Table 1) (Fig. 14). "Knowledge of anat- omy" was not included in the upper limb workshop questionnaire. Thrity-one (out of 32) students com- pleted the self-rated "knowledge of anatomy," and showed a significant post-workshop improvement of 1.77 points (41.4%) (p < 0.0001) with a CI (1.28- 2.26), and mean and SEM of 4.29 ± 0.363 (pre-) and 6.064 ± 0.286 ...
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... 14). "Knowledge of anat- omy" was not included in the upper limb workshop questionnaire. Thrity-one (out of 32) students com- pleted the self-rated "knowledge of anatomy," and showed a significant post-workshop improvement of 1.77 points (41.4%) (p < 0.0001) with a CI (1.28- 2.26), and mean and SEM of 4.29 ± 0.363 (pre-) and 6.064 ± 0.286 (post-) (Fig. 15). The overall course satisfaction score was 9.12/10 ...
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... demonstrating the number of attended students and response rate to the MCQ anatomy test and "confidence in drawing" in the questionnaire. There was a statistically significant mean improvement of 1.11 points across all workshops (p = 0.0007) with a CI (0.52-1.71) Figure 13. A graph comparing the mean anatomy test 'core' scores before and after the course (Total N = 31). ...

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... Several studies have shown the benefit of drawing when learning anatomy. It has been argued that drawing may support students' understanding and visualization of anatomical structures and thus facilitate their retaining of knowledge [10,11]. It has also been proposed that drawing may have an impact on a memory trace by combining elaborative, motoric, and pictorial elements [12]. ...
... It has also been proposed that drawing may have an impact on a memory trace by combining elaborative, motoric, and pictorial elements [12]. Students' drawing skills are probably not essential for their learning, as the aim is to draw anatomical key points rather than to create perfect drawings of anatomical structures [10]. ...
... When it comes to drawing, the benefit of this learning method in anatomy is also supported by other studies [5,10,11,13]. When respondents in our study clearly reported that the drawing pads made them more active in class, it is in accordance with Freeman et al's definition of active learning, where activities and discussion in class are emphasized [8]. ...
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