Drawing and Building Your Way to Understanding: The Importance of Constructing Multiple Representations When Learning Anatomy
Authors: Fillmore Erin 
Published: May 2022

Introduction

Learning a concept through engaging with multiple representations of it, has long been recognized as a powerful way to facilitate understanding. Yet, learning through the active construction of multiple representations of a particular concept has only recently begun to receive attention, and has yet to be fully explored in anatomy. Research shows that learning is more successful when learners are active in the construction of their own understanding. As such, drawing and building physical models in order to learn are two methods through which a student can actively construct multiple representations of a concept. The act of drawing and building models in learning anatomy are powerful ways to make the unseen seen and the complex simple.

Methods

This was a two‐phase project, repeated across three cohorts (2019, 2020 and 2021) of first year medical students. Phase 1 included development and implementation of a series of original drawing (‘Draw‐It’) and model building (‘Do‐It’) tasks for first year medical students at Warwick Medical School (3 cohorts; n=604). Activities covered all anatomical systems and regions of the body, with particular focus on threshold topics students traditionally find challenging. All Year 1 medical students participated in twenty‐five ‘Draw‐It’ / ‘Do‐It’ sessions, each 40‐minutes in length, integrated within their core anatomical curriculum spread across the academic year. Phase 2 involved a two‐phase sequential explanatory mixed methods study exploring how students engaged with and perceived the impact of the integrated drawing and model building tasks in the year 1 curriculum. This phase included an end of year quantitative survey (3 cohorts; n=598) and follow‐up semi‐structured one‐on‐one interviews (3 cohorts; n=56).

Results

Quantitative results from this study showed that 88% strongly agreed that the ‘Draw‐It’ and ‘Do‐It’ tasks helped them to simplify complex anatomy, 74% reported these tasks improved the way they visualised anatomy, and 86% reported that these tasks were key in showing them where their weak areas were. Qualitative results showed the majority of students felt the activities exposed their areas of misunderstanding, challenged them to visualise anatomy in a simpler way, increased their ability to remember complex subjects/concepts, and required them to draw upon material previously taught in the course, and re‐create it in their own way. Many students felt the sessions positively ‘took away the mystery’ surrounding complex subject areas, made drawing an ‘approachable skill’, required them ‘to think about the same anatomy in ways they never expected’, and encouraged them to think about the ‘why’ behind their anatomical learning.

Conclusion and Implications

This study has practical and theoretical benefit to the anatomical and medical education community, namely that active construction of understanding involves cognitive processes central to deep learning and encourages critical thinking. It offers a new understanding into the ways that drawing and model building activities can effectively be integrated throughout a curriculum, and shows how these dynamic learning tools can be used to inspire learners to take an active role in the construction of their own understanding through multiple representations of a topic.