Gold award for innovative teaching method
STICKING coloured adhesive tapes on a human skeleton might seem like a bizarre teaching approach, but to Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia’s (NUMed) medical students, it’s a fun, interactive and innovative way to learn about human anatomy.
This simple yet effective spark of ingenuity resulted in NUMed winning the Gold Award for Anatomy Teaching Innovation at the Malaysian Anatomical Association Education Symposium (MAAES) 2018 in Kuala Terengganu on Aug 4.
The purpose of the Anatomy Teaching Innovation competition by MAAES 2018 was to showcase effective ways to design and deliver anatomy knowledge.
Interactive approach
NUMed’s interactive approach of teaching musculoskeletal anatomy by using coloured adhesive tapes and a human body skeleton was praised for being highly creative and very practical.
The Anatomy Working Group (AWG) from NUMed was led by a senior lecturer at the university, Dr Ronnie Mayo.
Traditionally, anatomy laboratory practical courses are taught using models and dissections (or prosections) with the aid of laboratory manuals and anatomy atlases.
This method leads students to focus on identifying and memorising anatomical structures without understanding the relationships between each structure.
Fun and effective
Dr Mayo noticed this teaching style was boring for students and was motivated to develop a learning experience that was fun, interactive and effective.
Through watching YouTube videos of interactive teaching methods using cheap materials, the senior lecturer was inspired to use a full human skeleton combined with coloured adhesive tapes representing the different abdominal muscle fibres as a means of teaching anterolateral abdominal wall musculature to Stage 1 medical students.
Unlike the traditional individual rote memorisation approach, this teaching method gives students the opportunity to work in groups and be creative.
Each group is instructed to create a model of the anterolateral abdominal wall musculature, taking into consideration the muscles’ fibre arrangement, origins and insertions, the order of arrangement of muscle layers from the deepest to the most superficial and the relationships between the muscles and other related structures.
The groups are then required to present their model and participate in a question-and-answer session.
Enable students to understand better
This interactive learning session allows the students to be fully engaged in their learning and gain a better understanding of the subject.
Dr Mayo plans to develop the same innovative teaching method for other topics in anatomy, such as the musculoskeletal structures of the upper and lower limbs.
He also plans to engage in further research to find out the effectiveness of this method.
By joining NUMed, you too can experience these groundbreaking and interactive ways of learning medicine under the tutelage of visionary lecturers such as Dr Mayo.
Foundation and postgraduate studies
NUMed offers undergraduate degrees in Medicine (MBBS) and Biomedical Sciences (BSc), as well as opportunities for foundation and postgraduate studies.
The programmes of study there lead to the award of the same degrees as those studied at the parent campus in the United Kingdom.
■ To find out more about NUMed's programmes, excellent facilities and student life, visit www.newcastle.edu.my